We've probably all heard about giving away
podcasts or
e-books for free in order to sell paper books. Today, I read this interesting note from author
Darrell Bain on the Yahoo e-book community group, which turns the whole thing upside down again:
"I'm doing something right now sort of the opposite of giving away e-books. Each month from my web site newsletter (
www.darrellbain.com) I give away five free trade paperback books as promotion for my e-books and print books both! This works fine for me at present since I have a surplus of some of my books and does appear to increase sales, particularly of my e-books."
It's actually a much more traditional merchandising approach, if you think about it. The really cool thing is that his stated goal (to this e-book audience, anyway) is to sell e-books. And, by the way, Darrell is not just some hack trying to learn how to write - he's the Fictionwise 2005 Author of the Year and Double Eppie Award winner 2007.
If you want to enter this month's free paper book giveaway, you simply have to be one of the first five to send the Darrell an email with the book's name (Hotline to Heaven) in the subject line. Details are available in the
April newsletter. But as I've already sent in my request, I guess that leaves a maximum of four books left.