About The Obooko Website

Where did the name Obooko come from?

We wanted to create a unique name containing the word 'book,' while also conveying, in some way, the service we offer. Thus, from 'download books online to read offline' came forth OBOOKO: the initial letters from Online and Offline forming typographic book ends. The word Obooko, in any form, is a registered trademark.

Original Obooko homepage year 2010

We've been here for over 14 years!

The Obooko website launched into cyberspace in March 2010. This image is a screenshot of the homepage at the time. Since then, we have continued, without fail, to provide an opportunity for new and established authors from all parts of the world to self-publish and promote their work free of charge. And for us to offer a quality distribution platform for fiction and non-fiction books for anyone to download and enjoy, regardless of means. There is only one Obooko! We are not associated with any other website.

Travel back in time to see how our website evolved: head over to Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Who runs the obooko website?

Obooko.com is operated and maintained by Tim Johnson, Sarah Bainbridge and Anthony Stanton. Tim is actively involved with author liaison and book submissions, while Sarah is responsible for membership and general administration. Anthony handles book processing and production. We do however muck in and help each other as and when required.

One of the benefits of running an online service is we don't have to rent a physical office. This means we can keep our costs to a minimum and enjoy the flexibility of working in the Cloud (remotely from our computers). You can send a message to either of us at any time via the contact form and we'll respond as soon as we can.

man pointing at text


Are the free ebooks distributed legally?

Absolutely! For your peace of mind, every free book on obooko is distributed under license with the author's written permission, in compliance with U.S., U.K. and international Copyright law. We operate in a legal, honest and truthful manner, as you would expect.


Are the books available only in English?

Yes, we publish and distribute English-language works exclusively. We do not translate or rewrite any books, neither do we distribute on any platform other than Obooko. If you come across a book published in any other language, with our name and or licence, it will be an illegal copy distributed by scammers. Please let us know if you are aware of any. Thanks.


Are the ebook files safe to download?

Every ebook is checked for viruses and malware before being made available for distribution. Each download is a single file: it will not be attached to any software promos or other nasty stuff you didn't ask for. When you download a PDF file, you get a PDF file, nothing else. It's also good to know our books do not contain advertising or affiliate sales links within.


How does obooko remain free?

As you are aware, there are no fees or charges to use this website or download free books. We have kept it this way since we started. However, no organisation survives without having to pay the costs necessary to provide its service. Over the years, our running costs have increased significantly, so we had to find a way to subsidise the maintenance and development of the website, but at the same time remain a free resource. There are different ways we could have done this:

1. Charge you for access by way of a membership fee
Charge for membership? How can books be free when you have to pay a membership fee to access them? Despite other sites adopting this practice, we believe it is unethical and deceitful to charge for accessing books that authors have licensed for free distribution. And absurd: the adverb 'Free' means without payment or charge.

2. Ask you for a donation
We would not feel comfortable accepting donations. We are not a charity.

3. Display advertising on our pages
This fits best with our philosophy of keeping everything free. Advertising ensures you don't have to part with any of your cash. The revenue from advertising goes some way to support our day-to-day running costs including server-hosting, maintenance and web development. We feel this is an honest and transparent way to subsidise the site. We do not however allow advertising inside the books you download. We thank you for allowing us to show ads in your browser: it's folks like you who keep Obooko free!


Why do we require registration?

In order to determine whether you have the authority to give direct feedback and award star-ratings to authors, our system requires a log-in with credentials (email and password) to confirm you are a bona fide registered member. If we didn't have systems in place, bots and unscrupulous people would be sending spam via the author feedback form. Our principal reason however, is to ensure, to the best of our knowledge, that users of the site are of a minimum age of 13 and that we do not attract young children. Although we consider obooko to be a family oriented site, some free ebooks are intended for mature readers and are listed as so (17+). The responsibility for internet browsing rests with parents, but we cannot risk unintentional download of these books by minors. For this reason we decided not to have a children's book category. We comply with the directives of COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, and do our best to make sure we do not attract young children to the site or collect personal data from anyone under the age of thirteen. This is something that inferior and illegal ebook distribution sites, and their users, overlook or do not consider.
© Photo by Luis Molinero

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