Free ebooks, are they harming the industry and devaluing authors?
I have been amazed at how many books I can get for free. Consider a reader who says, "I only have so much time to read and why pay for a book when I can find free ones offered daily?" This new marketing tool bothers me as an author.
I understand that some authors believe offering free books will grow their audience. After all, if customers read and enjoy their free books, they'll purchase other books from them and eventually the authors will profit. Other authors feel that when free ebooks are downloaded, it lifts their numbers and popularity, again with the hopes of greater success and profit. .
I have a hard time with this thinking. In the beginning, it seemed like an interesting idea, but with so many authors doing it now, the market has become glutted with free ebooks. I believe it cheapens the art and hurts authors who believe their skill has monetary value and, perhaps, even a livelihood.
No doubt our first responsibility to ourselves and our readers is to study our crafting and write the best book we can. Authors spend hours and hours writing, editing, proofreading, and struggling toward publication. Why devalue all that effort? Do artists give away their original paintings and prints in order to build their audience? Do songwriters give away their songs?
Perhaps, for some authors, writing is simply a much loved hobby and they want others to enjoy their creations. They have no desire make a profit on their work. Most published authors want to sell books. That's our business. Why devalue the process of writing, regardless of the reason? Do you know of any other career field that would do this?
I'd like to hear your views and if you have found that giving away free books has been a rewarding experience, please share. Perhaps you can change my opinion.
Hi Elaine. Fortunately (if you're the customer) many, many businesses give away freebies. And publishing is a business. Lawyers give a free consultation. Hair salons give away free cuts. Printers give away boxes of free business cards. On-line music sites give away free downloads. Ditto with movie sites. My gym gives free one-day passes. Restaurants give free drinks and desserts. Those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. Giving away free stuff creates a buzz and encourages people to try you and/or your product. If they like it...they will come back. This won't work with some of the arts. A painter for example. He creates a painting and that's his original. He doesn't have copies to pass around. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying, but each of the things you mention are all easily put together products or services, not a novel. Painters wouldn't give away an original, but would they give away their numbered prints? I admit that when this was first started, I saw it as a promotional tool, but now that so many authors are doing it, I can't help but wonder how many readers begin to expect they'll find a free book on line, so why buy it.
DeleteI spent two decades working in marketing so I'm going to second Jody's comment. Giving away free (or discounted) product is a very common and effective way to build up a customer list for a new business. You can substitute "reader" for customer." It costs you money, yes, but so does advertising or flying to RWA to network. It's a cost of doing business. Another marketing truism is that some people are more motivated by cost than others. So, yes, there will always be some people who want everything free. If free books go away, those people won't necessarily start paying for books. They'll go back to the library or they'll just read far fewer books. Then there are others like me. If a book doesn't interest me, I won't download it just because it's free. The marketing holy grail, of course, (for author or any business) is to get to the point where your customers are so loyal they will pay whatever you ask.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comments, Julia, and you may be right that it's a good marketing tool. I'd love to hear from authors who have given away a number of books. Have they seen that the freebies have made them more marketable, increased sales of their other books? Is it too early to tell?
DeleteIf a writer is a serious writer, Elaine, then free books are advertising tools.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is a virtual marketplace. You can't stand in a store and give out, say, free samples of cookies or candy; you can't offer a spritz of perfume to give a potential buyer a 'taste' of your product. You can't mail a 'try me' coupon to every household within a particular geographic area. You can't do what most print publishers do, which is to offer a free book to readers who buy a specific title and then send in proof of purchase. Do any of those things devalue the product being sold? I think not.
I asked lots of questions about marketing of lots of successful e-book authors when I first decided to leave my publisher of many years and take the big step into self publishing. Every one of them, and this includes best selling writers, recommended that I designate one book as a free download. It's a technique that has been very, very successful for them and now it is, as well, for me.
Offering a sample of one's work doesn't devalue it. To my way of thinking, it enhances it because it's a way of saying that you are proud enough of what you write to feel comfortable, sharing it with others. Writing may be an art but unless people discover your writing, you're kind of writing for yourself and I don't think most writers want to do only that.
I really like your last paragraph, Sandra, and I appreciate your view. I can see a multi- published author offering a free download. I still question the over abundance of freebies lately. Just not sure what its effect will be for the writing market in the long run, especially with so many new authors self publishing as well. Time will tell...
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