Here I Sit …
… saving a redundancy quiz post for another day while I discuss a practice that has the potential to affect every writer.
It Happens All the Time
Many writers give away digital versions of their books, in the hope that readers will write reviews and/or buy other books they’ve written.
Is this a good idea?
I’m a Writer, but I’m Also a Bookworm
As I scroll through social media pages looking for books and interesting content, I often encounter phrases like:
- free for Kindle
- free e-book
- free for a limited time
If a book looks interesting, I’ll click on its link, especially if I’m familiar with the author’s writing.
The Way It Used to Be in the Old Days
I would tell myself: The book is free. Why not download it? Someday I’ll get around to reading it.
And my Kindle would devour yet another book destined to become lost among the expanding pile of digital dust.
Remember the meme about buying so many books you’d have to be immortal to read them all? Most e-readers can store thousands of digital publications.
But The Old Days Are Gone
Nowadays, I’m pickier. I peek at the first few pages of each book online. If it’s full of typos or doesn’t grab my interest, I ignore it. After all, I already have hundreds of unread stories.
And I’m not immortal.
That Isn’t Enough, Though
Even with my pickiness, the titles are mushrooming.
Recently I created a text file that prioritizes the books I definitesolutely must read.
The text file has grown … and grown … and grown …
And I haven’t spent any money on new books.
That Means I’m Not Supporting Indie Authors
Which leads me to the reason behind this post.
The glut of free books available has affected book sales for all indies. Have you noticed that your income has shrunk over the last couple of years? Why would readers want to buy your books when so many are free on reputable bookseller sites?
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
And Don’t Get Me Started On Bootleggers
Oops. Too late.
I’ve often seen my books, usually in PDF format, on pirate sites. Readers have written excellent reviews that provide zero benefit to me. And as soon as the sites disappear, so do the reviews.
If you’re interested in seeing how many of your books have been stolen, set up a Google Alert to track your name and/or the names of your books. If you wish, you can report bootlegged content via a Google DMCA Takedown notice.
I warn you, though, as soon as you get one site removed, another will pop up. Or several other sites. The situation is more frustrating than an unwinnable game of Whac-A-Mole.
See also: Great Ways for Writers to Get More out of Google.
Another Hurdle: AI Is Stealing Our Intellectual Property
Every day, new commercials tout the benefits of generative AI.
Research.ibm.com says, “Generative AI refers to deep-learning models that can generate high-quality text, images, and other content based on the data they were trained on.”
Data they were trained on: the blood, sweat, and tears of writers, artists, and other creatives.
Where does it all end?
If Your Book is Free …
… it can be downloaded, converted, copied, featured on pirate sites, plagiarized, and gobbled by artificial intelligence.
Yes, this also happens with books that scammers must pay for. However, the easier you make it for someone to download your book at no cost to them, the easier you make it for them to threaten your income. The paid books can often be returned to sellers within a specified time, but it doesn’t take long for anyone to decrypt and copy any e-book before asking for a refund.
Why Should You Offer Complimentary Copies of Your Work?
Would you donate your car or television to a stranger you met at the shopping mall? Offer a second hand store your living room furniture free? Work for two years on an invention and then give it away?
Will a restaurant gift you with a gourmet meal in exchange for a possible review? Ditto for an electronics store offering a complimentary game controller? Or a clothing store gifting a tuxedo?
Probably not. Unless you’re a social media influencer.
Restaurants and retailers have to pay for materials, stock, and staff. If they gave away their products, they’d go bankrupt.
Traditional publishers never offer free books.
So why would you?
The Writer’s Lexicon series
and additional resources on my Facebook page.
Discover more from KathySteinemann.com: Free Resources for Writers
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I absolutely and totally agree with you. I refuse to give my work away and 99c is the lowest I will go for a promotion.
I did try a free promo, just once, and although over 1100 people downloaded the book, it didn’t translate into much in the way of sales of further books in the series, just about breaking even, whereas my 99c promos always have excellent readthrough and consequently, profit.
