“Why are you giving your book away for free?!?”
I have been crazy excited about the fact that we get to give away as many copies of Cry Sanctuary as people can download over the next two weeks. My husband is tired of listening to me cheer about it, that’s for sure. I have talked before about how I believe so, so hard in the power of free, and that it can come back to you. That giving a book away can be the best advertising there is in the long run.
And yet, there are so many people who disagree with this, or don’t get it. One thing I hear over and over again as I talk about this with people is the same question: Why are you giving your book away for free???
Maybe it’s counter-intuitive to some. To me it’s the most intuitive thing in the world. Cry Sanctuary is the first book in a series. Maybe there are a lot of people out there who might not have otherwise taken a chance on it, and some fraction of them will download it, read it, and enjoy it enough to buy the next one. (Or two. Or three.) Maybe some of those people will want to try our other books.
I don’t have numbers. I won’t have numbers until September, most likely. What I do have is NovelRank. (If you’re an author unfamiliar with this site, I apologize in advance. Or you’re welcome. You know, depending on which side of OCD you fall on.*)
For me, I was fascinated with the potential of NovelRank, because it saves the ranking of your kindle book every hour and makes a pretty graph. “Aha!” I exclaimed back in April. “Now I will have pretty pictures when the time comes for Cry Sanctuary to be free! I will be able to show the world that I am not crazy!”
Obviously 3 books is not exactly a stunning statistical blow, but I think it would be hard to claim this as coincidence. So for your entertainment, I present a graph of Amazon sales ranks on books #2-#4 of the Red Rock Pass series. (NovelRank freaks out and dies when a book switches over to the freebie bestseller list, so there is no graph for book #1.)
When looking at these, remember that low ranks = good ranks.
Original Release Date: June, 2009
Original Release Date: October 2009
Original Release Date: June 2010
Magical proof? Maybe not. Pretty visually impressive? Well, I certainly think so. Plus, Cry Sanctuary came out in October of 2008. Even Sanctuary Lost is over a year old. In ebook terms, by the old standards, that would be over the hill. (Sanctuary Lost actually sold as many copies on kindle in March as it did during its release month, but that’s a different blog post.) Obviously the freebie revitalized the rankings on two older titles, and kept Sanctuary Unbound‘s release month stretch chugging on a little while longer.
Free is not the enemy. Some people who get your free book will hate it. Some will never buy anything else you write, ever. Some will never read it. Some will read it and think, “meh.” You may have lost a few potential sales with some of them. But really, in the long run, I truly believe you’re likely to have gained so much more.
I’ve still got another week of Cry Sanctuary being free. Maybe we’ve bottomed out in the rankings. Maybe more people will buy the other books next week. At the end of June I’ll post the graphs for the month and see what it looks like on the whole. Either way it’s interesting. And cool.
I love this brave new world of ebooks. And I love giving stuff away for free.
Yay free!
So, tell me. Has free ever worked for you? Have you ever gotten a free book and gone on to purchase more from that author? (Or, alternately, you can tell me if you got a free book and never tried that author again, but I’d prefer you leave out the specifics of who. This is not the forum for a negativity fiesta.)
*NovelRank provides kindle sales estimates with their tracking, but I can tell you right now, both from personal experience and from my real time amazon numbers I get from self-publishing some titles, that these sales estimates are only accurate when you sell fewer than a few copies a day, and are often VERY wrong on books ranked consistently under 1,000. I am not responsible for any sales estimate induced panic! (The site disclaims this quite clearly as well, but sometimes people don’t read disclaimers. Of course, you’re not one of those, are you? I didn’t think so.)
Yes, I most definatley have won a free book and totally glomed onto an author. I won one of your books through Bitten by Books, and now I own almost everything you and Donna have written. Sure some of it I won, but a lot of it I bought.
Yes free books definitely work! When Dreamfever was given away it introduced me to a whole new genre which then led me to start my blog and so on. I also read the entire Midnight Breeds series and Hollows series because the first one was free. So yes! I think it’s great! Boooo to the haters!
yep it sure does work. I won the first book in your Southern Arcana series and have bought the rest of them. Then I won the print of your Santuary series and just bought the third one last week. So it works very well in my case. If there is an author I am not quite sure of or book I’m not sure I would like. I try and win it and have found some very fantastic authors that way.
Usually if I get a free book (most likely an ARC), if I like it, I will buy a copy for myself or for a present for someone who I think might like it. I believe in supporting the authors, and plus since I got it for free already, then spending the money isn’t that bad.
