Reasons you have not paid for a 'donationware' book?

[ficbot]

Richard Herley's post about offering his books for free and getting many downloads but not many payments had me wondering about people who download a free book and don't pay for it. Why not? Select more than one reason if you want to, but if you can leave a comment about which reason was the primary one, that would be so interesting.

1) I downloaded it but haven't read it yet
2) I did not read it because the book is 'not my thing'
3) I read at minimum a sample, but the book was not to my liking
4) I meant to send a donation but I forgot
5) I meant to send a donation but do not use Paypal (or whatever given option)
6) Why send money when the author is giving it away for free
7) Other

[kwjones]

I kept forgetting to give Jeff Carver (Starrigger) a donation for months after downloading the Chaos Chronicles. After downloading Sunborn, which I still haven't read yet, I remembered that I had been meaning to leave a tip in the jar. Once I did, I felt much better. I'm planning on leaving another tip after I read Sunborn as well.

[Jim Lester]

The problem with donationware for me, is that I'm at the website when I download the book, but I'm using my Reader when I finish the book, so I have to remember to "pay" for the book if I liked it sometime later. Some times I do, most times I don't (despite the best of intentions)

[EowynCarter]

Well, the one time i wantted to do this, i was disapointed by paypal not allowing to leave a message.

[ficbot]

I generally do remember to send one later if I intend to, but there are books (such as Herley's) which I did not download in the first place because they are just not my thing and I am learning to devote my reading energy to quality books I will really enjoy and not to just 'filler' I got because it was there.

There are a few freebies I have downloaded and just not gotten to yet, but when I do read them, I will probably leave a tip if I enjoy them.

[Kali Yuga]

Just to be clear, polls like this aren't going to give you any actual or usable information.

• Sample size is way too small
• Sample is not representative (as you aren't polling the downloaders, or the population at large)
• Sample population is self-selecting (i.e. only people who are on MR and are interested in the topic will even bother to read the post, let alone vote)

Granted, it's cheaper than hiring Gallup. But I don't think you'll find any real answers this way.

[DawnFalcon]

Because I didn't enjoy it in one case.

In others, because they were just bad.

[bgalbrecht]

I didn't tip Jeffrey Carver for his free books, but I bought the rest of his works, where does that put me?

[TallMomof2]

As a courtesy I always leave a small donation when I download the book. If I like the book then I go back afterwords and donate more (if possible).

[lene1949]

I downloaded 3 of Richard Herley's books, and simply forgot to pay, as I haven't read them yet... This has today been rectified - not the reading, but the donation...

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Just to be clear, polls like this aren't going to give you any actual or usable information.

• Sample size is way too small
• Sample is not representative (as you aren't polling the downloaders, or the population at large)
• Sample population is self-selecting (i.e. only people who are on MR and are interested in the topic will even bother to read the post, let alone vote)

Granted, it's cheaper than hiring Gallup. But I don't think you'll find any real answers this way.

ALL forum polls are likely (almost certain?) to have small, non-representative, self-selecting samples. So, you seem to be saying "don't expect reliable data from any of the polls", which is true enough in that none of them are properly managed double-blind trials.

Even so, I find many of the polls interesting.

What constitutes a real answer, in any case? Is there any way in which I can find any real answers? I once read a survey that said there wasn't.

[tompe]

Why should you pay money for a book you download from a totally new author and a book that bypass the publisher filtering? If i like the book I would pay for the next book. But the probability that it is a good book is really low if you do not have trusted reviews to read before you download.

[Rootman]

What few I've seen ask for PayPal, and due to a quagmire of a problem a few years ago that took 3 months to settle I no longer use PayPal.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Richard Herley's post about offering his books for free and getting many downloads but not many payments had me wondering about people who download a free book and don't pay for it. Why not? Select more than one reason if you want to, but if you can leave a comment about which reason was the primary one, that would be so interesting.

1) I downloaded it but haven't read it yet
2) I did not read it because the book is 'not my thing'
3) I read at minimum a sample, but the book was not to my liking
4) I meant to send a donation but I forgot
5) I meant to send a donation but do not use Paypal (or whatever given option)
6) Why send money when the author is giving it away for free
7) Other

You forgot the option for: "I didn't bother to download it because his story blurbs didn't make the novels appeal to me."

Besides, I've never heard of him... at least, not until he posted that his experiment was over. So I'd have to say his advertising/marketing campaign failed to reach me.

Derek

[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

You forgot the option for: "I didn't bother to download it because his story blurbs didn't make the novels appeal to me."

Besides, I've never heard of him... at least, not until he posted that his experiment was over. So I'd have to say his advertising/marketing campaign failed to reach me.

Derek

Originally Posted by ficbot

had me wondering about people who download a free book and don't pay for it. Why not?

Maybe he didn't forget.

Clearly the poll was relating to people have downloaded a donationware book and not paid for it.

Ergo, not knowing about the book or not wanting the book and therefore not downloading it is irrelevant to the poll.

Cheers,
PKFFW