Overlap between readers of freebies and readers who buy

[Karen]

I've been working on a free story set in the same afterlife as Wander Home. I'm also planning to make my previous novel, Twin-Bred, free wherever I can once the sequel comes out this spring, in a new edition including the beginning of the sequel's first chapter. The idea was to lure readers from the freebies to the still-cheap-as-dirt :-) ebooks. I'm wondering, though: do more than a tiny percentage of those who download free books spend any money, ever, to buy books? Thoughts, experiences?

[Rob]

They actually do, I think. The advantage of the free sale is to get people in the door and to drive word of mouth recommendations. What you really want is for one person to read it for free, and then tell their friends "This was so good I feel bad not paying for it, you should buy a copy!"

They do happen, but not always quickly, not consistantly, and not always with all demographics. I did a free weekend during Comic*con last year and gave away hundreds of free eBooks. Very very few translated to actual sales when it was all over.

On the other hand, my wife reads nonstop and mixes free books, bought books and library books.

[Pati]

I mix free and purchased all the time. As of right now I've got well over 20,000 books in my Amazon account. Though I've never sat down and figured the math of it I would guess that for every 1 book that I get free I purchase between 5-10 more. It drives my hubby nuts! Everytime I tell him that I've bought more books he reminds of all the ones that I already own. LOL! Last Friday for instance, I got 2 or 3 free books and ended up purchasing on sale from the publisher 11 more and also purchased 2 from Amazon. :-)

[Rachel]

In many respects it doesn't really matter if the freebie readers ever buy books (though I suspect most of them do.) The purpose behind most give-aways is to get more exposure and hopefully a few reviews. Amazon, in particular, sorts books by downloads. If you can increase your downloads, even temporarily, that increases your visibility to paying customers.

[Rob]

Well, sorta, they also separate out Freebies vs Paid in their rankings. Getting into the top 10 for free is nice but once your promotion is over you can easily fall back into obscurity.

[David P]

Karen wrote: "I'm wondering, though: do more than a tiny percentage of those who download free books spend any money, ever, to buy books? Thoughts, experiences?..."

It seems to have worked for my series. I offered the first book for free through Amazon KDP Select. I gave away thousands of copies of Voyage of the Dead (as well as thousands of the 30,000 word teaser Voyage of the Dead Introductory First Look). Then, when I released my second book, Flotilla of the Dead, in April I noticed that it quickly passed the first book in paid sales. Quite a few reviews, here and on Amazon, describe getting the first book for free and going on to buy the sequel too.

I also noticed another trend following release of the third book,Deluge of the Dead, in December. I noticed that by selling a thousand copies of the third book to existing fans (many of them hooked by the initial freebies) I also reKindled demand for the first two books and drove all three back onto the charts. I think that when people saw the 3rd book selling like hot cakes it caused them to go back and buy the first two as well.

I don't recommend offering freebies of sequels though. I just use them for the first book in my series. If they like it, many readers WILL go on to buy the rest of the books. I also doubt the effectiveness of freebies to promote stand-alone works. Freebies seem to work best as a hook for a series (or to build a fan base for an author with numerous books in the same genre). At least that is my limited experience over the past 14 months as a newbie indie.


Hope that helps. Good luck!

[John]

KDP is not the only game in town, BTW.

Another good strategy is to offer the FIRST book in a series on a permanently free basis, through Smashwords, Lulu, iBooks, and Kobo. Amazon may match it for "free," or they may not.

Either way, for a newly-published author (with a decent catalog) it is a slick way to get readers "hooked" on your work.

In the example below, Amazon did NOT match:


https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/cat-...

In the example below, I offer the SECOND book free . . . go figure. (Amazon DID match).


https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/essa...

[Lynxie]

I am a mix too. I am more likely to take a risk on an author I don't know if they have a free book, or provide me with a copy. From there, if I like their style, I am happy to buy their books. That being said, I still do buy books from unknown authors, but the premise has to sound AWESOME!!