Turn your Kindle into a haunted library with these free Halloween books

• What is Stuff Your E-Reader Day?
• Who can take advantage of Stuff Your E-Reader Day?

Boo! Did I scare you? If not, Stuff Your E-Reader Day is back this weekend with enough spooky stories to frighten you right into the Halloween spirit. Starting this Sunday, October 26, at midnight, both Kindle and Kobo users are invited to participate in a book blast across the horror, thriller, paranormal, and mystery genres. The book blast lasts until October 30.

Hosted by Indie Author Collective, its Stuff Your E-Reader event makes hundreds of titles available for free. You can download as many e-books as you’d like, which become yours to keep — no strings (or spider webs) attached. Unlike Kindle Unlimited, the e-books you download aren’t even purchased through the Amazon ecosystem, which means you’ll have to take a few strides to get them on your e-reader. But believe me — it’s worth it.

If you aren’t feeling the spooky season, think again. Here’s everything you need to know about October’s Stuff Your E-reader Day.

What is Stuff Your E-Reader Day?

Themed events all year round

Stuff Your E-Reader Day is an online event hosted by Indie Author Collective, which is a platform for readers and authors to discover each other, new books, and find resources to be successful in the publishing world. It’s made up of a small team and founded by an Indie author herself who saw a pothole that needed filling in the rough industry’s road.

Stuff Your E-Reader Day lets readers ‘stuff’ their e-readers with as many books as they please, for free or heavily discounted prices. Its aim is to make titles as accessible as possible and help elevate upcoming authors and their works. It’s truly a win-win for readers and authors alike.

To make the hundreds of titles that become free more manageable, there are various events throughout the year — each with their own theme. This month’s theme is for any readers looking for a Halloween-themed read — especially if you’re interested in paranormal, thriller, horror, or mystery. Nothing quite embodies the spooky spirit like an Indie book, after all.

For the rest of 2025, there are two more events to look forward to:

• Christian: November 18-22
• Winter Wonderland (wintery-feeling books): December 16-20

Coming up in 2026 are the following events:

• Play Game — a sports fiction book blast: January 21-24
• Be My Valentine — a romance book blast: February 9-13
• Uniform Madness — an occupational book blast: March 18-21
• Stuff Your E-Reader — an all-genre book blast: April 15-18
• Into the Darkness — a dark and mafia book blast: May 13-16
• Fantastical Escape — a fantasy book blast: June 10-13
• Something Strange — a sci-fi and dystopian book blast: July 8-11
• Stuff Your E-Reader — an all-genre book blast: August 5-8
• Gotta Get ‘Em All! — a series book blast: September 23-26
• Get Spooked — a thriller, horror, paranormal, and mystery book blast: October 26-30
• Short and Sweet — a novella and short story book blast: November 25-28
• New Beginnings — a debut book blast: December 20-23

Phew, that’s a lot of free books on your e-reader’s horizon.

Who can take advantage of Stuff Your E-Reader Day?

Anyone and everyone

If you have an e-reader (or a reading app on your phone or tablet), you can take full advantage of Stuff Your E-Reader Day through Indie Author Collective. So yes — both Kindle and Kobo users can participate in the e-book splurge event.

Indie Author Collective makes it relatively easy to explore genres and filter by specific tropes, representations, spice levels, and more. So, if you really want to stick to a mystery mood this October, you don’t have to sift through all the horror to get there.

Kindles have become somewhat synonymous with the term ‘e-reader,’ so sometimes, people will also call the event “Stuff Your Kindle Day.” This does not mean that only Kindle users can participate, especially since the event functions outside the Amazon ecosystem.

A quick note for Kindle Unlimited subscribers: you may see the option where clicking ‘buy’ on a book takes you to Amazon and offers the book as a part of the Kindle Unlimited library. Do not choose to read the book through this option — it will go towards your 20 book limit, and you will not own the book itself. Part of Stuff Your E-Reader Day is to own the books you download, so make sure to click ‘Buy now with one click.’

The Get Spooked Stuff Your E-Reader event goes from October 26-30 and is hosted right on the Indie Author Collective’s website. You can RSVP here, or show up on the day of the event to scoop up as many scary reads as you can.