Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I can easily burn through three or four books each month, largely thanks to my Kindle Unlimited subscription making it so easy to do so. Having an endless source of books I can download onto my phone or Kindle instantly is an incredible thing and I love everything about it... but there's still that part of me that yearns for actual pages to flip. The sensory experience of reading an actual book from my shelf has always held a feeling of magic to it that ebooks just can't capture.
It's because of this that I've learned to start looking at reading books and collecting books as two separate hobbies. The convenience of digital books lets me to read anything I want at any time while also allowing me to be more selective about which novels get added to my personal library. And being more selective about which physical books I actually buy means I can focus on saving as much money on each purchase as humanly possible.
If you're looking to find discounts on popular box sets, special editions, or even just new releases, there are quite a few times throughout the year when discounts are plentiful. Here's when I recommend doing your shopping:
Look for Savings During Sales Events
Online retailers are fairly consistent when it comes to discounts on books during major sales events. This could either be in the form of a direct discount or some sort of "buy one, get one" sale. These discounts can usually be found at all of the places that sell books online, but some sales are exclusive to certain retailers.
Prime Big Deal Days (October)
The next big sale where we expect to see deals on books is Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days event. This is essentially an October Prime Day sale in that many of the discounts are exclusive to those with a Prime Membership. Amazon has offered up a sneak peak of the sale and already stated that there will be discounts on physical books this year. We're already seeing some early discounts trickle in, including a price drop on the Hunger Games five-book box set.
Black Friday Season (November)
Black Friday is overall the best time to buy most things, and books are definitely a part of that. Almost every major retailer will have some sort of Black Friday sale during November. The most difficult aspect of shopping during this time is figuring out when those sales are actually happening, though. Black Friday season will start sometime at the beginning of November and some books will get discounted before others. Your best bet is still to wait for Black Friday weekend and the following Cyber Monday to do most of your shopping, but sites like Amazon will likely have discounts well before then.
Independent Bookstore Day (April)
Independent Bookstore Day takes place on the last Saturday of April every year. It's generally a great time to shop at your local book store as they may have cool events and exclusive books during that time. It's also when you can usually find some really good deals on books online as well. In 2025 it was around this time that Amazon launched its big spring book sale. This included deals on popular box sets as well as Kindle devices.
Prime Day (July)
Prime Day is Amazon's yearly summer sale and has consistently been one of the best times of the year to buy books at a discount. We saw some of the lowest prices of the year on popular collectible editions, box sets, manga, and even some LitRPG during the 2025 sale. The online retailer also happened to be offering a "buy 2, get 1 free" promotion on a bunch of books that made it a great time to pick up a wide variety of novels for any collection.
Barnes & Noble Book Haul Sale (August)
If you're specifically looking to do some book shopping at Barnes & Noble stores, there is an annual Barnes & Noble Book Haul sale that takes place during late August every year. This event usually coincides with other major retailers offering Labor Day sales, so it's a surprisingly good time to find deals on all kinds of books at most online storefronts. Barnes & Noble will also usually have deals on exclusive collector's editions during this time as well, which you won't find anywhere else.
When to Find Discounts on New Releases
If you're someone who likes to buy hardcovers of newer releases, there are a few different times I've seen discounts become available on these.
Preordering Before the Release Date
Surprisingly, one of the best times to buy a new hardcover at a discount is before it even comes out. In 2025 some of the biggest new releases (Onyx Storm and Sunrise on the Reaping) were priced well below MSRP throughout a large chunk of their preorder window. If you know you are going to want a copy immediately after the book comes out, it's definitely worth checking for deals ahead of release day. Many times these same discounts will also persist even after release, like what we saw with Dan Brown's new book this year.
During "Buy One, Get One" Promotions
Another great time to find deals on new releases is whenever a major retailer has some sort of "buy one, get one" sale. Both Amazon and Target offer these promotions fairly regularly and there is usually at least one popular new release included to entice people to buy. This does mean that you'll need to buy more than one book to get the discount, but many times this is a good chance to grab a full collection for cheap. One example from earlier this year was when Amazon had all of the Fourth Wing books wrapped up in one sale pretty close to the release of Onyx Storm.
After the Paperback Release
If you don't mind waiting a bit for new releases, there will usually be deals during the paperback release of a book. There is no set time between when a book gets released as hardcover and when it gets a paperback edition, but on average you'll be looking at six-months to a year after the initial publish date. Once a paperback version of the book is available, retailers will sometimes drop discounts on the hardcover editions to make room for additional stock.
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