Why I Think Giving Your Work Away Is (Mostly) A Bad Idea

by | May 11, 2020 | Articles | 0 comments

Free books—who doesn’t love that idea, right?

Me. I don’t love that idea. In fact, I think it sucks.

Now, you might wonder: why, Mike, are you so against free books? I mean, don’t you want more people to read? You’re not against libraries, are you?

No, I’m not against libraries. Remember, they only loan you books. They don’t (usually) give them away.

But there are a couple reasons I truly loathe the idea of giving away my work, and why I rarely recommend doing such a thing.

 

The Newsletter Hook

Although none of my novels are what you would call perma-free, I do have one book that is. And that is a special situation.

When I put together my short story collection, Rides From Strangers, I decided to make it available for free. The difference? It’s available only to people who subscribe to my monthly email newsletter. You can’t buy it anywhere.

So, even though I recommend against giving books away, I give a book away? You may well ask, What gives, Mike? (Pun intended.)

Well, there are two factors at work here. First, I didn’t feel it was worth spending the money on printing a new short story collection when I don’t have any other short stories. It made more sense to use the free short story collection to “enroll” prospective readers, who might then buy my novels. And second, I wanted something to expand my newsletter list.

Would I do it again? Probably not. It’s a small story collection, so the price point would be low anyway. But the real problem is that, although I built my list up, I think most of those new subscribers just wanted a free book. They don’t engage with me, they drop off the newsletter list one by one, and I doubt many have bought any of my books. Free book seekers tend to seek more free books.

And that’s the reason I don’t love the idea of giving my work away. It took years to write each of my books—why would I advertise their value as zero? They are already very competitively priced.

 

But What If You Write A Series?

There is one exception where I believe it might be a good idea to offer one free book, and yes, that’s if you’ve written a series.

I’ve seen more than one author write about successfully enrolling new readers with a “teaser” freebie—that freebie being Volume One of their wonderful ten-book series.

And I totally get how it works. Sure, you take the hit giving away Volume One, but then readers are so hooked on your storytelling that they’re going to pay for Volume Two, Three, Four…

It’s a perfectly valid model, and if it works, good on you. But it’s of no use to me: my books are all standalone novels, only related to each other by virtue of the fact they all have the same author. (Sidebar: I do wonder how many people have tried this method and failed…giving away a lot of Volume One, but selling few of the rest.)

For me, I’ll continue to ask for a price for what I produce. And if someone wants to join my newsletter list, I’ll still gladly send them a free e-book of Rides From Strangers. I don’t seek those readers via a giveaway-as-promotion any longer, though. It just doesn’t seem to be the kind of reader I want.

What about you? Do you get a lot of free books, or give away many books you’ve written? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

spiritual

Do You Have An Interest in the Spiritual?

Today’s post is the second of a three-part series I’m creating on some of my personal interests. Last week, I wrote about metaphysics; this week, I’m writing about spirituality; and next week, I’ll be writing about music.Of course, the metaphysical and spiritual are...

A Vacation Blog Post and a Manross Library Appearance

The following post has been pre-scheduled. I've never tried to pre-schedule a blog post before, so I had to look up how to do it. If you know me well, you won't be surprised by that. Hey, I'm on vacation while you read this. Modern technology! I find it interesting to...

A Conversation With Literary Author Jay Lemming

Today's blog post is a little different - an interview with fellow literary novelist Jay Lemming, author of Billy Maddox Takes His Shot. I'll let the interview speak for itself, but for more on Jay, visit his website at https://jaylemming-author.com. Thanks for...
presidents

Presidents’ Day: Crappy Holiday Or The Crappiest Holiday?

“The buck stops here.” —Harry S. Truman “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” —John F. Kennedy “I don’t take any responsibility at all.” —That guy   I’m old—so old I remember when we celebrated George Washington’s...
excellence

Literary Excellence and Why Writers Need to Be Readers

Back when I first launched my company, I often used the phrase literary excellence as part of my branding. The idea was that Sahno Publishing evolved out of the notion that literary excellence is more important than a financial formula. The company entered the...

