The Author Blog Giving Away Books to Sell Books?
August 8th, 2008I’ve read many articles on the subject of giving away books for free in order to create critical mass distribution, i.e. prompting word-of-mouth sales. The articles all concluded that giving away free books neither hurt book sales nor helped them. However, for authors looking to self-publish and self-promote books, I remain opptomistic about this tactic. So that is why I decided to share the following article by Andreya Stuart.
In her article, Ms. Stuart makes a good point and that point is to give away your entire book, not just a portion. I think this might be one of the keys. So what if you give away 50,000 ebooks? It doesn’t cost you anything. Whether this makes sense or not may depend on if your goal is to sell books or build your platform. For many beginning authors, building their platform is more important than selling books. The reason is that once you have a following, you will have readers eager to buy your subsequent books. If you are planning on getting rich with one book, you are in for a long ride. But if your strategy is to write multiple books, then giving away one book in order to find your audience makes a lot of sense. Here’s Andreya’s article . . .
Free Romance Novels? A Marketing Strategy For Romance Writers
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andreya_Stuart]Andreya Stuart
Does it ever make sense for a romance writer to give away a novel they’ve worked on for several months? The surprising answer may be yes. Here’s why . . .
Most of us who have fallen in love with romance novels over the years are veterans of used bookstores and garage sales. My first “Keeper”, Love’s Tender Fury, was found at the top of a bag full of books my mom brought home from a rummage sale. Years later I’m still finding Pirates in people’s dust bins and Earls on the Library’s sale rack.
Little did I know that used books were an exceptionally good marketing strategy. The most expensive thing about marketing is the cost associated with getting the word about your work out to people who might be a market for it. Anyone who has ever issued invitations to a charity event, even one with food and a local celebrity, knows its almost impossible to figure out where you can advertise effectively.
The cool thing about used books is that people buy a copy, then hand it around to others who can’t wait to buy your next book for themselves. My first copy of Harry Potter was used, I now own all seven in hardback. I waited in line at midnight to get six of those seven.
For those of us who elect to publish some or all of our books electronically, there is no legal “used book”. Every digital copy of our book is exactly like another. If we open the door to book sharing it makes our lawyers itchy. They say “you’re giving people permission to steal”.
So to create the Used Book Effect you have to post one of your books online and hope people find it. You hope they like it enough to share it with others. You hope the result will be that folks decide to buy the books (print and ebook) that you don’t give away for free.
Since I made my first romance novel, A Pirate’s Fierce Passion, available free, my sales have gone up ten fold. I made a second illustrated romance available free because it is targeted at a different audience and my sales increased again. People can buy PDF versions of these books to own if they so desire. But they can read them entirely online at no charge if they prefer.
Many writers give away short stories and excerpts from their novels, but my experience is that those do not result in as many new sales as a free book does. I’m not sure why that is. I suspect that people feel cheated somehow.
For romance writers who are wondering how to springboard their careers, I recommend that you write several books, then choose one of the best to give away free. You probably fell in love with your favorite romance writers through free books. Give your fans their chance to do the same.
Andreya Stuart has been writing romance novels since she was thirteen. You can find one of her free romance novels at [http://www.awomanshonor.com]www.AWomansHonor.com
