by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Free book promos aren’t for everyone. Some writers are passionate about receiving payment for their hard work. Other writers don’t yet have enough published work to offer one of their books for free. It’s possible, also, that writers of standalones might not find as much value in a free promotion as series writers.
For me, I’ve found that free book promos do have their place. I use them often. In fact, at least one of my books is always free.
I don’t like the idea of Kindle Unlimited (KU), because I don’t like putting all my eggs in one basket. I’ve also found that anytime I cut back on any platform, I hear from readers. And I hate making readers upset.
Instead, I use Amazon’s price-matching policy to make my books free. In the past I’ve used Smashwords (a book distributor) to make my book free on other retailers (Kobo, etc.) and then Amazon has rapidly matched the price. I’m now experimenting with Draft 2 Digital (another distributor), which I’ve really enjoyed dealing with so far. You can make your book free on Nook with Draft 2 Digital, which does put pressure on Amazon to match the price quickly. Also (and I’m straying slightly off-topic here, sorry), Draft 2 Digital seems much easier to work with. More on them on their FAQ page.
Ways I use free book promos:
To introduce readers to my books. They’re more likely to take a chance on a new-to-them author if the book is free. The free book functions as a sort of ‘loss leader,’ using grocery store parlance. The hope is that the promo funnels readers to my other books.
As an incentive for signing up for my newsletter. (I wrote about the mechanics of getting the free books into the hands of the readers in last Monday’s post).
To elicit reviews for a new book. Goodreads giveaways provide an easy way of doing this, if you’ve got a print edition of your book. But I’ve also found that reviews follow a free book promo on Amazon…usually several weeks after the promo has ended. It’s true that sometimes free books can result in lower ratings from readers. That’s because some of these readers aren’t our intended audience. But, for me, this strategy for gaining customer reviews has worked well, despite the occasional bad review.
To introduce my books to a younger demographic. Wattpad‘s users are mostly 30 and younger (with a heavy concentration of teenage readers). Since many of my readers are seniors, I’m trying to ensure a future for my series.
Do you use free book promotions? What other promo have you used successfully?
Image: MorgueFile: DodgertonSkillhause
Using free books as an incentive: Share on X
None of my books have ever been free, although my publisher has discounted a couple of them for a week or so. Even that results in a lot more sales and reviews.
Alex–Discounts also work really well, I’ve found.
I really like the idea of free book promos in situations like yours, Elizabeth, where you’ve got a terrific body of work for readers to explore. Readers who like your Memphis BBQ stories, for instance, might not know about your Myrtle Clover series, so a freebie from that series makes a lot of sense. I’m not in the position to do that right now, but there’s sense to it, and I like the way you’ve got about it. This one gets archived so I can come back to it.
I only have one published book, my memoir. I’m currently trying to find a small press for my novel, but will most likely end up self-publishing (oy!). I can see how offering a free book would be a good sales tool to introduce a writer to new readers. I’d have no problem doing this if the opportunity arises.
Karen–Good luck with your search, Karen!
I’ve done all these, and the only one I’ll be repeating (for the foreseeable future) is keeping Through the Fog free for newsletter signups.
I’ve written quite a bit about the concept that “free” is a stragety, not a price. Just posting your book for people to download, without capturing any contact information or doing anything intelligent about marketing yourself, is like throwing books in the trash.
Joel–Something else I do, and I neglected to mention it here, is to put an ad for my newsletter (image/link) in the back of the free book. Offering *another* free book if they sign up for my newsletter. That’s worked well, too.
That’s a marvelous thing and I haven’t done it yet. Newsletter invite + free sample of one other book, in both print and digital.
Doing spot free promotions through KDP Select of my books worked very well for me in garnering reviews, raising visibility and subsequent sales, but I shifted to making Maids of Misfortune, the first book in my Victorian San Francisco mystery series, perma free last January so that I could go off KDP Select and offer my books everywhere.
I had waited to do this until my 4th book in the series came out (so I essentially replaced the income from Maids with the new book.) And this has worked very well. It helped that I had a BookBub promotion of the book in January, and again this month. The sales off of Amazon (where the free book has gotten me readers) has made up for the loss in borrows on KU.
