Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiderMatt
I'm a strong believer in the power of free. You may not think this is a financially viable option for you and I'm not one to assume one way or the other but I think more authors suffer from obscurity than free distribution of their works. This is a case commonly made by Cory Doctorow who became famous by releasing ebooks of his works for free. Today, any work that becomes popular enough is quickly offered up on pirate sites, anyway. The people on these boards are really enthusiastic about the idea of free literature, as well. It doesn't always have to do with money, though. You will probably find that people are willing to donate if they like work or just to support authors who freely distribute their work. The biggest advantage of work distributed freely is that people can immediately share it with their friends and family without legal scruples and it can be distributed to any site willing to host it.
That decision, of course, boils down to which concern is paramount for you: making money or distributing your work to the largest possible number of people.
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Your post intrigued me. So I did some research on Doctorow. He certainly makes the case you described. The thing that bothers me is that he says, "Every writer I've heard of who's tried giving away ebooks to promote paper books has come back to do it again. That's the commercial case for doing free ebooks."
Okay, that's a very interesting claim, and I'd like to check it. The problem is finding the empirical data and being able to verify it.
I did find a story on freebooksforall.com about Paulo Coelho selling only 1,000 copies of his book,
The Alchemist, in 1999 before his Russian publisher dumped him. Then he supposedly put a free ebook on a website, and his sales started to take off: 10,000 copies in one year, 100,000 in two, etc.
The problem is that I can't find verification to reliably corroborate this story. So I can't tell if it's true or if it's just an urban legend. All I can find for sure is that the book is selling well on Amazon 10 years later. To make matters even more confusing, the book has supposedly already been out 20 years according to the author himself. That means it was first published in 1989. So where did 1999 come from in that tale on freebooksforall.com?
Doctorow's own novels seem to sell fairly well on Amazon, so I suppose I can take that as some level of verification.
The freebooksforall.com lists a couple of similar claims by author M.J. Rose. One such claim reads, "Haven't enough writers proved it not only helps introduce new readers to the writers but that it does the opposite of cannibalizing sales?" I checked Rose on Amazon... except for one title, sales numbers seemed pretty dismal for that author. Maybe it's the quality of the books? I don't know.
So I guess I'm saying that I'm intrigued by the claim, but I'd like to see more factual evidence. If I can find enough to convince me, I'd put my ebook out for free while trying to sell my print book.
To answer your question: yes, it's more important to me that the ideas my novel presents get out there, but I also need to earn money. While my personal story certainly isn't much different from other first-time authors, I've spent most of the last 10 months of my life living close to the edge in order to finish this book. I'd really like to earn a good living from the fruits of my labors.
Having said that, I can't deny that my primary motivation in writing the book was to get my message out there.
You seem to suggest that it's an either/or choice: either distribution or money, but not both. I draw this inference from your statement, "That decision, of course, boils down to which concern is paramount for you: making money or distributing your work to the largest possible number of people."
But Rose, Doctorow, et al seem to suggest the opposite, that free ebooks lead to more sales, not less or lost sales. Do you doubt their claim? If so, I'd be interested in knowing your reasons.