Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
" No one who would have bought your book is going to not buy it because they can get it for free "
All I'll say about this is it's not accurate as the absolute statement he presented. We at MR know people who have obtained ebooks for free and have not bought the printed copy (or the pay-for ebook). We also know people who did buy the book or ebook after obtaining a free copy. There are some of both out there (and we won't try to quantify them against each other here).
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He was talking about "fans" (fanatics). The sort of people who will buy your (e)book the day it is released because they have been looking forward to reading it. Those are the sort of readers you want, not just because of the first day boost, but also because they will drag along a lot of new readers that they tell about you.
Like he says, very few people will have discovered their favourite writer by buying a new book, most of them will have read a book for free in one form or another (which would include second hand paperbacks from a writer's perspective).
So if piracy (another way to read for free) creates just one new fanatic per thousand downloads it would be worthwhile. Assuming you have more than one story to tell. If not I can see how it could be a problem, but with only one story you were never going to make a living from writing anyway.
If you're feeling brave, why don't you release one of your ebooks onto the pirate scene under an assumed name? See what happens to your sales and report back.