The First One is Free

A little more than a year and a half ago (I think), I did a promotional giveaway of my book, The Art of Life, on Goodreads. Sadly, the two people who won the book never wrote reviews. Perhaps they have as extensive a shelf of "books to read" as I do -- gathering dust in the combined office/toddler bedroom.

But recently, I've been reading information about marketing self-published books and, again and again, I've seen people testifying to the power of the freebie. Not only can free copies help introduce readers to your work (possibly convincing them to buy other books), but they can also lead to sales. Some authors talk about how free promotions led to sales, but that the most important part of that equation is to do a lot of footwork prior to the event in order to get the word out about the freebie. So this time, I'm going to try to do that.

I created a Goodreads event so that I could invite my friends and created a similar event on Facebook. Other friends of mine who are authors have created similar events, which was how I got the idea.

I've also been following through on some excellent advice from writer Karina Gioertz, who said she saw a spike in sales after doing her all to promote a free promotion. I've submitted my promotion to the freebie sites she suggested (although some of them no longer exist), and I've scheduled tweets to the Twitter handles she recommends notifying about the giveaway.

In addition, I made up rack cards via Vistaprint, which I will be distributing at Philcon. I also timed the giveaway to coincide with that weekend (Friday through Tuesday, to give people time to get home from the convention and follow through).

Before November 8, I'll be scheduling a number of other tweets promoting the book, including quotes, subject matter and other interesting tidbits that could attract readers.

I'm going to continue to brainstorm for other ways to get the promotion out there as widely as possible. My goal is to give away thousands of books, in hopes that it will lead to both sales and a higher profile for me as an author.

What about you? As an author, have you held a free promotion? If so, how did it go? As a reader, what makes you want to grab a free book?