A Picture of a eBook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ve been running into these articles of late – two so far – about authors disliking this trend of free ebooks. Their concerns seem justified to my amateur ears. Other authors agree with them of course and chime in. How about a reader’s opinion on the dearth of free ebooks out there? How do we feel about it? I’ll start. First, I think free ebooks as a promotional tool to introduce readers to new writers is a great idea. Second, I don’t think every book should be priced free – new writer or not. If it’s good the book will sell but finding those readers is the problem and goes beyond the scope of my short article. Last, I’m not always drawn to free ebooks and don’t feel the need to download them every time they are offered to me by new writers especially. However, I know some readers who do want free ebooks. If it’s free they are downloading it. Whether they read it or not is another thing entirely though. With the economy the way that it is, books are a “want” not a “need.”
In the digital age, everyone seems to be an author these days and have something to say and offer it for free. Sorry authors but that’s your competition for the short attention span of readers. The takeaway I get from the articles is that there’s no financial benefit to offering free ebooks to readers even if it’s for the purpose of discovery. I’ve always been told that no author likes to stay in obscurity hence the dilemma to game the system. I would think the free promotion would serve to find your readership. Once you do that then you can up the price. But your colleagues who are gaming the system just so they can be on the Amazon top 100 list are your biggest problem not the readers. BTW, I hardly look at that list.
Thus the takeaway is that these authors don’t like the trend of selling their books for free. Simple answer to that is then don’t. If your work is good and you are offering a quality product then by all means put a price on it. If it’s good then readers will buy it. If it’s not then they won’t. I really don’t have much patience for writers who complain about this practice yet take part in it. Of course Amazon is the bad guy at the end of it all:
The big winner in this free to low-price market is Amazon. Its ability to showcase a truckload of bargains under one roof is driving readers away from traditional book stores straight into their clutches. It might only be a matter of time before this migration becomes a monopoly!
I will be mean and say that some books should stay hidden from readers… forever. I’ve been reading for nearly 20+ years and am more jaded/cynical than most. My thoughts are probably not the norm either. Free means nothing to this reader unless it’s coming from someone I already read and enjoy or by word of mouth.
I went a bit bananas the first six months I had a Kindle downloading free stuff when I saw the promotions pop up in my Twitter feed, but, frankly, I haven’t dug through much of the free stuff to try it out. I know I could sample the first chapter via Amazon too, but browsing at a library or bookstore feels better to me.
I used to love browsing at the bookstore but haven’t done it much lately. Thanks Rebecca!
Good points. Maximizing income is not the only consideration for authors–we truly do want to be read, first and foremost. “Free” can be a way to meet new readers. And the genie isn’t going back int he bottle,m although I don;t see any way Amazon can ever achieve a monopoly on digital books.
Scott
Glad to hear it Scott and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Keishon, I agree completely: good books will sell and starting out free is an excellent way to garner notice. Beyond that, I don’t search for free books because my time is still worth something, to me if no one else. I admit to enjoying BN’s Free Fridays and will look at the titles SBTB and DA post, but that’s about it.
We are in total agreement as usual.
I have the beginnings of a post where I looked at the free/bargain-priced/full-priced ebooks I downloaded/bought over the past six months or so – and of these, how many I actually read.
I may dust off the post at some point, but IIRC, hardly any of the free books translated to additional purchases on my part (in fact, I hadn’t read the majority). The ones I paid for, on the other hand, I think I had (a) read more of them and (b) bought additional books.
So yes, I agree with you – free isn’t necessarily the best promo.
Li
Thanks for the feedback bookdaze and long time no “see.” I’ve lost track of you and now I have you back. Thanks for dropping by.
Yeah I’d have to say I agree with you on this one. If an author wants to give their book for free then they should go for it, but if not then they just shouldn’t. Personally I’ve had a great experience with Freebooksy (http://www.freebooksy.com) who will promote a new author’s free book as well as the author, but only if they consent of course. It’s also a great source for free e-books in general.