Should I offer some of my eBooks for free?

[Joebill]

After reading thousands of books, I find that price has nothing to do with quality of proofreading, plot, cover art, etc.

Either the author and publisher work hard on it, or they don't.

It is kinda like going to the CompTIA A+ site and read there on how to get certified and how and why it is required by many employers to show you are a good quality computer technician... then see the many typos and misspelled words there. The site navigation that isn't very good in places.

I guess my point is that claims of greatness are not always correct.

[jseay]

Originally Posted by nomesque

I've offered my first ebook free on Smashwords and Feedbooks. I can't give you any data on how this has affected sales of other ebooks, because I don't have any others out yet. I've had a number of 'I'd read more from this author' and 'I'd pay for future ebooks' comments, but whether they translate into actual sales remains to be seen.

Here's something I found interesting... my ebook's received a lot of attention on the B&N website because I spruiked it to a forum of nook-owners just after the nook was released (sheer lucky timing, and plumboz's tip-off). Once it hit a certain number of downloads, the type of attention (positive or negative) didn't seem to matter - it was on the front page of the free ebooks section, people downloaded it regardless. Possibly without reading any reviews There are a couple of points here - a) a free ebook can help get your work in front of a lot of readers if it's placed correctly and b) free ebook 'sales' won't necessarily be crippled by the dreaded negative review.

As far as 'building readership' with a free ebook - it works on me. Well, it will work once I have an ebook reader. Atm, reading from an LCD screen is hard work :-/ But if I read a free
ebook and like it, I do file the author's name away in my mental 'writers whose books I'll buy' list

Have you been getting a significant number of downloads via Smashwords? Thanks.

[Kemp]

Originally Posted by jseay

Have you been getting a significant number of downloads via Smashwords? Thanks.

Offering your work for free and letting several various groups of people know about it is a good way to score a lot of downloads. I can't speak for Nomesque, but I'm up to about 1900.

Now, keep in mind that not everyone who downloads it can necessarily be counted as a reader. I've heard a statistic that maybe 5% or so read the book? On a long enough time line, that might change a little.

Now, it also depends what you're trying to do with it; leverage for traditional publication, starting to build a name/reputation/readership. My personal opinion on the subject is that it's better to be free online than hiding in a desk drawer. At least this way, the work has some kind of purpose to it.

[J. Dean]

I write free short stories, in hopes to bait people into buying my novels.

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by jseay

Have you been getting a significant number of downloads via Smashwords? Thanks.

1700-odd straight from Smashwords, 13000 from Feedbooks, so far. However, those figures are misleading, I suspect, when it comes to actual reader numbers. From what I've seen, I think the readings/download rate is far higher on Smashwords than on Feedbooks. Now, Smashwords distribute DEAD(ish) to B&N, and I don't (yet) have download figures for B&N. Judging from the number of ratings and reviews, though, I'm guessing at least 1000.

Something to keep in mind is that Smashwords does very little marketing on your behalf. The site includes no 'social networking' aspects, either. Which means that even a free ebook needs to be publicised to do you any good.

[MConti]

In some ways, you're trying to build a brand, and to do that effectively, you need to give a value-added aspect to your books. So, freebies are a good value-add.

[IcePrincess]

Originally Posted by lene1949

This is so unfair... I have read many free/cheap books from self-published authors, which were beautifully formatted and edited to a point, where you could find no errors...

Your post is offensive to me, and I don't even write books.

P.S. In answer to the OP's question, I think a lot of people would read your book if you offered if for free - if it's in their preferable genre.

Agreed... unfair! The worst formatting I've seen so far on my Sony has been for full-price or library books from mainstream publishers. I don't know if the problem is with PDF handling or something else, but all the dialog is all smashed together and I have to try to figure out who's saying what from context.

Like this:
"Do you know what I just saw?" "What?" "Bob was mowing his lawn!" "Why would he do that?" "I don't know... it's winter!"

Ok, that was a very simplified example. It gets much harder to parse on an actual mystery/thriller-type novel. And I can't re-format them because of the DRM! Very annoying.

Nomesque: I downloaded your book a while back and it's another one that I haven't gotten to read yet! Can't wait!

[lene1949]

I'm so glad someone agrees with me... In many other areas I agree with 'you get what you pay for', and I go with quality!

With selfpublished authors I just read a sample, before I buy or download for free, and I haven't been disappointed... The writing is superb and so is the editing. They certainly don't have all the errors that many famous writers do, because they think they're too good to hire an editor.

[Shayne Parkinson]

Originally Posted by jseay

I have read that offering some of your eBooks for free can be a great way to build your readership. What has been your experience with offering free eBooks? Thanks.

Hi Jaye. Here's my experience, FWIW: I originally charged for all my ebooks, and got a trickle of sales. I decided to make the first one free, and fairly rapidly found it getting thousands of downloads - and hundreds of sales of the later books.

It's easier for me to do this because I have a series. What some people do is offer a short story or novella for free, then charge for their full-length work.