Free Books

I have mixed feelings when I look at the issue of free books, because I come to it from different angles, wearing different hats. It's very common today to find many ebooks for free, especially on amazon. Most of them are offered for a specific time period, but a few are always free. Authors and publishers use this to pull in interest for their work and to establish a fan-base.

I've been a reader longer than I've been a writer or marketer. As a reader, I appreciate getting books free. In fact, I have over 1,700 books on my Kindle, and 97% of them have been free. There are newsletters that come to my email inbox notifying me of some of these. Many of them are by well-know writers, and I've seen their books go back to $9.99 or more after a couple of days.

In trying to promote my own books, I appreciate it when my publisher runs a sale, because more people always buy my books during that time. With the historical novel I've just self-published to test the waters, I ran a 99-cent sale a few days after it came out. Of course, sales did increase. However, neither my publisher nor I have ever offered one of my books for free, and, at this time, I don't plan to. Read on to find out why.

I wonder if authors and publishers aren't devaluing their books when they offer them for free. If readers can get all the reading material they need for free, then why buy any. Believe me, I have more free books downloaded than I will ever read in two or three lifetimes. (I do still buy books in order to support fellow-writers, however.) Although I understand these giveaways are trying to increase interest in their books, maybe those who offer their books for free are decreasing their market in the long run. Perhaps readers quit buying books, since they can get so many for free. I know very well how much goes into writing and publishing a book. Surely all that is worth something. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

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