All the News

It's been crazy busy for me lately, and this blog got neglected because Monday - my normal blog post date - was the 4th of July holiday. I know, I should have worked anyway, right? Isn't that what everyone does these days? Work any day and every day? Well, the heck...
political

Navigating the Murky Waters of Political Correctness

“If you don't have a sense of humor, it just isn't funny.”  —Wavy Gravy   When it comes to political correctness, I’m not convinced we should go back to the “good old days.” I mean, do we really want to go back to calling someone born to an unwed mother a...
genre

Have You Ever Written In A New Genre?

When you don't normally write genre fiction, it can be difficult to talk to non-writer people about your work.I love the classics, and have always worked hard to create modern classics of my own. You could call them Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, or just...
impostor

New “Writer Problems” Series, Topic #3: Impostor Syndrome, aka The Self-Confidence Deficit

“The most helpful quality a writer can cultivate is self-confidence—arrogance, if you can manage it. You write to impose yourself on the world, and you have to believe in your own ability when the world shows no sign of agreeing with you.”  —Hilary Mantel  ...
maintenance

Closed For Maintenance: Me

Here comes the upfront apology for blog subscribers: I got nothing this week. It's not that I've got nothing to say. As anyone who knows me is well aware, I never, ever run out of things to say. Even my lovely wife has occasionally let me know, in relatively gentle...
self-promotion

What’s The Problem With Shameless Self-Promotion?

While I still find it somewhat hard to believe, I've been on Twitter for almost eight years. I know this not only because Twitter shows Joined March 2015 on my profile but also because, even if they eliminate that feature, I use a tracker called Who Unfollowed Me? If...
MLK

MLK Day 2023

Here’s wishing everyone a safe, sane Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For many of us, today is always something of a day of mourning: not only mourning the loss of a great civil rights leader, but also mourning the turn our great nation seemed to take in recent years....

Twitter Tips for Authors in 2023

If you follow my blog, you probably connected with me via Twitter, whether you’re a fellow author or not. In 2020, I wrote a post about Twitter for fellow writers that got a good response. Three years later, the landscape has changed, but some Twitter best practices...
rails

Going Off The Rails (But Not On A Crazy Train)

Last April, I wrote a blog post called Back on Track With a Work-In-Progress. Part of that post was to talk about the difference between a “plotter” and a “pantser” (and to describe myself as a hybrid of the two, a “plantser”). Another, less obvious motive, was to...
French

Those Tricky French Authors and Their Obsessions

Today’s blog post was originally going to be Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. III. However, after seeing parts I and II lined up, I decided to call an audible and make it something less repetitive. Somehow the SEO gods have gotten into my head. As I’ve mentioned...
scared

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. II

In last week’s post, I mentioned a pretty well-known author who has publicly reported his publisher “wouldn’t touch” a new release, in part because a character in his novel referred to herself as “fat.” I heard this story on a podcast, and I remember thinking, “Wait...
censorship

Write Whatever the @#$% You Want

I’ve been stewing on this for a while. It’s been brewing for quite a while. I could probably write a song about it (how about a rap?), but I don’t think I will. This is more of a blog post topic, and it might even deserve a series. And that’s the title and topic of...
gratitude

Should Every Month Be Gratitude Month?

When I was a kid, I loved Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. I read it daily and collected nearly every paperback volume of the cartoon, so I could see what I’d missed since the comic strip’s inception in 1950.  Certain things stuck: quotes like “happiness is a warm puppy”...
robot

More Thoughts On Robot Writers and The Tech Dystopia

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post here called When Will the Robot Overlords Replace Us? Apparently, I’m fairly obsessed with this stuff, because every time I come here and empty my brain, it seems to come up again. Today is no different. Part of the reason,...