Regular readers of this blog might be surprised to see me write about giving an ebook away. In fact, I wrote a post a few months ago called Why I Think Giving Your Work Away Is (Mostly) A Bad Idea.
So why the change of heart, you may ask?
Actually, there’s no change of heart here. I don’t have a free ebook on Amazon, namely because they won’t let me. You see, I’m not what you’d call an “Amazon-only” author. My novels are also available on Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, and a variety of other platforms—not just the internet giant.
As I wrote in that previous article, I think giving your work away is generally not a good thing. Who else is expected to do that? If a rock musician goes into the studio and works on an album for a year, is he expected to give the thing away when it comes out? Heck, even your local plumber expects to get paid that day for his work. Why should a hard-working writer be any different?
But, okay, I get it: you write a series, and you can enroll people by luring them in with the free ebook. And Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, can get all sorts of free stuff from you, if you’re a writer. Can you say “Kindle Unlimited?”
So that’s my reasoning. And I won’t even go into the many ways Amazon punishes writers for not being Amazon-exclusive. Just one example: the company currently lists the paperback version of my novel Jana, which retails at $17.95, for under $4. Get ’em while they’re hot, folks!
Rides From Strangers
When it comes to the giveaway game, I’ve always resisted heavily, as you can understand from the examples above. And so you may wonder where my short story collection Rides From Strangers fits in.
As I put together the manuscript and paid for cover and interior design, I had a thought: maybe this slim volume of short stories wouldn’t command much of a cover price. In fact, maybe it wasn’t economically viable to pay additional costs to create a print version at all.
I still hope the day will come when it makes sense to print copies of the collection; I’d love people to be able to hold the book in their hands. But for now, I prefer to give the ebook version away—something I simply can’t do on Amazon, since I’m not exclusive to their platform.
Rides From Strangers is an eclectic collection. Some of the stories are a little scary; some are a tad vulgar; some are probably hopelessly sentimental. All reflect my own aesthetic.
And I think the best way to put it out there is to give you an incentive to get it: join the email newsletter list at no obligation to get a free copy, either in PDF or EPUB format. You’ll get news on what I’m working on, recommendations of other cool authors, and who knows: I may even give something else away.
If you decide later to unsubscribe, no harm, no foul; the ebook is still yours to enjoy.
Have a great week, and as always, thanks for reading!