I know for myself, my Kindle is packed with free books I will probably never read, although a tiny handful have tempted me enough to read and purchase further volumes in series. Some people might feel that justifies the tactic, but I disagree – if I really like the look of a book I see in a sale, I will pay for it, it doesn’t have to be free.
We are SO on the same page, Deborah. Until recently, I shared free books of other authors on social media. After hearing the opinions of several writers, spending some time researching, and looking at my own results, I’ve stopped doing that.
Writing is hard work. Writers deserve to be paid.
If I believed it would work, or work for indie mainstream fiction, I might offer the first book in the Pride’s Children trilogy for free, hoping readers who like it might buy the second (while I’m writing the third).
But it just doesn’t make sense. They take 11-12 hours to read, and I don’t need them languishing on the ereaders of people who are never going to open them, and wouldn’t buy the next book in a trilogy (single story and characters) for actual cash, anyway.
Instead, go to my websites (one mine, one for the books), read a page or two, and you’ll probably find my offer of electronic ARCs for anyone who will CONSIDER writing a review (I don’t nag, as many of my potential readers also have trouble writing – they suffer from the same misunderstood disease as one of the main characters, ME/CFS, and have no energy).
So, if you’re intrigued – you don’t have to pay for it until you want to purchase the next.
I’ve considered a money-back (actually royalties-back) offer: if you don’t like it, write to me and explain why and send me a copy of your receipt or equivalent, and I’ll cheerfully refund my royalty share of the price. That would at least require some engagement with the books, which are 167K and 182K, and I might learn something in exchange.
I’m not sure that would work – and it might not be feasible for long, but at least it would be honest.
The realities of indie have changed since the days when Darci Chan offered her Mill River Recluse for $0.99 and sold 200K copies. I don’t think that turned out well, but I did read the first one, and I believe the other two which she got a traditional publisher for (mostly because I wanted to see if her strategy worked well for her). It wasn’t a strategy I could use, so I didn’t follow it further, and they weren’t my kind of book. I believe the traditionally-published ones didn’t sell nearly as well at their regular price, and I haven’t seen more books from her.
I definitely need a special strategy – PC is mainstream fiction and has done very well WHEN I can persuade someone to read – but my marketing so far is dismal, and I have zero energy while I’m writing.
Strategies such as a GR giveaway misfired badly because people who didn’t even read the description put their names in the hat and gave it my few really bad reviews, I’m guessing when they discovered they had NOT received a Romance. Which said description deliberately didn’t offer – but explains the reviews. I learned from that.
I’ll need to figure out how to compete with literally millions of books, many miscategorized as ‘mainstream’ or ‘literary’, many free, just to be noticed. It’s daunting.
And competition is burgeoning, Alicia, as the number of people who believe they can write a book decide to offer it free. That’s rapidly shrinking the pool of readers who are willing to pay for books by indies, because a huge percentage of indie books are, to put it politely, subpar. That same pool of readers will pay for a Stephen King or J. K. Rowling book, though, because the authors have established a certain expectation of excellence.
The world is changing, and not necessarily for the better.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your astute observations.
You make some valid points, here.
I’m not independently published. I’m published by a small publisher. They have decided to make the first book in a series free in the hope it will drive sales of subsequent books. It does to some extent.
But I have little choice in the matter.
Thanks, Vivienne.
It’s great to have a choice, but it’s also nice to have a publisher.
All the free books make it difficult to sell anything nowadays. Why pay for honey when you can get it free?
I agree wholeheartedly Kathy. Although as yet unpublished, I feel so much is expected of authors with such little reward for the long hours of research and blood, sweat and tears of getting that novel finished.
I often wonder if it is worth it. However, the passion is there to write and tell that story, the rest is in the hands of the gods’
Thank you for giving us the motivation to keep going.
Anita
Thanks, Anita.
The sad truth is that whenever an author offers a book at no charge, it affects every other author.
Good luck with your writing. Creativity rules!