That's right -- Stuff Your Kindle Day is back today. Today through Saturday, August 16, readers are invited to turn the page back a few years (or even a few millenia) and enjoy hundreds of titles for free.

If you're in a reading slump, consider it ceased. Stuff Your Kindle Day means that the literary floodgates are open, and the time is ripe to make the most of it. Here's everything you need to know.

What is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

And how often it comes around

A Kindle Library.

Stepping Through Time runs from August 12 to August 16, and is centered around historical fiction and contemporary genres. The event is not associated with Amazon, and rather supported by new, upcoming, or indie authors that want to get their books into more hands -- which they do so by discounting their books to $1, making them temporarily available on Kindle Unlimited or Kobo Plus, or even listing them for free.

Stuff Your Kindle Day is hosted by Indie Author Central, a one-stop-shop for both authors and readers to discover each other. It's a hub for authors to find their readers and for readers to find their next new favorite book(s).

Stuff Your Kindle Day is a readers dream event that pops up sporadically throughout the year. Each event focuses on a particular genre, like Fantasy or Mystery, so even if Stepping Through Time isn't your cup of tea, there's bound to be another set of dates coming up that put a spotlight on your favorite genre:

  • Into the Darkness (dark fiction): September 16-20
  • Get Spooked (horror / thriller / paranormal / mystery): October 26-30
  • Christian: November 18-22
  • Winter Wonderland (wintery-feeling books): December 16-20

And that's just what's left in 2025 -- there are plenty of new events on the horizon for 2026. Personally, my eye is on the mystery books around Halloween time. There's a Hocus Pocus feel to indie Halloween books that you simply just can't recreate with bigger titles.

You can spend years reading ebooks without shelling out a dime.

Who can participate in Stuff Your Kindle Day?

And how you can find free books

Kindle Colorsoft in hand.

If you have an e-reader, or even just an app on your phone or tablet that lets you access your library of books, you can take part in Stuff your Kindle Day.

Yes, that means that Kindle owners, Kobo loyalists, and even Nook enthusiasts alike can take advantage of the massive shopping event. Kindles have become somewhat synonymous with e-readers, and it does make the name of the event roll off the tongue a bit easier.

Indie Author Central makes it very easy to find books you want to read. The hub page makes it very clear which books are free and even provides a variety of filters to help you narrow titles down by:

  • Genre
  • Country
  • Content Level (AKA ratings)
  • Promos (AKA where you can access it -- for example: Free on Amazon, $0.99 on Kobo, etc.)
  • Spice Level (AKA explicit content)
  • Major Tropes (Love Triangle, Political Intrigue, Enemies to Lovers, etc.)
  • Representation (BIPOC, LGBTQA+, Neurodivergence, etc.)

... which is especially helpful if you know that your favorite kind of book is historical fiction with political intrigue and completely no spice.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day different from Kindle Unlimited?

One is a subscription, the other is an event

Kindle Unlimited on Kindle.

Yes, Stuff Your Kindle Day is a completely different thing. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited ($12 per month), you can borrow up to 20 books at a time from Amazon. If you hit capacity and want to check out a new title, you have to return one of the 20 titles in your library.

Meanwhile, the books you download from Stuff Your Kindle Day are permanently yours, and do not count towards your 20-title limit. It's as if you were purchasing or downloading a single book all on its own -- because you are.