I think free ebooks should be an option. Why not? More and more writers are offering at least one free ebook. "Make a free ebook" is an increasingly common piece of advice to new bloggers or people launching a topical website.
Why? It gives people a nice big chunk of your work, so they know that you actually know what you're talking about. That's advertising. It's a great choice for anyone who writes fast enough that they can afford to give away a free sample. It's a great use for anything that's cool but is too nichey to sell easily. It's a great use for stuff that was bought and published a long time ago, since re-releasing it takes little extra work. You just include somewhere in there some information about your current work that people can BUY. Readers do get hooked this way.
People will read for free stuff that they wouldn't pay to read, which is why libraries exist in the first place. A big bundle of free ebooks would make terrific bait. Then maybe people would think, "Okay, I've read the stuff I want from this list of books I can copy and keep. I wonder if any of the same authors/publishers have more stuff in the ebooks I have to check out for two weeks. Oh yeah, they do!" And they'd go read those books. Or maybe they'd go out to the author's or publisher's website and buy some books, like they go to a bookstore if they really like a library book now.
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dancing_serpent
Hmm...
Date: 2012-01-25 02:52 am (UTC)Why? It gives people a nice big chunk of your work, so they know that you actually know what you're talking about. That's advertising. It's a great choice for anyone who writes fast enough that they can afford to give away a free sample. It's a great use for anything that's cool but is too nichey to sell easily. It's a great use for stuff that was bought and published a long time ago, since re-releasing it takes little extra work. You just include somewhere in there some information about your current work that people can BUY. Readers do get hooked this way.
People will read for free stuff that they wouldn't pay to read, which is why libraries exist in the first place. A big bundle of free ebooks would make terrific bait. Then maybe people would think, "Okay, I've read the stuff I want from this list of books I can copy and keep. I wonder if any of the same authors/publishers have more stuff in the ebooks I have to check out for two weeks. Oh yeah, they do!" And they'd go read those books. Or maybe they'd go out to the author's or publisher's website and buy some books, like they go to a bookstore if they really like a library book now.