Okay then, let's just give it away!
Imagine with me for a minute if you will. You work for a multi-national manufacturing company as part of the management board. You're sitting around the large conference table as the board meets to discuss the major issue facing the corporation. The issue being...declining sales. The question is posed: "What can be done to increase sales?"
You look to your left, you look to your right, you can hear the crickets chirping. No one says anything until the slacker in the corner chimes in with "If we can't sell the product, let's just give it away!"
I'm sure you can picture him, every company has one of these privileged type employees who is only there because of who they know or because they are someone's nephew. Their comment is beyond ludicrous and certainly not helpful.
Right?
Unless of course your product happens to be books. In that case giving it away seems to be the go to answer.
I've read numerous how to books and articles on self-publishing lately and the one thing all the "experts" seem to agree on is that if you want to succeed you need to give your book away. In what other industry is this the number 1 strategy? If you were a new clothing designer would you manufacture shirts to give away? How would you cover your costs?
And I can almost hear some of you out there asking, "Well what about free samples? Don't designers let celebrities wear their clothing for free?" Different situation, but let's go with it. In that case what the designer is hoping to gain is exposure that will lead to sales because people want to be like the rich and famous.
If I run a free promotion for my books, is it the same thing? I've read that we should consider free books as a cost of doing business. That they are like a loss leader in a grocery store. You give them away but make it up on other sales.
The problem being of course, a grocery store has many products and I only have one. If it's free...it's not a loss leader it's just a loss. So why do we do it?
Many authors will report that it's a good way to get your book out there; to get people talking about you. I just completed a free promotion for Stillness and without any outside promotion or cost, received over 300 downloads. Pretty good I think until I wonder...is that 300 sales I just gave away?
The problem is that we all have free books on our readers that counted as downloads for the authors but how many of us actually read those books? How many of us simply download them and forget them? That isn't exactly getting people talking about us is it?
A number of years ago this strategy of giving your book away made more sense because Amazon allowed those downloads to count as sales. That meant your sales rank got a boost and as a result your visibility rose. When it went back to price you could expect a sales bump. Now that is a loss leader. But today, Amazon has the free downloads separate from sales and any after promo boost is just coincidental.
The game has changed so why has the strategy remained the same?
I want to be clear that I'm not against giving my book away. I have given away almost 700 copies since I started this publishing odyssey. I want people to read my words more than I want to get rich.
I just think that for those authors out there who want to make a living at this, giving it away shouldn't be their first choice. There has to be a better way right?
You could give away the first hundred pages and then if the reader likes it, they buy the rest. You could price your book at $5.99 or $6.99 and then have a sale at $1.99 so the discount is significant. In both those instances at least revenue is generated.
I think it's time to change the strategy, it's time to make free promotions a second or third option for your marketing plan.
What do you think?
You look to your left, you look to your right, you can hear the crickets chirping. No one says anything until the slacker in the corner chimes in with "If we can't sell the product, let's just give it away!"
I'm sure you can picture him, every company has one of these privileged type employees who is only there because of who they know or because they are someone's nephew. Their comment is beyond ludicrous and certainly not helpful.
Right?
Unless of course your product happens to be books. In that case giving it away seems to be the go to answer.
I've read numerous how to books and articles on self-publishing lately and the one thing all the "experts" seem to agree on is that if you want to succeed you need to give your book away. In what other industry is this the number 1 strategy? If you were a new clothing designer would you manufacture shirts to give away? How would you cover your costs?
And I can almost hear some of you out there asking, "Well what about free samples? Don't designers let celebrities wear their clothing for free?" Different situation, but let's go with it. In that case what the designer is hoping to gain is exposure that will lead to sales because people want to be like the rich and famous.
If I run a free promotion for my books, is it the same thing? I've read that we should consider free books as a cost of doing business. That they are like a loss leader in a grocery store. You give them away but make it up on other sales.
The problem being of course, a grocery store has many products and I only have one. If it's free...it's not a loss leader it's just a loss. So why do we do it?
