The Cost of Free: A Few Notes on Cheap/Free Online Publications
One of my friends recently directed me to an author rant bemoaning the devastating effect free books had on her own profit margins and claiming that they were hurting her business. Really? I'm not going to name names because gossip is not very polite. (Google is more into that sort of thing than I am.) Chronic foot-in-mouth-disease is not the topic of the day, however. No. Today, I'm going to talk about why cheap and free is actually a very good thing--particularly in the here and now, in the age of social networking.
I feel quite strongly about this because I started out on fictionpress.com, where I posted for several years. I wrote for free, because it was a free site, and really, it's a good thing I did because looking back on what I wrote as a teenager I think I would feel really guilty if people actually paid money for what I wrote. It wasn't bad, mind, but it was clearly written by a teenager.
And you know what? I didn't care I wasn't making money. Granted, I was in high school at the time so making my own livelihood wasn't an issue. But the thrill of knowing that people were actually reading my--yes, MY--books was infinitely more valuable. Even better was the fact that, because my stuff was free, people were more willing to branch out and try my atypical plots. And some of them liked it! And became fans! And gave me really good writing advice!
For free!
I ended up leaving the site because of the massive plagiarism attacks. People seem to be under the impression that if you post your work for free you must not care about it, and that it's fair game. I blame this attitude on people who tote the idea that the only good books you can find out there are the ones that cost money. I can think of about ten books offhand written by indie authors that are currently available for $3 or less (some are even free) on kindle that are 10x better than that erotica novel that shall not be named, but rhymes with thrifty even though the price of it now is anything but. And that book initially started off free, too.
Free books are good because they make more people read your books. Yes, it's nice to get money for your writing, but I think what a lot of people fail to take into account is the fact that retail-priced books are expensive, and with the economy being as crap as it is, a lot of people don't have the money to spend on them. But cheap books, and free books? You're making your stuff accessible to more people, and therefore opening the gates to more reviews and publicity. I think people underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. That's how Twilight and certain other over-hyped books became so famous. And that's also how so many writers ended up on thousands of blacklists within the last two years. Word spreads fast.
Now that I do hope to make a career out of writing, my books are no longer free (although I am more than willing to post the odd teaser for occasional promotions--wink wink). But that doesn't mean that I'm against the idea of free books, or that I'm going to charge $7.99 for an ebook that hasn't had any professional editing (seriously, who does that?), or that I'm going to be screaming mad if a group of friends pools their money to buy ONE copy of my book so they can all take turns reading it. In fact, I'm down with that idea. Yay for people reading my books! The more the merrier--especially if they all write reviews, or come find me on GR, or tell their friends about my books.
People love free stuff. That's not going to change. Ever. It makes us super happy, and that means people are going to be in a better frame of mind to read your book. I'm certainly more judgmental about books I've paid good money for than books I've gotten for a buck, or for free. That's why I enabled lending for the kindle editions of my books, and signed up for the package where plus users can check out my book for free as part of their one-free-book/month perk. No, you can't get rich off free, but you can get famous off free.
Plus, starting out free really makes you take into consideration what makes a writer worthy of spent money. A lot of my old fans purchased my books, and in anticipation of this I spent a lot of time revising and making my books new, because I didn't want readers to feel like they were paying money to read the exact same story they already read for free. I added new scenes, tweaked character development, made back stories more complicated, and really upped the amp in terms of quality. My books are still a long ways from perfect, but I think they are worth the $2-3 dollars I've set them as. More importantly, my readers seem to think so, too.
I finally feel like I'm on my way to fulfilling my dream of being a published writer--and it's all thanks to free.
I feel quite strongly about this because I started out on fictionpress.com, where I posted for several years. I wrote for free, because it was a free site, and really, it's a good thing I did because looking back on what I wrote as a teenager I think I would feel really guilty if people actually paid money for what I wrote. It wasn't bad, mind, but it was clearly written by a teenager.
And you know what? I didn't care I wasn't making money. Granted, I was in high school at the time so making my own livelihood wasn't an issue. But the thrill of knowing that people were actually reading my--yes, MY--books was infinitely more valuable. Even better was the fact that, because my stuff was free, people were more willing to branch out and try my atypical plots. And some of them liked it! And became fans! And gave me really good writing advice!
For free!
I ended up leaving the site because of the massive plagiarism attacks. People seem to be under the impression that if you post your work for free you must not care about it, and that it's fair game. I blame this attitude on people who tote the idea that the only good books you can find out there are the ones that cost money. I can think of about ten books offhand written by indie authors that are currently available for $3 or less (some are even free) on kindle that are 10x better than that erotica novel that shall not be named, but rhymes with thrifty even though the price of it now is anything but. And that book initially started off free, too.
Free books are good because they make more people read your books. Yes, it's nice to get money for your writing, but I think what a lot of people fail to take into account is the fact that retail-priced books are expensive, and with the economy being as crap as it is, a lot of people don't have the money to spend on them. But cheap books, and free books? You're making your stuff accessible to more people, and therefore opening the gates to more reviews and publicity. I think people underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. That's how Twilight and certain other over-hyped books became so famous. And that's also how so many writers ended up on thousands of blacklists within the last two years. Word spreads fast.
Now that I do hope to make a career out of writing, my books are no longer free (although I am more than willing to post the odd teaser for occasional promotions--wink wink). But that doesn't mean that I'm against the idea of free books, or that I'm going to charge $7.99 for an ebook that hasn't had any professional editing (seriously, who does that?), or that I'm going to be screaming mad if a group of friends pools their money to buy ONE copy of my book so they can all take turns reading it. In fact, I'm down with that idea. Yay for people reading my books! The more the merrier--especially if they all write reviews, or come find me on GR, or tell their friends about my books.
People love free stuff. That's not going to change. Ever. It makes us super happy, and that means people are going to be in a better frame of mind to read your book. I'm certainly more judgmental about books I've paid good money for than books I've gotten for a buck, or for free. That's why I enabled lending for the kindle editions of my books, and signed up for the package where plus users can check out my book for free as part of their one-free-book/month perk. No, you can't get rich off free, but you can get famous off free.
Plus, starting out free really makes you take into consideration what makes a writer worthy of spent money. A lot of my old fans purchased my books, and in anticipation of this I spent a lot of time revising and making my books new, because I didn't want readers to feel like they were paying money to read the exact same story they already read for free. I added new scenes, tweaked character development, made back stories more complicated, and really upped the amp in terms of quality. My books are still a long ways from perfect, but I think they are worth the $2-3 dollars I've set them as. More importantly, my readers seem to think so, too.
I finally feel like I'm on my way to fulfilling my dream of being a published writer--and it's all thanks to free.
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