Free eBooks...Good Idea Or Waste Of Time?

[Sue Wentz]

This subject has probably been addressed before, and if so, I apologize.

I'm considering putting up my latest eBook (novella length) for free, in the hopes that doing so will boost sales of the other books I have available, and hopefully garner some decent reviews that might carry dividends to my other work. Does anyone have experience with doing this? If so, do you think it increased your sales...or not so much?

Thanks in advance!

Sue

[Carol A. Spradling]

Hi Sue,

I put my novella up for free 2 weeks ago.  I gave away 1500 copies and have had minimal sales increase with other books.  A friend of mine put a full length up for free and her sales increased enormously.  The book she put up for free is also part of a series.  Being part of a series could have triggered the extra sales, but it's hard to know.  I hope this helped.

Carol

[Sue Wentz]

Thanks, Carol!

It's probably true that the most successful freebies from a sales point of view are teasers for series. I wasn't thinking along those lines for this specific novella, but it's an interesting idea for a future project.

I appreciate the feedback. :)

Sue

[Jim Rada]

Try it and see what happens. You can always change the price. In fact, it probably wouldn't hurt to try a few different price points and see what works best for you.

 

I put up a novella for free because I knew I was going to put up a full-length novel set in the same universe later. I wanted the freebie to serve as a hook so that those who downloaded it would be more likely to purchase the full-length novel. The novel just came out so I can't tell you how well it worked for me yet.

 

James Rada, Jr.

www.aimpublishinggroup.com

[Sue Wentz]

Thanks for the reply, Jim!

My novella isn't part of a series, but I can totally understand the rationale for putting out a hook as you're doing. I was mostly wondering how it worked when the freebie is a stand-alone when the author has other work available that isn't necessarily related. But, doing a series is food for thought.

If you think about it down the road, I would love to hear how things work out for you!

Best of luck with your series!

Sue

[Joy Cieslarski]

Since Ebooks tend to be lower priced and your royalties are probably lower (unless that's just ME), I say it can't hurt. It gets you exposure.

[Sue Wentz]

Hi Joy!

Thanks for your reply. I tend to agree that it can't hurt necessarily from an exposure point of view. I might try it for a month or two just to see what happens, but I'm starting to think I'd be smarter to do that with a book from a series instead of a stand alone. It's all food for thought. 

Thanks again!

Sue

[Sakinah D. Rasheed]

Under Amazon's select program I offered my newest novella for free for three days. I gave away over 300 copies but noone bought anything until the last day. One book sold out of 307 given away. It's not much but I think offering it for free helped generated that sale.

[Sue Wentz]

Hello Sakinah!

I thought about Kindle Select, but I'm opting not to use that for the moment. Your numbers are interesting, if not terribly encouraging. It seems like it might be worth trying anyway, just to see what happens.

Thank you for the information and best of luck with your sales!

Sue

[Irina Shapiro]

Hi, Sue. 

 

I have signed on with Amazon's KDP where you can offer your books for free on the days of your choice.  At first, I saw a tremendous surge in sales, but as more people signed up, the surge lasted for about 5mins before someone else's work distracted attention from my books.  You are not guaranteed good reviews either.  Some people write nasty reviews regardless of whether they paid for the book or not.  I would suggest putting up your book for free for a day or two, but not for any length of time.  If possible, get some bloggers or groups of FB to promote your book on the free days, so you can get some attention.  Hope I helped.

 

Irina

www.irinashapiro.com

 

[Sarah E.]

Hi Sue,

 

I'm a blogger and would possibly be interested in doing a review of your ebook on my blog. If you're interested reply back to this comment and let me known so we can exchange contact info :)

 

-Sarah

www.laceandlavenderhints.blogspot.ca

[Chris Ward]

I put short stories on free promo on KDP in order to attract attention for my novel.  I get roughly 100 downloads per day, but I reckon only one or two of those people actually read it.  I get the occasional sale which seems to be as a direct result, but while I don't like the system and think it is detrimental as a whole, absolutely nothing else has worked so far, not blogger reviews, social networking, having a blog, twitter, nothing.  At this stage in the game it is irrelevant how good my book is (for the record its badass!) because no one is interested in it.  If KDP is the only thing that works (in a very, very small way) then I'll have to stick with it.

[Michael O'Gara]

I have a series and thought that doing the Kindle Preferred thing and giving away some e-books of the first in the series might create interest.  My experience was similar to Carol Sprading's; the results have been disappointing.  So far the ratio of sales to giveaways is poor as I have only sold about 5% of the large number I gave away.  This might change over time as I have six books in the series.  I would recommend against giving your e-book away and especially if you do not have a series.

I think as authors we should not, repeat not, give away a lot of e-books or print books (other than to reviewers and review bloggers) because it only helps big organizations like Amazon Kindle etc. and devalues e-books in the view of the public.  I am concerned we are training the public to expect that authors will give their e-books away.  Having said that, I think you should try different price points and other promotional strategies.