Why do some authors not offer a sample?

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by ficbot

To me, the sample is the equivalent of picking up a book from the shelf in the store and browsing it.

That's interesting. Samples annoy me. I'm never annoyed when I pick a book up off of a shelf and read the back/flaps and peruse it generally, but I am always irked when I read a sample on a website (samples displayed in my web browser?! Ugh, how 1990!) or, *shudder* have to *shudder* DOWNLOAD the sample. *whimper*

I feel dirty now. So... dirty....

[rogue_librarian]

Just say no, then. (And buy the book unseen, if you must.)

[Just4kix]

I am happy to let readers sample my books and have a sample of Something to Read on the Plane on Bookbzzr (even managed the technology of doing it all on my own without summoning help from nextdoor's grandchildren! ) .
I was under the impression that Kindle books automatically allowed readers to sample the book. I'm not sure about Barnes & Noble as my book was uploaded by a US publisher. Now I'm worried that samples might not be available and I will be getting the blame.

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by Just4kix

I was under the impression that Kindle books automatically allowed readers to sample the book.

Yep, Amazon automatically provides the first 10% of an ebook as a free sample - you don't have to do anything to create it, or say "yes, please allow customers to sample my book".

Useful point to bear in mind, though, regarding how Amazon calculates that 10% - it's based on bytes, not text content. So if you have a cover image embedded in the content as the first page of the book (as opposed to just a "logical" cover specified in the OPF file), then the byte size of the cover image will form part of that 10%, which can result in not a lot of actual book content being available in the free sample.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Yep, Amazon automatically provides the first 10% of an ebook as a free sample - you don't have to do anything to create it, or say "yes, please allow customers to sample my book".

Useful point to bear in mind, though, regarding how Amazon calculates that 10% - it's based on bytes, not text content. So if you have a cover image embedded in the content as the first page of the book (as opposed to just a "logical" cover specified in the OPF file), then the byte size of the cover image will form part of that 10%, which can result in not a lot of actual book content being available in the free sample.

that must be why when i had amazon send me samples of two books from the same author, that the sample lasted only after the acknowledgment pages, i believe.

[ficbot]

Update: I heard back from the author, and all she said was that she has not been 'successful' with offering a sample. I think I am going to pass on the book. I don't feel right about potentially sending customers her way when they can't even look at the first few pages.

[pietrocrazy]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Update: I heard back from the author, and all she said was that she has not been 'successful' with offering a sample. I think I am going to pass on the book. I don't feel right about potentially sending customers her way when they can't even look at the first few pages.

I think you should be sure to tell her this, too.

Really, the only reason to not offer a sample is if your writing is so bad that a sample would only turn readers away. I imagine good authors have their sales go up when they offer a sample... and bad authors have their sales go down.

[Worldwalker]

I have to wonder if she's been 'successful' not offering a sample.

I can't think of the number of books I've bought after reading a sample in some form -- browsing in a bookstore, borrowing a book from a friend, reading the Baen Free Library, or, yes, reading an online sample. It's ... well, most of them. And the number I've read without any sample that were also not from authors I already knew well (I think we all have authors whose books we'll buy sight unseen ... book unwritten, even, thanks to pre-orders ... because we like them just that much) is vanishingly small. Most of the ones I buy with no sample are at bag day at a library book sale, or in some similar situation, where the books in my $5 bag are the samples.

If someone doesn't want me to read some of their book, I have to ask myself what they're trying to hide. And then I go buy a book by someone who is confident enough in their own writing that they don't insist I buy it without seeing it first, as if they feared I wouldn't buy it if I knew what I was getting.

[Just4kix]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Yep, Amazon automatically provides the first 10% of an ebook as a free sample - you don't have to do anything to create it, or say "yes, please allow customers to sample my book".

Useful point to bear in mind, though, regarding how Amazon calculates that 10% - it's based on bytes, not text content. So if you have a cover image embedded in the content as the first page of the book (as opposed to just a "logical" cover specified in the OPF file), then the byte size of the cover image will form part of that 10%, which can result in not a lot of actual book content being available in the free sample.

Thanks for the note about byte size and not text.

I can't imagine why any writer would not want a reader to sample their book. If a reader buys the book and is then disappointed because the writing style is not to their liking, then the reader is likely to give a poor review. I would much prefer someone to sample the book and decide - not for me, before buying it. Tastes differ, and even bestsellers get poor reviews.

[saoir]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

My guess is they think their book is So Important that people will buy it unread.

Agreed 100%. Such 'precious' writing ....

It's kind of like encountering paper books that are shrink wrapped. A REAL turn off

[chamekke]

Originally Posted by Just4kix

I can't imagine why any writer would not want a reader to sample their book. If a reader buys the book and is then disappointed because the writing style is not to their liking, then the reader is likely to give a poor review. I would much prefer someone to sample the book and decide - not for me, before buying it. Tastes differ, and even bestsellers get poor reviews.

I am much, MUCH likelier to buy a book if I can read a representative sample of its contents. If the Kindle sample includes only a preface or foreword, with none of the main content... well, I may seek out a copy in a library or bookshop to confirm whether I want to buy it in ebook format, if I have some other reason to feel motivated. Mostly, though, I'll just scratch it off my list.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by chamekke

Mostly, though, I'll just scratch it off my list.

And there we have the essence of what these people don't get:

There are more books any of us want to read than we have time to read, even if we did nothing with our leisure time but read. To an author, their book, or their handful of books, are precious because they're a whole lifetime's work. To a reader, they're one of thousands of books clamoring for our attention, and they're competing with every other form of entertainment out there for the limited amount of time we can allot to said entertainment instead of the necessities of life. If I don't buy book A, I can buy books B, C, D, through ZZ, or download any number of PD freebies. If I don't want to read just now I can write instead, I can play any number of video games, watch any number of DVDs off my rack, stop by Redbox for a new release, see what looks good on streaming video, work on my garden, build more bookcases, work on any number of craft-type projects, walk around my neighborhood, take a hike, play fetch with my cat, tinker with my vanity website, work on a computer program, post to my blog, yammer on MobileRead, sit here and watch birds, or quite literally go fly a kite. Plus ten times as many things I didn't list. That's a lot for one lil' ebook to compete with.

So any time an author puts up a barrier to buying their book, that in effect enhances the appeal of all those competing interests. All those things that involve giving money to someone else, or not giving money to anyone at all. I don't necessarily want to buy their book; I want to do something with X block of time. And if their book has any degree of inconvenience involved, or if I know less about it than I do about any of its competitors, it's going to get pushed off with all the millions of books I don't want, don't know about, or don't have time for. There are plenty of people who are eager to give me reasons to give them money, and plenty of things that involve no money at all, so I don't have the time for one of the exceptions.

[Catz2.0]

I totally agree. I think samples are the same as surfing through a book or reading the book. Who wants to purchase something if they aren't completely sure they will love it?