Free: What’s In It For Me?

By downloading the first installment in The Prince’s Slave, free today on Kindle, you are:

Helping me gain exposure.  Free books are ranked just like their non-free counterparts.  A high ranking means that more people will be aware of my book, and of me as an author.  People who otherwise never would have known that it–or I–existed.
Helping me gain reviews.  Whether a book is free, or costs three dollars or ten, people are much more likely to give it a chance if it already has some (hopefully positive) reviews.  And while you can’t control the reviewing process, save by writing a good book and hoping that people will like it, you can hedge your bets about actually getting reviews, of any kind, by making your book more accessible.  So when you download my book, and then maybe tell other people about it, and they download my book, or they see my ranking and download my book, each time you’re upping the odds that someone–not necessarily you but someone–will review it.
Potentially buying the next book in the series.   The Prince’s Slave is divided into three parts.  I don’t want anyone buying my books who doesn’t want to read them.  That leads to disappointment for you and bad reviews for me.  Rather, I want you to feel like you’re getting good value for your dollar–like I do, when I go shopping.
Potentially giving one of my other books, or series, a shot.
Helping me to understand my readership, and to gauge interest in–my contribution to–this genre.  There are some books, I’ve discovered, that you just can’t give away.  Literally.   I Look Like This Because I’m A Writer is by far my worst-selling book, having sold maybe a hundred copies total to the thousands I’ve sold of The Demon of Darkling Reach .  The last time I made TDODR free, I parted with almost 600 copies in the first hour.   ILLT , on the other hand…I’ve learned, among other things, that I should devote my writing energy to more romance, paranormal, historical, and otherwise than to nonfiction memoirs of the craft.  At least right now.  Which, again, has been useful.

So there you have it, folks.  Don’t feel guilty!  Help a girl out, and download.