Purchasing eBooks through the Amazon store is probably the most common way of getting eBooks onto your Kindle.  If like most people you didn’t read the Kindle user guide, then you may not be aware that there is other ways that you can transfer your books to your Kindle. Read on to learn how to transfer eBooks to your Kindle and access (legally) hundreds of thousands free eBooks for your Kindle.

Let’s start by quickly looking at the types of files you can read on your Kindle. The computer files that you can read or listen to are:

  • Kindle  – .azw, .azw1
  • PDF – .pdf
  • Text – .txt
  • Mobipocket (unprotected) – mobi, prc
  • Audible – .aa, aax
  • MP3 – .mp3

The Kindle can also read other file formats, but you will need to get Amazon to convert the with the through the Amazon email service. See below, in the Using the Amazon eMail Service section. The documents that can be converted into a Kindle readable format include:

  • Word Documents – doc, docx
  • Text – .txt
  • Rich Text Format – .rtf
  • Structured HTML – .html, htm
  • Graphics formats- .jpeg, jpg, gif, png, bmp

Now that we know which files can be transfered, lets have a look at the two ways that you can transfer your eBooks.

  • Using a USB cable connecting your Kindle and your commputer
  • Sending an eMail to the Amazon eMail service

Using a USB connection to transfer your Kindle eBooks

If you are familar with moving around files from your digital camera  or an MP3 player, then putting eBooks onto your Kindle will be almost second nature. Typically, the biggest problem at this moment is that you will need to find your USB cable, but fortunately Amazon had the foresight to include the USB connector into the recharger cable.

Start by connecting your PC to your Kindle with the USB cable. If you have done this, then your Kindle should indicate that the Kindle is in USB mode.

Now, turning to your computer. If you are using a PC then click on My Computer or Windows Explorer. Navigate to the Kindle device and find the folder Documents. This is where you will place your eBooks to be read on your Kindle. After you have copied over your files, you are ready to read your eBooks when you please.

Using the Amazon eMail service

A second way to transfer document over to your Kindle is by emailing your Kindle account your eBooks and then wirelessly downloading the content. While the steps are as simple as transferring over with a USB cable, this technique does have an associated fee.

As you know each Kindle account has a Kindle email address, which looks a bit like myname@kindle.com. Sending an email to this address with an attached document will mean that within a few minutes Amaon will send this attachment to your Kindle device.