Do free eBooks affect sales?

Donnageddon · 07-10-2008, 04:07 PM

Do free eBooks affect sales? For most of publisher Tor's authors the answer seems to be "Yes", and in a positive way.

From Bloggasm.com

Quote:

A few months ago Tobias Buckell noticed a trend in his book sales that most midlist novelists don’t typically see. His book Crystal Rain, which had been released in mass market paperback a year before, experienced a sudden spike in sales, more than doubling from the previous week. Perhaps even more noticeable was the jump in sales of the sequel to that novel, Ragamuffin, which saw an even more dramatic increase.
…
But what caused this sudden increase? Because of all the myriad factors that drive product buys it’s incredibly hard to pinpoint specific triggers, but it just so happened that the jump occurred right after Crystal Rain’s publisher, Tor Books, had released a free ebook version of the novel online.

Read more about it here

Nate the great · 07-10-2008, 05:00 PM

Yes. I call it "Flint's Law". I named it for Eric Flint (He was the first to notice). Look here for more evidence.

Flint's Law: Giving away the ebook edition of a novel will cause an increase in the sales of paper editions of that novel, as wellas increasing the sales of related novels in a series.

P.S. I'm going to add it to Wikipedia when i have a chance.

JSWolf · 07-10-2008, 06:10 PM

Of course the sequel will sell better as long as people enjoyed the first book.

Barcey · 07-10-2008, 06:15 PM

It would increase sales even more if Tor would actually sell the e-books. I've downloaded the free books but I'm not going to bother reading them until Tor will sell me the follow on books as an e-book (I keep hoping). It's too bad because I really like many of the Tor authors but I'm not going to go out of my way to purchase p-books to satisfy Tor's paranoia. Luckily I have enough to read already.

Donnageddon · 07-10-2008, 06:58 PM

From the comments section we find that Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction author, and MR member, has commented on this (apparent) phenomenon on his blog

SpiderMatt · 07-10-2008, 09:56 PM

Vindication. The question is whether this correlation will hold true in the future when e-ink devices are more common. The more people find digital books acceptable, the more people will start to expect free books. This is what happened to music. There are other ways of making money off books and promoting authors, but I suspect publishers will start to feel a pinch in the future the way record companies do now.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 07-10-2008, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

From the comments section we find that Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction author, and MR member, has commented on this (apparent) phenomenon on his blog

And I agree with Robert's point that, as encouraging as it sounds, the hard numbers are still too few and far between to say with any assurance what's going on yet. We need solid data!

carld · 07-10-2008, 10:59 PM

Interesting, I didn't know "Old Man's War" had a sequel. I actually got that from the library and read it right before I got my Kindle. The free ebook was released a couple of weeks later. I'll definitely have to give the next one in the series a look.

I'm wondering how well this will work when free ebook promotions become more common?

JSWolf · 07-10-2008, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carld

Interesting, I didn't know "Old Man's War" had a sequel. I actually got that from the library and read it right before I got my Kindle. The free ebook was released a couple of weeks later. I'll definitely have to give the next one in the series a look.

I'm wondering how well this will work when free ebook promotions become more common?

As far as Tor's free eBooks for the Kindle, you are best to get them from Tor instead of Amazon. Amazon's have DRM. Tor's do not.

What I am hoping in the future is that when a free eBook from a series is given away that we can still purchase the rest of the series as eBooks at a reasonable price.

daffy4u · 07-10-2008, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As far as Tor's free eBooks for the Kindle, you are best to get them from Tor instead of Amazon. Amazon's have DRM. Tor's do not.

Or you can get the free books from both sources as I do.

pilotbob · 07-10-2008, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

As far as Tor's free eBooks for the Kindle, you are best to get them from Tor instead of Amazon. Amazon's have DRM. Tor's do not.

I actually do both if I can. "Buying" the free Kindle edition puts it in my media library on Amazon so I can download it at any time if I want.

BOb

Donnageddon · 07-11-2008, 03:28 AM

It is interesting to watch the continued action on Robert J Sawyer's blog. John Scalzi has added more of his input, but no reference yet to "Pixel-Stained Technopeasant".

pshrynk · 07-11-2008, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

From the comments section we find that Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction author, and MR member, has commented on this (apparent) phenomenon on his blog

Rob's a member? Cool! Anyone know his screen name?

Nate the great · 07-11-2008, 12:54 PM

Yes. It's:

RobertjSawyer

Did you really not know this?!?

pshrynk · 07-11-2008, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Yes. It's:

RobertjSawyer

Did you really not know this?!?

Really did not.

07-10-2008, 06:58 PM	#5
Donnageddon Now you lishen here... Posts: 2,494 Karma: 479498 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Seattle-ish Device: Sony PRS-650. Kobo Touch, Kindle Fire	From the comments section we find that Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction author, and MR member, has commented on this (apparent) phenomenon on his blog Last edited by Donnageddon; 07-10-2008 at 07:01 PM.

07-11-2008, 03:28 AM	#12
Donnageddon Now you lishen here... Posts: 2,494 Karma: 479498 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Seattle-ish Device: Sony PRS-650. Kobo Touch, Kindle Fire	It is interesting to watch the continued action on Robert J Sawyer's blog. John Scalzi has added more of his input, but no reference yet to "Pixel-Stained Technopeasant". Last edited by Donnageddon; 07-11-2008 at 03:31 AM. Reason: Donnageddon is an idiot

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07-10-2008, 05:00 PM	#2
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Yes. I call it "Flint's Law". I named it for Eric Flint (He was the first to notice). Look here for more evidence. Flint's Law: Giving away the ebook edition of a novel will cause an increase in the sales of paper editions of that novel, as wellas increasing the sales of related novels in a series. P.S. I'm going to add it to Wikipedia when i have a chance.

07-10-2008, 06:10 PM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,064 Karma: 144284144 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Of course the sequel will sell better as long as people enjoyed the first book.

07-10-2008, 06:15 PM	#4
Barcey Wizard Posts: 1,531 Karma: 8059866 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Canada Device: Kobo H2O / Aura HD / Glo / iPad3	It would increase sales even more if Tor would actually sell the e-books. I've downloaded the free books but I'm not going to bother reading them until Tor will sell me the follow on books as an e-book (I keep hoping). It's too bad because I really like many of the Tor authors but I'm not going to go out of my way to purchase p-books to satisfy Tor's paranoia. Luckily I have enough to read already.

07-10-2008, 09:56 PM	#6
SpiderMatt Grand Arbiter Posts: 447 Karma: 1574837 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Arizona Device: iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle, Motorola Droid	Vindication. The question is whether this correlation will hold true in the future when e-ink devices are more common. The more people find digital books acceptable, the more people will start to expect free books. This is what happened to music. There are other ways of making money off books and promoting authors, but I suspect publishers will start to feel a pinch in the future the way record companies do now.

07-10-2008, 10:59 PM	#8
carld Wizard Posts: 2,698 Karma: 4748723 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Interesting, I didn't know "Old Man's War" had a sequel. I actually got that from the library and read it right before I got my Kindle. The free ebook was released a couple of weeks later. I'll definitely have to give the next one in the series a look. I'm wondering how well this will work when free ebook promotions become more common?

07-11-2008, 12:54 PM	#14
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Yes. It's: RobertjSawyer Did you really not know this?!?

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