I read an article recently about offering books & short stories for free. It looked at both sides: Pro - a way of attracting readers, which should generate reviews and sales of your priced releases; Against - free books devalue authorship because readers will only bother with your (and other people's) free titles.
Here's my situation and views...
I've sold a number (sadly, not a huge number) of full-priced novels and I've had reviews from at least half the sales. This seems to be because readers invested money in my release, enjoyed it and were therefore prepared to spend time writing a review.
I've had far more downloads of my free short stories. And did 1% of these readers write a review? No. Not even one reader bothered. Similarly, on an Amazon 3-day offer, I gave away copies of one of my books. There were a heap of downloads, but not a single review.
I think this is for several reasons. Firstly, there are readers who "vacuum-up" free titles to "read one day"... and so the downloads may get forgotten and not even read. Secondly, there are readers who only ever read for free: they'll just download hundreds of freebies, read them, and never either write a review or consider buying a priced book. Thirdly, there are readers who may write reviews, but would not do it for a free book - after all, it has no value to them, they never invested a penny to read it.
I have no way of knowing how many “free readers” went on to buy one of my books. If any did, it is a tiny percentage.
So, being practical, it appears few of these "free readers" are any good to me as a working author. I don't get any feedback and they may not be contributing to my sales at all. It’s like going to work, not getting paid and not even getting told you’re doing a good (or bad) job.
Another aspect, which other writers will appreciate, is that being an author is damn hard work. Some days, I’ve started at 9 AM and finished after 11 PM – breaking for meals, to do some jobs and to rest my brain briefly. Therefore, I need to put a value on what I do. I’m happy to spend time and effort in worthwhile marketing, but not to work for nothing.
At the moment, I’m considering phasing out all my free titles or charging a minimum fee for them. Perhaps I’ll collect the short stories to give the paying reader a better value item. I hope that the majority of readers understand: after all, would they work for free?
I’d love to hear from other writers about their experiences and views. Do freebies work for some people? Should writers make a stand and stop freebies all together? What do you think?