Earlier I talked about my experiences with InstaFreebie, and more recently I’ve given away books through My Author Home Free. However on several marketing loops I’m on, there’s also been quite the discussion about the sheer volume of free books being given away (I know my Kindle is full. How about yours?) and the marketing impact of all these free books. I wanted to take a few moments and discuss why I give away books and why I will continue to do so.
First of all, my backlist consists of something like 40 books, and I have more ready to re-release if I just sit down and get it scheduled. So I have plenty of books to offer and with the first book being released in 2002, there are also several books that will be new to today’s readers. So I don’t feel as if there’s any harm to my newer titles if I give away older ones.
Secondly my focus right now is list building, both for my mailing list as well as my street team. In this way, I find that free books help the situation and allow the list to grow more than if I offered just a coupon for the webstore.
Finally, I’m working on building my visibility. Free books help me to do this.
I do agree with the arguments that there are way more free books out there than readers can reasonably read. I read for reviews as well as for pleasure, and I know my Kindle is full! I certainly need to increase my reading time. But I also know that I’ve discovered some new to me authors like this, and I feel that it’s important to make sure that new readers can discover my work too.
