[kindlematt]

Are there any recommended search terms I can use on my Kindle to look for free books in a specific category? I have been using things like "Vampire free books," but are there better terms to use?

 

[Linjeakel]

Instead of using 'free' or 'book' in with your search terms, I would just search for 'vampire'. You don't need to put 'book' in if you're already in the Kindle book department - those extra words will just confuse the search.

Then, sort the resulting list from lowest price to highest - all the free ones will be listed first. At least, you can sort like that on the website, not sure about on the Kindle itself. But generally the secret of successful searching is to keep it simple. Words like 'book' or 'kindle' are superfluous.

Everyone has their own favourite method - personally I never browse for books on the device itself, it's far too slow and clunky and uses the battery unnecessarily - I always use my PC. I keep a 'wish list' on Amazon with anything I think I might want to read, so if I'm ever away from my PC and I have to buy direct from my Kindle, I can go straight to the wish list and download something - with no browsing involved. 

 

[history_lover]

I don't think browsing on the Kindle device itself is ideal, nor is Amazon's standard search engine. If you want free books in specific genres, you're best off using the ereaderiq.com advanced search: http://www.ereaderiq.com/search/ - select a category and in the price range fields, put in 0.00 - 0.00... if you want to exclude public domain, make sure you select that. You can also enter keywords.

For example, here's all free books excluding public domain in the Paranormal subgenre of Fantasy: http://www.amazon.com/s/?rh=n:6157853011,p_36:0-0,p_15=&hidden-keywords=-domain%20-breakthrough%20English&kc=AG56TWVU5XWC2&redirect=true

Here's the same but with the keyword "vampire": http://www.amazon.com/s/?rh=n:6157853011,p_36:0-0,p_15=&hidden-keywords=-domain%20-breakthrough%20English&keywords=vampire&kc=AG56TWVU5XWC2&redirect=true

Here's all freebies excluding public domain with the keyword "vampire" (no specific category): http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_ex_n_1?rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cp_36%3A0-0%2Ck%3Avampire&bbn=154606011&hidden-keywords=-domain+-breakthrough+English&keywords=vampire&ie=UTF8&qid=1363104608

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

The Kindleboards search function works very well for book searches on Amazon.

http://www.kindleboards.com/search/

I haven't found it on the new domain yet.

Mike

 

[history_lover]

The Kindleboards search function works very well for book searches on Amazon.

http://www.kindleboards.com/search/

I haven't found it on the new domain yet.

Mike

Just click [advanced] after the search fields at the top of the page - http://www.kboards.com/search/ - I don't use it though because it strangely searches the book store for Kindle editions, not the Kindle store. I find it doesn't exclude public domain very well either. The one on ereaderiq.com works a lot better, sorry KB.

 

[Guest]

kindlematt, as others have pointed out the search function here at KB and the one at eReaderIQ are good.

When I search at Amazon i use something like

"search term" -public -german -spanish -french

to search and then sort by price.

-public excludes public domain books

Search terms that are good. That's a tough one. It depends on what you are looking for.

Also, there's a list of categories on the left that you can use to filter your search results.