Quote:
Originally Posted by WFT
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.
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The Paul Coelho story is true. You can verify it through the sources supporting this Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho#File_Sharing.
I remember when news broke that Coelho was supporting the pirating of his own book. Coelho started distributing the book himself online (I think he may have been doing it in secrecy for a little bit in fear of what the publisher might say--but I don't remember exactly) and has attributed his success largely to that. I think there is definitely a strong correlation there but, of course, there is no data that can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that such a direct correlation exists. Publishers will usually argue that every free download results in a lost sale because this argument allows them to better fight piracy in the courts. The argument is silly because people who download tend to download a ton of things that they never would have purchased in the first place (people don't have unlimited funds for entertainment) and often times people are downloading things they never would have heard of were it not for finding the file promoted for free online.
I did not mean to insinuate that you must choose monetary reward or releasing a free e-book. I'm definitely in the Doctorow/Coelho/Rose camp. I phrased the statement that way because, more often than not, when people are more concerned about money, they become very uneasy about the idea of releasing their works for free. They see things from the Publisher standpoint: a download correlates with a lost sale. I think a free ebook may result in loss of an ebook sale but is more likely to help print sales. People (especially people like the ones on this board--adamant ebook fans) will pay for something they think deserves their money. I think that "pay what you want" idea is pretty good. Radiohead did it with their album and most people downloaded it for free, but not everyone. Furthermore, I believe the physical album sold very well. I didn't know you were publishing a print book, as well. Knowing this, I would definitely say a free ebook can only help you. Free ebooks increase "word of mouth" promotion and if someone sees your book in a store they're much more likely to buy it if they've heard of it. Even just the name. Requiring people to pay for an ebook will make people more hesitant to try it out, especially given that this is a book that tackles a topic as dense and murky as economics (even though you try to make it simpler and more accessible as part of a larger story). I think you may be surprised by the free promotion you receive simply by putting a free ebook out there. I have seen people on these boards post threads about free ebooks without even reading them first and then format shift and distribute it not only on this site but Feedbooks.com and similar sites.
At any rate, that's my opinion on the matter.