And you know what that means :). Garage sales and bargain hunting.
I'm a total sucker for garage sales, especially for that bin full of mismatched, weird, misfit Free Stuff. You know the one I'm talking about. The one off to one side with the huge cardboard sign next to it that says FREE, but it might as well say "Oh, Dear God, please take this Billy the Big Mouth Bass out of my life forever."
Finding free stuff is like treasure hunting, and one freebie I've recently loved hunting for is free books. Apparently, this is now a viable marketing strategy, among the Big 6 selling e-books as well as indie authors.
The difference is, this isn't a junk box--this is like you went to a fancy estate sale in the rich people neighborhood and found a box full of free fabrige eggs and fist-sized rubies.
This is the best Freebie Box ever.
From watching other people's success with making one of their books free to give readers a chance to discover them, I'm doing an experiment.
I just made NO REST FOR THE WICKED free, and I'm going to keep it that way for at least a month.
I have no idea what this will do, but I'm fascinated to see the results. The way I see it, a few things can happen:
a) People download No Rest for the Wicked from Smashwords for free. They dig it, and they purchase the next in the series, Carnivore. Hooray! I do a happy dance.
b) No one downloads No Rest for the Wicked for free. I feel like the shy kid with acne at the middle school dance. I consume chocolate.
c) Some people download it, hate it, then find me and throw rocks at my house.
I'm hoping it's option a, but we'll see! I'll let you know how the experiement goes along the way :).
My question for you is: How has a freebie affected you as a reader? Is it like the awesome Fantasy Garage Sale bin? Or are you indifferent?
5 comments:
Lol. I predict great success for you.
Just get out there and promote the fool out of your Free Stuff. I hand out copies of stuff like candy and it has worked out "better than expected".
In fact, I'm gonna share the love. I'll twitter this and put it up on my blog for ya, cause I REALLY enjoyed Legacy of the Empress!
I wanted to read Carnivore but haven't checked out Wicked and I would have felt bad. But now I don't have to feel bad at all!
I typically only go for freebies if I was already leaning toward making a purchase, since I have so many books on my plate (is that an appropriate idiom?).
C sounds like too much trouble anyway. I hope it works out for you! The uh, the good result.
Matt: Aw, dude! Thank you SO much :D. I really appreciate the fact that you believe in me.
Michael: Problem solved, friend ;). I get that about the freebies for stuff that you were already eye-balling. I hope you enjoy Wicked!
hey Rebecca I just got a kindle app for my tablet and started buying a few short stories I found yours and was surprised at it being free I've read the 2 first stories and was going to skip reading the excerpt and just look for the full version I've found it and it's only 99. Cents so I have to know are you working on a novel for this series or are you gonna keep it as a collection of short stories?but I think having free books or cheap books is a easy way to get your work out there and reading the shorts make you want to read more of your work once I'm done with Carnivore I'll probably be addicted to Valerie world and I always buy every book/audiobook in a series that I'm into so keep writing I'll support you sorry this is so long last thing do you have facebook?
just notice I called Veronica Valerie sorry about that I'm ejoyin Carnivore so far
Post a Comment