Freebies as a promotional tool

Hi, all–

The Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give It Away” got stuck in my skull today, and this blog spooled from there. Because that’s how my mind works, people.

Anyway, a couple of my Twitter peeps were discussing “freebies” — i.e. authors making one (or possibly more) of their books free on Kindle. I do know that if an author self-publishes with Kindle, said author has the option to offer his or her work for free for a set number of days, but I think some authors offer some of their work free all the time.

The Twitter peeps discussing this were not down with the idea of giving books away for free. That’s an understandable position. After all, you worked hard on that. And if you’re indie publishing, you paid for the editing, type-setting, and cover on that pup, which can run you from the hundreds to the thousands of dollars. Like any artistic/creative pursuit, giving an end result away for free after long days, weeks, months, years working on the project garners a “WTF” from those who created the art/book/music. And there was no doubt financial expense thrown in there, too.

So why do it?

Well, read on and see…
😉

Cory Doctorow sums it up thus, in this 2006 piece at Forbes: “I’ve been giving away my books ever since my first novel came out, and boy has it ever made me a bunch of money.” I refer you to Doctorow because he makes all of his books available electronically for free through a Creative Commons license.

Doctorow is a Canadian journalist and sci fi writer who publishes with Tor here in the US and HarperVoyager in the UK. Granted, he’s quick to say that there’s no real empirical way to determine whether giving his books away for free has increased his sales, but he says this:

There’s no empirical way to prove that giving away books sells more books–but I’ve done this with three novels and a short story collection (and I’ll be doing it with two more novels and another collection in the next year), and my books have consistently outperformed my publisher’s expectations. Comparing their sales to the numbers provided by colleagues suggests that they perform somewhat better than other books from similar writers at similar stages in their careers. But short of going back in time and re-releasing the same books under the same circumstances without the free e-book program, there’s no way to be sure.

What is certain is that every writer who’s tried giving away e-books to sell books has come away satisfied and ready to do it some more.

Here he is in 2009: “But publisher or no, the important thing to remember is that a free ebook isn’t publicity, it’s a tool for expanding your existing publicity and marketing.”

It’s important, however, to note that Doctorow works in conjunction with his publishers, and that he advocated (at least in 2009) to make the e-version available at the same time as the print, so that someone who loved the e-version would be able to turn around and buy the print. That’s how, he says, he makes a bunch of money. In the 2009 piece, he also points out how a traditional publisher can support your mission, and how it supports his in releasing all his e-books for free. He says, “My problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity, and free ebooks generate more sales than they displace.”

Which doesn’t necessarily address the “I worked really freaking hard on this and I’m not sure I’m willing to give it away for free” feelings that all authors face when debating whether to make work available for free. But I do think it’s worth a shot, so why not start a little smaller?

I remember catching a post on Facebook from author Q Kelly, in which she suggested an author make a short story (or a short story collection) available for free, via Kindle/Smashwords or some comparable e-service. She suggested making sure it went through editing and beautiful-ness processes, and that you put a nice cover on it, like what you’d do for your other works. Then throw that onto Kindle and/or Smashwords and see what happens. Not to suggest you’ll be able to determine for sure that it’s generating sales of your other works, but a good free product like that (edited, formatted, nice cover) is something readers appreciate. They have a lot of choices out there. Why should they read yours? And if you have a good product available for free, that’s helping build author loyalty. (Q, please correct me if I’ve misinterpreted your views).

Doctorow made the point in 2006 that offering his works for free does this:

Most people who download the book don’t end up buying it, but they wouldn’t have bought it in any event, so I haven’t lost any sales, I’ve just won an audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free e-book as a substitute for the printed book–those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the e-book as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales. As long as gained sales outnumber lost sales, I’m ahead of the game. After all, distributing nearly a million copies of my book has cost me nothing.

Doctorow has noted that word-of-mouth is a powerful thing, and helps build audiences, too. He sees offering his novels for free as ebooks as part of that word-of-mouth universe. He’s a former bookseller, and he said in 2009 that recommendations from friends are the best way to sell books. Not to suggest, he notes, that other forms of publicity and promo don’t work or aren’t effective. Thus, he sees free ebooks as a way for an audience to generate buzz about his books, which in turn seem to drive sales up for other forms of the book.

I understand the “OMG I WORKED SO FREAKING HARD ON THIS AND WHY WOULD I GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE” reactions. Believe me, I get it. But I’ve also made longish works available for free on my website already, and I’m now working on putting together something and offering it for free on Kindle/Smashwords, as an experiment and to see how it makes me personally feel. Like, will I need to drown my sorrows in a glass of Jack Daniel’s as I give parts of my soul away for free or will I think, “well, that looks mighty sexy n’ all with that sexy-time cover and I think this is a pretty good grouping of stories to offer for free and I sure hope people like it.” I’m kinda leaning toward the latter. 😀

But we’ll see.

Happy reading, happy writing, and happy Tuesday!