Receiving a free book *usually* equates to me exploring the author and/or new series further. I’ve had plenty of authors I would have otherwise avoided, simply because I couldn’t afford to buy any more books at the time. Yet since I either won a giveaway, or they were kind enough to send me a review copy, I had an opportunity to explore a new world. I guarantee you that I will be buying their future books. Heck, when I won the Twitter contest for “A Safe Harbor” a while back, you pretty much sold me on your new series!
I’ve only had a couple of situations where I’ve received a book for free that I will be avoiding. Usually with any ARCs I receive, I will lend them to my friends so that they can become hooked too. And books that I don’t like? Those will be given away on the blog, eventually (bound books only, though). So yeah, I completely agree with your theory!
Plus, giving away stuff for free makes more hype for the book. That’s why swag giveaways are so popular on Twitter and blogs too. Everyone loves free stuff, and getting stuff in the mail (personal notes from the sender makes the package even more exciting) just adds another element of excitement for the recipient.
My first Moira Rogers book was free. I won Crux in a contest. I started reading the Red Rock Pass series because of the free short stories here. My first Shannon Stacey was free. So was Nikki Duncan. Jaci Burton, Sydney Croft, and Shelly Laurenston were free from Rhapsody bookclub (one of those buy so many, get so many free.) Everyone I just listed is now on my auto-buy list, so I can see where free works.
Of course there have been a few free books that I didn’t enjoy but I wasn’t nearly as disappointed in them as I would have been if I had paid.
Every book I’ve bought in the entire UF genre has free, well loaned, to thank for what I’ve bought. I probably never would have read a single UF book if a friend hadn’t thrust Storm Front into my hands and demanded that I read it. We’re talking a few thousand (including some PNR) books over the past ten years or so.
I’m a glommer…so that means when I get a free ebook and I like it…I attack the authors backlist like there’s no tomorrow. I also have severe OCD which basically means that once I start collecting an author’s work…I MUST HAVE THEM ALL! *grin* This applies to print books as well…I’ve lost count of the number of books that I’ve won and then refuse to read until I have all of the books leading upto it. So in essence, a free ebook/book is a great incentive for me to dive into another collection frenzy.
There have been an occasion or two when I’ve received a freebie and not loved it but it hasn’t deterred me from checking out the author’s work. I think that there’s always room for growth & improvement…just b/c one book didn’t wow me doesn’t change the fact that the next one might win me over. What can I say…I’m optimistic when it comes to books.
i’ve never actually won a book before but i think it is an effective way of marketing.
i find it interesting how much you like giving books away because moth authors expect you to go out and buy them. great risk taking!
I’ve gotten a few books free and really enjoyed them enough to buy more books by the author. It’s a great way to find new authors or books you were unsure about.
I would have to say that I have done both. I’ve gotten a book for free and ended buying more of the author’s work because the characterization just brought me into their world. But I have also won a free book and decided that the author wasn’t worth my time. At this time I can’t remember why I didn’t like the book- it was one of three reasons 1. couldn’t suspend disbelief or 2. written like a high school student or 3. I kept saying “but that’s not what she said earlier” (in other words- the author couldn’t keep on track with what was said and done earlier in the book.
I think the freebies are the best invention ever. I have gotten the 1st one free and bought the rest in a series quite a few times. There was a freebie of the 2nd book to a series, so I bought the 1st book before I read the freebie (I’m OCD that way). I can’t start a series in the middle, I’m too afraid that I’m going to miss something important. I don’t download every freebie out there though. If the description doesn’t get me, I don’t want it taking up space on my Kindle.
I thank you for giving away Cry Sanctuary! Talk about being hooked; I’ve purchased and read the rest of the Red Rock Pass series this week and can’t wait until you ladies release a new book in the series.
I must admit that I had a hard time adjusting to ebooks – my kindle was a gift – since I’m a diehard patron of my public library. The free book is a great marketing tool because it allows hesitant readers like me to discover new authors and genre that we wouldn’t bother with otherwise. Maybe you should consider providing the first book of each series for free – hint, hint.
I totally agree with you. I’ll be honest. I’ve seen the name Moira Rogers on twitter repeatedly. It wasn’t until your kindle blog contest and a suggestion from tweeters that purchased one of your novels (Crux). I definitely enjoyed it and plan on finishing the series.
HOWEVER, the Red Rock Pass series…I really had no intention of even trying it. Though I’m loyal to a series, it doesn’t always cross over to author’s additional series. Now that I have the first (Cry Sanctuary), I can see myself reading the series in its entirety.
It works the other way also. I won a book from a blog contest (3rd and last in a trilogy). I couldn’t see myself reading the last book but not the first two. So I purchased the first book to get started. Whether or not I purchase the 2nd all depends on if I like the first though.