What's your view on free E books for promotional purposes?
My thoughts are of the oxymoron variety, and please don't place too much emphasis on the moron. grin. Honestly, I've been reading them all summer. If I like the author, I leave a review and buy more. If it doesn't appeal, I just move on to the next book and author.
On the oxy side of the equation: an author bud of mine wrote an article on her blog that really gave me food for thought. She's against giving free E books. All her negative reviews have come from freebies. As she points out, if the first review you get is negative, it's the kiss of death and whatever readership might have been out there is gone.
If you are interested in reading the post, here's the link: http://sherryink.blogspot.com/2015/08/trashed-by-readers.html
On this point, I agree with Sherry. Almost all my reviews that have been less than I liked have been from free E's.
Right now a reader could probably read a new book every day for a year or more and not pay a penny. I.E. The market is saturated, not only with E books but with free E books. Even so I wonder what makes some readers prone to give out not just negative, but hurtful reviews. One of my pet peeves is people that use the excuse, I-tell-it-like-it-is to say something deliberately cruel. I just don't get it. But back on topic. Maybe when you pay for a book regardless if it's ninety-nine cents or fourteen ninety-nine, you take the time to make sure its a book you really want before you plunk down any money. On the other hand...there are a lot of freebies on the top kindle one hundred list. It's a quandary.
What do you think? Do you feel free E's have helped or hurt you?
22 comments:
I am torn about accepting free books. My bookaholic self loves it, but authors are not generally well paid.
And if I hate a book I don't review it.
methinks that when people hear some e-book is free they think it is usually a bad one which nobody wants to buy :) U know, it sounds a lil desperate
Elizabeth S. Craig offers one of her books free (from one of her series) to entice readers to try it and then buy more. She says that works well, but it's because she's offering her best book free and she has a lot of books for people to buy.
The only one of mine that is free is Dragon's Destiny, but it's not even online - just available for anyone who wants to see what happens after Dragon of the Stars ends. Plus it's just a short story. (And so far the response has been great, including a review online.)
Heading out for vacation - catch you next week, Sandra!
It's tricky. For now, I've decided not to go the free route, but I made my first book much cheaper than the second one. :-)
I don't own an e-reader; I prefer REAL paper books!
The only time I get free e-books is from Edelweiss and I'm only on Simon & Schuster's approval list. So I go in there about once a month and look to see if any new Aladdin M!x books are coming out, then download those and hold them until the book is about to come out. That's when I read and review them and post them on my blog. All of the other books I read are by bloggers and I buy those. You guys never disappoint!
Never give books away for free unless you know that person.
That is true, I've had some negative reviews from free, but also some positive ones. I find the real real nasty reviews are when someone buys it and doesn't like it, then they go all psycho on it haha but free has worked for me a bit, as I have so many. Although it doesn't work as well as it used to because there as so many free ones now. And if you look at the top 100, they are almost all in bookbub for free, that's what gets them there.
I genuinely believe they help and wish I wasn't limited to the number of days. It's particularly useful if you really want to build a brand or something of that nature to get it spreading a lot quicker and easier.
I appreciate your buying and review ethic, EC. I'm the same way on reviews. If I don't like it, I just don't leave one.
I think they help, but I can understand the point about the negative reviews. Seems like an interesting thing to look into for sure. Thanks for making me think! :)
~Jess
Good to get feedback. Thanks, Dez.
Your freebie is a labor of love not a promo.
Have all kinds of fun on vacay. We'll miss ya.
I think that's a great idea, Misha. Hope sales are going well.
I love paper. But I go for periods where all I read is off my e.
You are a wonderful person, Stephanie Faris.
Hi Blue,
I'm in agreement with the Es. I'll donate paper for conferences and charities. Contests....maybe.
PS. Good to see ya. Missed ya.
Hi, Pat.
Every one has different experiences:) Have you ever used bookbub?
Sounds like it's working for you, Robert. That's good.
Hi Jess, When is yours coming out?
I don't know as I don't deal with these things. But Tim does his Patreon account and offers things free or people can pay for them. Works nicely for him.
Post a Comment