Does Free Still Work?
From author CJ Lyons:
Last time I shared my plan to launch the finale of my Shadow Ops trilogy with a free giveaway of the final book, EDGE OF SHADOWS
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. . . .
As promised, I’m now sharing my results.
First, does going FREE still work?
Depends on your goals. The first time I went free it was to reach new readers for my mainstream FBI Thriller, SNAKE SKIN since it was a break from my previous medical suspense novels.
I gave away 35,000 books in less than 24 hours, and after I told my agent and she asked me to put a price on SNAKE SKIN so we could count sales (we never include free numbers in any sales figures) it sold enough to hit the USA Today list.
That was 2011. Things have changed a lot since. In 2012, with the advent of KDP’s Select program and the availability of up to 5 free days on Amazon, I played with free, but although I gave away a ton of books, usually around 20,000 a day, I never saw the huge leap in post-free sales that I did with SNAKE SKIN.
. . . .
I placed EDGE on free by using price-matching, having it available as free on Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords then matched to free by Amazon.
It was free for two weeks and I gave away 20,000 books over that time (whereas I previously gave away 20,000 books a DAY)…so some might say that free no longer works.
. . . .
Goal #2 was to funnel new readers into the other books of the series. During the first week of EDGE’s free run sales of CHASING SHADOWS, book #1, rose 17x above baseline and during the second week stayed at 12x higher than base.
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While free gave me what I wanted this time with a book my current readers had been waiting so very long for, I’m not sure it’s a viable way to continue in the future. I’ll always still use books as Reader Appreciation Gifts, but instead of going mass-free, I’ll probably instead try to reach a more narrow target audience.
Link to the rest at No Rules, Just Write and thanks to Robert for the tip.
, Amazon will pay Passive Guy a small affiliate commission on any of your purchases. 
In digital every niche behaves differently. What works in one area, doesn’t work in another and vice versa. What works for Joe Konrath doesn’t necessarily work for me. If your readers don’t hang around forums or get Bookbub mailings, those strategies won’t work. If you are a brand name with an adult readership base, it’s a different situation than being a brand name in a narrow middle reader niche.
I hear a lot of writers complaining about lower review scores after a free run. I suppose folks are more likely to download a title that doesn’t conform to their reading habits if it’s free. Someone who likes romances with sensitive werewolves might be pretty harsh with your hard Sci Fi title…
Anecdotally, neearly every review that’s been lower than three stars my books have received have been within weeks of a free promotion.
I think there’s a psychological price correlation, though. It’s been demonstrated that people who pay more for wine think it tastes better (and vice versa). I think that’s also why the ebook price discussion is so worthwhile to have; psychologically, do readers see a $2.99 title and subconsciously think it’s somehow lesser than a $9.99 title?
I think even if so, that will change as ebook prices continue to fall.
Almost everyone who has done a freebie has gotten a 1 star review that goes something like “Worst book I ever read, yeah, it was free but I should be paid for the time I wasted.”
I’ve been spared that, thankfully, but the book of mine that’s benefited most from free promos has “only” given away about 15,000 copies over the last year. My mind still boggles at the people who give that many away in less than a day.
Still, I suppose it’s an inevitable risk we all have to take. And although 1-stars like that are annoying, at least the reviewer makes it clear (hopefully) that it’s not the book that was bad – it was that it wasn’t what they were expecting.
Of course, I personally never think that should result in a 1-star review…
Over a weekend, my friend gave away about 40,000 copies with the help of Bookbub.
That is absolutely stunning. Would be better if those people would pay even a dollar each though. Hee hee.
I did a $0.99 sale on the same book two weeks ago through Bookgorilla, which is similar to bookbub (I think the circulation is smaller, but they are MUCH cheaper and less exclusive – Bookbub only lists a handful of titles a day). Sadly the email was sent several hours later than normal, but even then, I only got a few dozen sales, nowhere near enough to pay back the $50 fee.
I’ll definitely use them again, even for a sale vs. giveaway, but I’d like more numbers as to what people experience using distribution lists and free downloads vs. sales.
Yeah, apparently one free story drove a reader to drink. Sad.
