Noisetrade

For any of you who don’t know about Noisetrade, this is where you can find it. Noisetrade is a site where artists (musical and authors) can give away selected work in return for contact information – an email address and postal code.

I like the look and idea of Noisetrade. I figure, if I’m going to give something away, I might as well get something in return – a new newsletter subscriber.

Noisetrade also allows readers to leave tips. I never expected tips, but a couple of readers actually left me some, which was quite sweet and heartwarming.

This is my Noisetrade page. As you can see, it provides quite a bit of information about me, with links to my site, etc.

So, do I recommend Noisetrade to other authors?

Yes and no (you knew it wouldn’t be a simple answer, right?).

Yes, I think there’s no reason not to put free material on Noisetrade. The format is nice, it makes you look professional. It’s easy to use, you might get a tip or two, and you will get contact information of people who download your work.

It’s one more tool, that doesn’t cost you anything, and I don’t see any harm in it.

Now for the no.

No, I wouldn’t pay for Noisetrade promotions. This is my personal opinion. When I first put my work up on Noisetrade, they contacted me and asked if I’d like placement in their newsletter. I only had very short, deleted chapters from Appaloosa Summer up there, and they were asking much more than I wanted to spend, so it was quick and easy to say “no thanks.”

Then, I uploaded Hide & Seek, and, not long after that, I was contacted again (note: I’m not sure how many authors get contacted re: being in the newsletters. I think a big part of why they reached out to me is because my covers – IMHO – look good. Their newsletters are visually appealing, and I think they want professional-looking books featured in them).

The second time Noisetrade contacted me, I felt like I had a more substantial offering (10,000-word short story) and they were offering me a significantly reduced rate. It was low enough that I could write it off and not worry about it.

So, I said yes.

It was great. It was a fun ride. The newsletter looked good. My downloads spiked. I got into the “most popular” romance, and children’s lists and was beside authors like Sophie Kinsella. It was a laugh.

Of course, I also got a lot of contact emails.

I dutifully entered them into my email / newsletter service (MailChimp), and sent out a newsletter.

LOTS of unsubscribes. In fairness, I guess it wasn’t that many – less than ten per cent of those who signed up – but I’m not used to having ANY unsubsribes – so it felt like a lot to me …

Which is no surprise – right? I mean, there are definitely going to be people who just go to a service like Noisetrade, and plunk their email address in to get something for free, and then have no intention of engaging with / following the artist.

I’m OK with that. Once. My problem is that the same people can come back if I put something else on Noisetrade and take it again, and put their email address down, and we’re back on the same roller coaster.

I know I should just shrug this off. It’s the cost of doing business. Who cares? I’m not that uptight about people getting my work for free – in fact I willingly give it away fairly often. It’s just that something about this bugs me.

I told Noisetrade I’d like to have a personal block list, so if somebody does the above, I can then block them from downloading further free items from me.

But I can’t. So … it leaves me a little less engaged with Noisetrade. I’ll still use it, and put my stuff up there, but I don’t feel inclined to pay for another promotion.

So, overall – use Noisetrade? I’ll continue to. Pay for Noisetrade promotions? I won’t again.

That’s my experience … anyone else have experience as a user or artist? Let me know!