Many authors will report that it's a good way to get your book out there; to get people talking about you. I just completed a free promotion for Stillness and without any outside promotion or cost, received over 300 downloads. Pretty good I think until I wonder...is that 300 sales I just gave away?
The problem is that we all have free books on our readers that counted as downloads for the authors but how many of us actually read those books? How many of us simply download them and forget them? That isn't exactly getting people talking about us is it?
A number of years ago this strategy of giving your book away made more sense because Amazon allowed those downloads to count as sales. That meant your sales rank got a boost and as a result your visibility rose. When it went back to price you could expect a sales bump. Now that is a loss leader. But today, Amazon has the free downloads separate from sales and any after promo boost is just coincidental.
The game has changed so why has the strategy remained the same?
I want to be clear that I'm not against giving my book away. I have given away almost 700 copies since I started this publishing odyssey. I want people to read my words more than I want to get rich.
I just think that for those authors out there who want to make a living at this, giving it away shouldn't be their first choice. There has to be a better way right?
You could give away the first hundred pages and then if the reader likes it, they buy the rest. You could price your book at $5.99 or $6.99 and then have a sale at $1.99 so the discount is significant. In both those instances at least revenue is generated.
I think it's time to change the strategy, it's time to make free promotions a second or third option for your marketing plan.
What do you think?
date
newest »
newest »
Annie wrote: "Ahhh, Mr Eldon! Insightful, as always!!*fist bump*
Personally, I've never given away a free copy (minus ARCs, of course!) cuz $0.99 already steals a piece of my soul (╥﹏╥) With that said, I've s..."
Thanks Annie :D
And hey if the algorithm still allows for some visibility boost then there might be more value to free than I thought. Still though...I can't wrap my business mind around it being the first choice of some many of us *shakes head*
Oh, I'm totes with ya! I kinda think the crowded (like smooshed sardines tee hee) self-pub world forces us into an odd beggar's mentality, eh? Like, "There's so many books out there, I'd do ANYTHING to get readers to pick me!" which is all fine and dandy except...
If everyone thinks the same way then it ain't gonna help either LOL
Personally, I dig either $0.99 or $2.99 as a promo price, depending on the reg price. But I'm just picking numbers out of thin air. Well, mostly ^_~
Have you found a decent return on $0.99 before? I believe you've done this too, right?
Ooops. And when I said "you should know" earlier, I meant "I'd like to share", not "duh, you should know, who doesn't?"*grins sheepishly*
That sounded rude. Sorry!
I have done 0.99 before but the return is nowhere near as good as free. Of course I need to actually promote the sale price too before I can really say how effective it is.
Westly wrote: "All I can say is I cannot walk into a department store and ask for a free loveseat because I am thinking about buying the matching couch."Lol :D
I wish more consumers felt this way! The sad fact is that we now have an entire generation that is accustomed to free movies and free books and simply balks at the notion of paying for them. So what will inspire future creators to enter the field if the prospect of a decent living being made is not available to them?
*fist bump*
Personally, I've never given away a free copy (minus ARCs, of course!) cuz $0.99 already steals a piece of my soul (╥﹏╥) With that said, I've seen some pretty spectacular results AND after-effects from free promos done by other authors, which can't be denied.
Agreed that the majority of free books don't get read and when they do, it's more likely to be by someone who wouldn't normally pick it up. That creates a whole nother issue but I'm gonna stay on topic for once haha!
Anyhoo, I gotta say that while every fiber of my entrepreneurial being cries out in pain at the prospect of free, I would absolutely suck it up for a BookBub promo. But that would be the ONLY instance of suck-it-up-princess.
Oh, you should know that while free and paid ranks are entirely separate in the Kindle store now, they still DO affect one another. I'm not positive how the algorithms work for that but I can 100% confirm that enough of a bump in free rank can give you a significant boost in paid rank (and increased visibility) when it switches back. Again, no idea why LMAO!!
Nice blogging, good sir!
Hugs,
Ann