Almost every book gets a 1 star review eventually, anyway, so I’m not going to worry about my 1 1-star review when I have 60+ people who reviewed my book and gave it 4 or 5 star reviews after I gave the book away free. Plus, I’ve now sold 26,000+ books in that series since April, (there are three more out) which is almost solely due to going perma free with the first one, so I think it depends on what your goals are when you go free. No, you probably won’t see a huge rebound in sales after the free days anymore, but if you’re trying to introduce your series to new readers, you might do quite well from it. It’s all kind of a gamble, so you have to figure out what’s right for you and what you want to accomplish.
I feel the same way.
A lot of the people that talk about the necessity of higher prices and visibility were already visible somehow when they started self-publishing. Either they had trad pub books, they had some sort of public presence, or they were popular bloggers. Most of them haven’t been the total unknown, and I didn’t find much visibility until I made a book free. I didn’t have the huge downloads at a time even with KDPS, before the changes, but it’s been very steady, and I now sell more of just the second book than I did of both when neither was free.
My other pen name does fine, but it’s exclusive to KDPS, and in a genre conducive to it.
It is a trade-off, but could be one that works.
That’s really the best attitude to have. Low ratings are hard, but everyone gets at least one at some point. Even classics are hated by someone.
I know 2 things: I didn’t receive anything lower than 3 stars for 3-4 years EXCEPT on the one permanently free novella I have out and those I offered as temporarily free, until I tried out Select and used free days last year. Even then, I haven’t received anything less than a 3 star on Amazon, but Goodreads is a different story for my “occasionally” free titles and the permanently free one.
Even so, 3 stars and up tends to outweigh 1/2 stars (and I adhere to the “not everyone’s going to like my books” school of thought).
The 2nd thing is that free, personally, has never been the awesome promotional tool so many others find it. I’ve given away thousands of copies of 5-6 different titles, and my sales would make everyone laugh. =)
Yeah, it’s been pretty random for me even though I’ve given away a lot. Perhaps there is a stink in the market of free. Still, even good reviews might not work for me (even less of a bounce than when it’s unknown). Gotta keep trying new things though…
For me, perma-free for the first book in a series still works very well. I write science fiction and fantasy.
For me, there is a big difference between 2011/2012 and now. Back then 2,000+ books downloaded for free was the norm. Today 300- is the norm. We may have hit saturation. Most people stuffed their Kindle with free books, and will read their freebies whenever, while the paid eBook will be read immediately. As far as getting poor reviews from freebies I have not seen that. The lowest rating on any book was 3 stars on Amazon. Goodreads is another matter. I got a 1 star, and the reader said she enjoyed and liked the book. But ratings don’t bother me that much, even if the freebie ratings are lower. I guess you appreciate something more when you pay for it.
Back to the freebee strategy. I’m sure everyone was offered a freebie somewhere. Go to Costco for example: they give you a taste, but not the whole package. Many people taste, few buy. I, like many others, gave the whole package away, hoping that those people will come back for other of my products (books.) It doesn’t work. What seems to work, and I’m still in an experimental mode, is a very good short story, followed by more similar stuff. Also as Barbara mentioned above it depends on the genre. I’ve written so far in four genres, YA, Non-fiction, Sci-Fi, and Vampire. Surprisingly the non-fiction and the Vampire short story are doing very well. There may be some other variables at play here, but here is my assessment. The non-fiction does not have a sequel (I escaped only once from communism) so that’s it, and yet the freebies are pulling sales in. The Vampire is a complete surprise. I wrote the Vampire short story on a whim when I got stuck on another short story. Then after I published the Vampire short story, it became the highest freebie downloaded and it pulls more sales than any of my books. Yes, I’m writing the sequel, Vlad V R.I.P, and I’m really curious if it will pay dividends. Results expected by September.
There is a lesson in what I said above:
-Don’t give the whole book away, because most, 99.9%, of people will not read it or come back for more.
-It’s OK to give a free taste, a short story, with follow on sequels. However, the short story must be very good and complete. In my case cliffhangers and first few chapters offered for free as teasers p*** me off and I don’t buy the rest, even if the story is well written and intriguing. Follow Hugh Howey’s example for Wool. The first story was free and complete, and there was more of the book for a fee. I read the freebie, I liked it, and I bought the rest of it.
-There is an advantage about the short stories. They can be written quickly, and different genres can be tested.
He may have a point with targeted giveaways. Best to award the ones who are fans to begin with. But one needs to get a base first, don’t they?
C.J. Lyons is a woman. Can’t tell from her name, I know.