HarperPerennial is promoting short stories this summer and one of their approaches is to offer a free story on their site every few weeks. Right now they have “Bolero” by Francis Itani up. You can check their Summer Is Short page for new stories as the summer goes on.

Tim Bete is giving away the ebook of Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” MacDougall’s Guide to Pirate Parenting. I found this one through ReadStreet. Bete explains his reasons for giving his ebook away better and more “piraty” than I could:

Avast ye scurvy dog, me publisher’s ship sank leaving me marooned with no way to sell me book. Rather than see me book scuttled, I’ve decided to give away the e-book version of GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING for free!

Reading Tim Bete’s website is worth a visit in and of itself even if you don’t have kids that need pirate parenting (though it might be worth having some just to apply pirate parenting theory ).