The Pressure Towards Free Books

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

This thing is starting to disturb me a little.  I'm just taking first baby steps into writing books, but I work pretty close with my publisher and am getting the skinny on how things are starting to work.

They hate amazon, but I wouldn't mind going on the Select program...and why?  Because they set it up as the only way to give books away for free. And I'm not a girl very fond of giving it up for free, let me tell you.

But then I asked them about getting on some of these email lists for Kindle books, because they did really good with that back in February.  Very powerful place to get sales.  But guess what, they're looking at how many reviews you got, and how many stars.

And the only way I can see to get that fast is giving away books to people who want to review.

So suddenly I'm seeing this kind of machine where the only way to get in front of mass ebook market is to give it away.  Like I say, I was already weighing that (Adoro will put me on that Select thing if I really want to)  but the idea of a big system forcing everybody to that and setting up a whole new tier system for writers is kind of troublesome.

I keep finding that whatever i come to about publishing, people come up with really good arguments for the other side of the issue, so I guess I'm wondering what y'all think of this?

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Hmph, what stingy fans.  What does a little star cost?

What I was talking about was those email list things, John.  Some state flat-out that you have to have at least 5 or 6 or 10 ratings, averaging over 4 stars, or some such figures.  

So maybe you had enough to make the grade on Kindle Nation or whoever.  Or maybe your blitz of attention had nothing to do with that.

I have to admit, this is kind of fascinating mess to monkey around with.

[Susan]

My experience with book giveaways has been great for novels, not so hot for non-fiction.

In February, I did a 2-day freebie of my New Orleans crime thriller. More than 5,000 people downloaded it. Also, it hit #1 in the rankings for free books in Police Procedurals and Hard Boiled. Sales of my second novel picked up and sales for Absolution were brisk after the giveaway ended. All told, I sold more copies of the 2 novels in March than I did the previous three months.

So, today and tomorrow, I've put my second novel in the series, DIVA, up for free. Already there have been almost 1,000 downloads. Forgot to say that 3,000 of the ABSOLUTION downloads were in the UK. This time I included links to Diva on the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy sites. UK downloads are doing well, got a few in Germany, AND my first ever in France. 

I won't include them all here, but for anyone who'd like to try the book for free, here's a link to my website page about the book. All the links are listed there. There's also a video book trailer. 

DIVA by Susan Fleet

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Great Susan!  I'll nab one right now.

One thing hard to dispute, all this free stuff is great for readers.  

Does the term "buyers' market" apply when us deadbeats aren't actually buying?

[Eric Christopherson]

Let's call it a "moochers' market" then.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

I prefer to think of myself as a mini-moocher.    Hidey, hidey, hidey ho.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Ironically, I just found out my book will be going to the Select, freebie mode before long, and because of pressure from a very different source.  Weird, actually.

My publishers submitted it to SmashWords and Kindle like six weeks ago.  It was on Kindle within a day.  Still hasn't made the Premium thing at SW.   I guess they've resubmitted like a dozen times, and sometimes the fixes demanded didn't even exist.  No they are suddenly hearing that the information in the form has to be identical with the title on the cover.  Since "Considerations Prior To Shooting Your Boyfriend Right In The Nuts" is a little overweight for bandying about in forms and tags and all, they said to hell with it and figured since they can't get to the iStore anyway, they might as well go Select.  First time for them, they're amazonphobes.  I've picked a little of that up, but it seems to be working well for me.  Whether it works REALLY well on Select will be interesting to me, and to them as well.  

Seems like a weird turn of events, though.

[Susan]

Ok, Minnie  :)  Glad you got my book. Sorry you had such a scene w/SW. That's one reason I didn't bother submitting to them. Could I suggest something? Before you go with the Kindle freebie, get some reviews up first. I think this definitely helps, even if you're giving it away free. The "moochers" are even getting picky about freebies.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

They would like gift 'hos in the mouth?  The nerve.

No, that's the grand plam, Susan.  And the review-trolling is kind of waiting for a redesign of my site, with my new serial on it and all.  This stuff is so... not so much complicated as "prerequsite".

[Susan]

Yep, even gift 'hos

I hear ya about the plan. My suggestion about the reviews was more about getting them up on the Amazon sites, not yours ...  You can actually put them up yourself once you get them. And getting them takes time. I've got 3 TBR (to be reviewed) books on my pile, having swapped with other authors. Found them on LinkIn or Goodreads, etc.

 Gasp, you've got serial on your website? Would that be a serial killer? Serial philanderer? Serial stalker? I assume we're not talkin Cocoa Puffs, right?  :)

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

Serious serial.     I have priors for web fiction serials and am used to weekly episode stuff.

Big advantage here is that I can build interest and readership in my book without having to write the damned thing.  :-)

It's like freebies on the installment plan.

I understood you about reviews.  It's that "the plan" is that before blasting it for review, and having people read it to the back, where there are "come on" links, there is something to come on to.

The idea, which makes sense to me, is that you really need more than one book to make all this monkeyshines pay off.  We're trying to kind of jumpstart me.

[Susan]

Absolutely right. The more books you have, the more you sell. I redid my print versions of both novels and added the "tease" for the next one.

Nice idea about the "serials." Dickens did it, why not you? :)

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

That me all over, just wanting to be a little Dickens.