If you're looking to download free ebooks from Internet Archive, you are in the right place! The https://archive.org/ online library that contains millions of titles you can access and download for free. These book are in the public domain, and if you've ready my other posts on this topic, you will know there is a world of opportunity waiting to be downloaded!
In this blog post, we will show you how to do it in five simple steps!
- Step 1 – Visit The Internet Archive website
- Step 2 – Search for your book title or keyword
- Step 3 – Refine the search results
- Step 4 – Pick the right format (ESSENTIAL!)
- Step 5 – Download & Enjoy!
How to Download Free Ebooks From Internet Archive In 5 Simple Steps
Whether you want to find some hidden gems to republish, or just to enjoy - these easy steps will help minimize the noise.
Total Time Needed :
7
Minutes
Total Cost:
0
USD
Required Tools:
Things Needed?
Steps to Download Free Ebooks From Internet Archive
The first step is to visit the Internet Archive website, which can be found at https://archive.org/.
Once you're on the homepage, use the search bar to find your desired ebook. You aren't limited to book titles here; you can search keywords, genre, author, and even language.
Since we are focusing on books in the public domain, I am going to search for "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen.
You will also notice "advanced search," but we will discuss narrowing down your search more in the next step.
Ensure "search metadata" is set, and then press 'GO'.
After you enter your search term, a gallery of results will appear. There will be all sorts of things including videos, images, and audio recordings.
You will also notice that most are not actually free to borrow or download. So, now I am going to show you the steps to find the free, downloadable books. These are the two essential steps I use to find free ebooks on Internet Archive.
First, on the left-hand side of the page, you will notice some refinement options.
- Media Type
- Availability
- Year
- Topics & Subjects
- Collection
- Creator
- Language
We are only going to focus on Media Type and Availability.
Check the boxes "texts" and "always available". This will display options that are available for everyone to access online for free.
You will notice the search results have gone from over 2,000 results, to 82.
You can use the left sidebar to filter your results further if you need to. A very useful option if you plan on selling public domain books on Amazon, is to find books in different languages. So you may use the filter to help you find multilingual opportunities this way.
Once you have found a book that interests you, click on it to go to the item page.
Scroll down and you will see options for different formats available for download.
These may include PDF, EPUB, Kindle, DAISY (for visually impaired individuals), Plain Text, HTML, etc.
EPUB and PDF will likely be the most popular and widely used formats, but it is always important to check if the book for errors, as with EPUBs of old books, you will find that most are OCR (Optical character recognition) versions.
OCR versions tend to have errors in the text, as it was scanned and converted into a digital format.
Therefore, if you are reading for pleasure, I recommend checking both formats before downloading.
If you are using the book to republish, I highly recommend finding an accurate version or double-checking any OCR versions.
Once you have found the format that suits your needs, download it, and it is yours!
To download the file, hover your cursor over the desired format and click on the "download" button that appears (refer to image below).
Or, you can choose to right-click on the file name and select "save file as."
If you downloaded it for your reading pleasure, enjoy! However, if you have downloaded it to republish, then the following articles will be invaluable to you on your journey!
