Why Authors Should Give Their Book Away For Free
As an author, you may think giving away your book for free is a crime. If you've slaved over the words for months, struggled with the editing process and have eventually managed to produce a professional, book store quality novel, you'll no doubt be hoping to earn some royalties as your reward. For a stand alone novel, this is fine, but for book one of a series, giving out some freebies is a brilliant marketing tool.
A few quick and easy ways to give your book away for freeUse Draft 2 Digital, where setting your price at zero is acceptable and circulated across a wide variety of platforms.Send it to email subscribers as a gift (PDF format may be more suitable, but others aren't uncommon either).Make it easily available as a PDF on your website.Publish the book with a zero price everywhere else, then contact Amazon KDP and ask them to price match on their website.Run a KDP promotion if you only want to give it away for free for a few days.If you have a paperback version, KDP will let you offer the ebook to those who have purchased a hard copy for free.Benefits of giving your book away for freeNew readers can try your work without losing money if they don't like it (risk-free, no financial loss, ideal for those who usually only read traditionally published books or have just bought their e-reader and are looking to fill it).Great for people going on holiday who are browsing their favourite retailer.More people are likely to download the book on their e-reader if they don't have to pay for it, even if they don't read it straight away.Less of a piracy temptation if people can download it legally for free.If they enjoyed the first one and payed nothing, readers may be more likely to continue the series and pay for the next one, knowing the quality of work is high.You will be more likely to stay in the Amazon Free Bestsellers list for your genre.People may be more likely to leave a review if they got it for free and enjoyed it.Limitations of giving your book away for freeYou won't earn royalties for those downloads.Your book will be easily identified as an indie if it is perma-free.People might download it and never read it.No matter your opinion of perma-free, having a free or low-cost book to hook new readers is a fantastic marketing tool. You can quickly and easily circilate your work to millions of excited readers and any of them could fall in love with your work enough to become fans for life. It's also a good way to build your mailing list or following. Offer something for free in exchange for their email address - they can always unsubscribe later.As always, if you have any questions or need clarification please contact me. I currently have one perma-free book and one 99c book on offer and I can honestly say it works a treat. I have met so many new readers and writers through my offers, so I highly recommend it. If you would like to try either of those, the links are below for your convenience.E. Rachael Hardcastle
A few quick and easy ways to give your book away for freeUse Draft 2 Digital, where setting your price at zero is acceptable and circulated across a wide variety of platforms.Send it to email subscribers as a gift (PDF format may be more suitable, but others aren't uncommon either).Make it easily available as a PDF on your website.Publish the book with a zero price everywhere else, then contact Amazon KDP and ask them to price match on their website.Run a KDP promotion if you only want to give it away for free for a few days.If you have a paperback version, KDP will let you offer the ebook to those who have purchased a hard copy for free.Benefits of giving your book away for freeNew readers can try your work without losing money if they don't like it (risk-free, no financial loss, ideal for those who usually only read traditionally published books or have just bought their e-reader and are looking to fill it).Great for people going on holiday who are browsing their favourite retailer.More people are likely to download the book on their e-reader if they don't have to pay for it, even if they don't read it straight away.Less of a piracy temptation if people can download it legally for free.If they enjoyed the first one and payed nothing, readers may be more likely to continue the series and pay for the next one, knowing the quality of work is high.You will be more likely to stay in the Amazon Free Bestsellers list for your genre.People may be more likely to leave a review if they got it for free and enjoyed it.Limitations of giving your book away for freeYou won't earn royalties for those downloads.Your book will be easily identified as an indie if it is perma-free.People might download it and never read it.No matter your opinion of perma-free, having a free or low-cost book to hook new readers is a fantastic marketing tool. You can quickly and easily circilate your work to millions of excited readers and any of them could fall in love with your work enough to become fans for life. It's also a good way to build your mailing list or following. Offer something for free in exchange for their email address - they can always unsubscribe later.As always, if you have any questions or need clarification please contact me. I currently have one perma-free book and one 99c book on offer and I can honestly say it works a treat. I have met so many new readers and writers through my offers, so I highly recommend it. If you would like to try either of those, the links are below for your convenience.E. Rachael Hardcastle
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