Stop cutting your own throat and sell books. Otherwise, there’s no point in having books on Amazon or anywhere else. People expect to pay for the books they read. No one expects all books to be free. Outside of the occasional giveaway or raffle, consumers are used to spending money on the books they read. Once you take the price tag away, they know immediately there is an issue somewhere. It may not register exactly like that in their mind, but it’s going to register subconsciously, and the only one who’s hurt through the process is you.
Image by Gerd Altmann
Goodreads Giveaways
I've never done one of these and I probably never will, but it is a legitimate way to get some exposure for your book. There is a certain percentage of people who might buy the book anyway, even if they weren’t the winner, and as a one and done project, it probably won’t do any harm. However, there’s a downside to it: if you’re doing it because you think it’s a surefire way to get a review you’re wrong. More people choose not to review a Goodreads freebie than do, so be careful with that.
Secondly, the only good time to do this is when you’re launching a book. In other words, do it for the release, because it won’t help you very much at any future point in time. More on that in another post.
I addressed the whole Goodreads thing first because it is one of the few legitimate ways to use the freebie approach, but before the ship sails, I’ll move on to the reality about all the other crazy things you do on a regular basis to try to get yourself some reviews or exposure.
The Most Natural Thing Can be Wrong
The most natural thing in the world for anyone in creative professions to do when sales are down is to offer a “free sample.” That’s why music groups play benefits, it’s why aspiring chefs hand out free samples of what they baked, and it’s why high volumes of authors give their books away. In certain, specific circumstances, it can work, but usually it accomplishes nothing.
You do it because, in your mind, you think it will register to the recipients that they are not taking any risk, just getting a wonderful benefit, and when they read the book and realize how terrific it is, they will rush to Amazon and do a review and want to buy more. In reality, that just doesn’t happen. Hardly ever. Actually, ever.
I’m not God, so I don’t know exactly WHY it doesn’t happen, but statistically it doesn’t. Most people who receive a free book never read it. The ones who do, rarely review it, and rarely buy more. The only thing I could ever come up with on that is the fact that you devalued it when you handed it off for free. I’ve said it before: if it’s not worth paying anything for, what’s it worth? People are used to paying for things that they value, so don’t put it in their heads in advance that your work has no value.
Don’t get me wrong, in small doses, in the right setting, a freebie isn’t always a bad idea. I went to a book signing event where every author donated a book for a raffle; nothing wrong with that. Of course, it was the only freebie I did that year. THAT’S how you use freebies to your advantage. Choose them carefully, and do them in moderation.
Be Careful of those “Great Opportunities”
Another important bit of advice: under NO circumstances give your book to any “advertising site” telling you that the exposure you’ll get is worth all the free books you’ll give away. It doesn’t work that way. These sites are simply stocking up on other people’s merchandise without paying for it. Pure and simple. If you’re that intent on giving your work away for nothing, at least choose when and where to do it, don’t supply someone else’s website with products so that they get the clicks and make money on whatever ads they have on the site. (What they’re doing is called affiliate marketing…and they’re using your books to get traction for their site.) You’re much better off getting involved with something like https://shepherd.com/ where you actually get a portion of the sale for being a site contributor. (Putting that in my own words. Please contact them for details.)
Back to that Achilles Heel
So, why freebies? Because you're not getting traction and you're not getting sales. But, giving a book away is something you can do right here, right now to get some momentum, right? Uh, actually, no. All you will have is one less book, the same zero traction, and the same low sales. And even if that one-in-50 recipient of a free book did leave you a review, so what? If you’re not getting any traction, who’s going to be there to see it except the next person you give a free book to? Don’t run like a hamster in a wheel. Instead, do that thing you’ve been avoiding: advertise. That’s how you get sales and traction. I just did a modestly priced Facebook ad that was targeted at a VERY specific demographic and it did really well. Now of course, the ad is over, the numbers are slipping again, but I’m getting ready to launch another ad, which hopefully will be just as successful. That's the pattern. Will it put me on the New York Times bestseller list? Of course not. But I’m living in reality: I know I have to spend money in order to keep my books in front of the right eyes and so do you. There’s no way around it.
But My Ad Didn’t Get any Clicks!
If you’ve advertised and got nothing on your return, you need a copywriter. Specifically someone who writes ( drumroll ) sales copy. If you happen to be a web content writer and you know how to do it yourself, that’s a home run, but if not, you need to learn how. Or hire someone to do it. Those are the only two options. And then, yes, you do have to pay to get the ad in front of faces.
If you’ve launched a book knowing full well you have no budget to advertise, there’s still nothing wrong with putting your work out there, but just know that you probably aren’t ever going to get any momentum. It might be a good idea to consider saving up, or even working a part-time job for a couple months to get a little nest egg of advertising money together. Advice on that topic varies significantly from one individual to the next, but the bottom line is, there’s no running away from that Achilles’ heel. You do have to spend money to get traction for a book, whether you're an independent author or traditionally published. Somebody, somewhere, has to spend money to market your books. If you wrote something simply as a labor of love, and sales are not important to you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But you still shouldn’t hand out your work for free.
The Same Old Song
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if your work is valuable, people need to pay for it. If deep down you think your work is worthy of a zero price tag, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your work and see if there’s something you can change or rewrite so that you'll feel more confident about what you're selling. Either way, doing a freebie frenzy will not propel you to success. So, decide whether you want to start over and write something you’ll have more confidence in, or at long last realize that your work has value just the way it is, and that consumers need to pay for it.