Free Friday – Aftermath & Observations

People don’t appreciate  free things.

This is obviously not universally true, but it’s something I observed when I worked with my husband in his bar. Sometimes, we’d buy a customer a drink. Yes, there are customers who appreciate it – including several I’m still friends with, five years and three thousand kilometers away. But in most cases they secretly believe they deserve that drink, maybe for all their previous patronage. They think maybe the regular price is inflated – it must be, if you can afford to give drinks away free. A few rounds go by and they wonder where their next free drink is. They expect it, feel ripped off if you don’t buy them another one.

Many people seem to intrinsically believe that whatever the price, you get what you pay for.

So it’s been interesting watching the reader reviews come in after Nook’s recent Free Friday promotion.

Before this promotion, Dead Politician Society had 6 reader reviews on Barnes & Noble. Now it’s over 250 and climbing each day.

Some of these are scathing. Lots of 1-star reviews complaining about the foul language and overt sexual content. (Amusing to me, since there’s no sex on screen whatsoever.) One person complained because there are two lesbian characters. (A review I liked a lot, because it felt like an advertisement for the open-minded reader to interpret as they like.) Several 1- and 2-star reviews saying “you get what you pay for,” then going on to make statements about the weak writing and flat characters and no wonder the book was free.

Several 3-star reviews came in, saying it was a fun, quick read – some were keen to follow the series, others less so. These felt fair – no book is going to be a hit for every reader. There were some interesting comments that I can take as suggestions for future writing – like the fact that Clare is never in real peril was a drawback for a few readers, so I’m playing around with creating more tension in the current book in the series.

But in the midst of the rubble, Clare gained some real new fans. Some 4-star and 5-star reviews from readers who were

stoked to follow Clare into Death Plays Poker. (As was evidenced by the dramatic jump in Nook sales for Death Plays Poker, which continues even now.) I got fan mail from strangers – I checked; they’re not related to me – telling me they were up all night because they couldn’t put the book(s) down.

That felt amazing – it’s the kind of feedback that fuels creativity, eggs me on in the middle of the night when I’m wondering why I’m even bothering.

So I’m glad to have weathered the negativity (as much as it can batter you around on days when you’re not feeling strong enough). Because ultimately, book promotion is about sending your book out in to the world and hoping it makes the connections it’s meant to, with readers who get it, who love it and want more.

I appreciate Nook – even though they ran this promotion for free, ha ha. I got way more than I paid for.