But what I hadn’t expected (and just blogged about) was the fact that not having to constantly promote all my other books has freed up time and helped boost my writing productivity. PS, read your first chapter of the new zombie book on Wattpad and will definitely be buying it. Another win for free!
Louisa–I can totally understand that. I’ve had emails from readers when there’s even been a *delay* in putting my books up on Nook or in print. Which is the last thing I want!
I’ve got BookBub on my list of things to do, although the sticker price is a shocker! I know it pays off, when done well, though.
I like that you now have more time to write! And…thanks so much for buying the zombie book! Hope you’ll enjoy it. :)
Free promos don’t work well when you only have one book, and yet I see so many authors do it.
Diane–I’m sort of baffled by it. I guess it’s a way to get reviews and then hopefully build visibility from that, but it’s not a good strategy because I don’t think it shows up in Amazon’s “also boughts” that way.
People often refer to retailers’ loss-leaders, but those are never free, just highly discounted. I will gladly give a free book to anyone willing to join my readers’ group (email list) but the free-into-the-wind idea is one that, while it might be popular for indies today, has an inherent long term problem: devaluation.
No producer of products (or works of art) in any other industry gives things away in the $5-30 price point. They’ll give you a sample, as Hugh Howey did with his first episode of WOOL, or they’ll give a freebie to someone who is an influencer of others, such as newspaper critics, but Coke doesn’t hand out a six pack to everyone walking into Costco. Nor does Green Giant, or Shell Gasoline, or Tide. These companies have been at it for a long time, what do they know that we don’t?
Peace, Seeley
Seeley–And that’s a very good point and one that will resonate with a lot of writers. I do wish I had an ounce of the collected business knowledge that those corporations have.
I think Jane Friedman had an apt analogy…it’s more like the free cheese samples at the grocery store (or, on lucky days, the free wine sample at mine.) It’s more to get a taste for the product and see if it’s something the reader likes. Although I’ll admit I don’t often buy the cheese from the sample. The wine, on the other hand… :)
I’m jealous, we never get wine samples!
Seeley–I just wish the wine sampling was on some sort of printed schedule. Then I could plan my grocery shopping better… :)
Your post and the comments that follow provide a lot of food for thought! I don’t have enough books in my series yet (working on #4) to offer one for free, but I wrote a novelette from a spin-off character, which I have up for free as an incentive to build my email list. Results are mixed so far.
Kathy–Sounds like you’re doing just fine with it! And good luck with book 4. :)
I intend to surreptitiously install and stock a little free library on a walking trail near my house.
I’m the worst kind of vandal.
I’ll stock it with Hemingway and Chandler and Poe and Tolstoy. Maybe a little poetry from Frost and Hardy.
Now look what your picture has done. Life of crime for me, straight ahead.
New weekend project.
Jack–Isn’t it awesome? There’s one on the street leading down to my street (this isn’t it). But I think the one my neighbor put up has beach books and children’s books in there. You could put Beowulf in yours for the kids… :)
I’m hoping when I’m ready to publish to have at least 2 books ready to go at the same time. That way, I can have one free and hopefully gain more readers :)
Jemi–That sounds like a good plan!
Hi Elizabeth .. you and your commenters have made some good ideas here – and definitely any author … needs a series published or in the immediate pipeline – so people keep happy and keep buying!
Cheers Hilary
Hilary–I think series are probably the *easiest* thing to write. So much is set up at the start of the book. And readers love them.
Thanks, Elizabeth, for the informative post. I’ve come to the conclusion that casting freebies to the wind via Amazon giveaways is, as Joel writes, “like throwing books in the trash.” My two most “successful” giveaways (one of them with a Book Bub) dispersed 7k and 8k. I managed to more or less break even on ad costs, but with no real momentum resulting. On the review front, total flop: the 7k got 4 Amazon reviews, the 8k just 2.
D.R.–That’s very frustrating! Sorry you’ve had a tough time with that promotion.
The only other thing I hear about that the freebies are good for is for newsletter signups…and generating more subscribers to your list for direct promo when you’ve got releases. That might be a worth trying, if you’re game to give it another go (or haven’t already tried this…it sounds as if you’re very organized if you had a BookBub).