Wednesday 30 November 2011

Free ebooks. Good or Bad?

A friend of mine advised me against offering any of my work for free. He warned me that anybody browsing the kindle store would see something offered for free as an inferior product, and arguing that "you get what you pay for".

But offering free short stories - as I intend to do - is a good way to get your name out there. It gives readers a risk free opportunity to try your work. If they enjoy it they will be likely to buy some longer works for a fair cost sometime in the future. 
It has an element of risk attached to it though. If they hate it they are unlikely to want to read anything you write in the future. Yes, you might have improved by then, but they are understandably going to be apprehensive to risk their money to find out.

I have no problems giving away short stories of around 2,000 -6,000 words for free. I think to a certain point the author should be pricing their stories relative to the time they've put in and the length of the story. Obviously I'm not saying that a story I've worked on for months and months and clocks in at a hefty amount of pages will automatically cost a substantial sum of money. But offering, for free, short stories that haven't taken nearly as much time as a full length novel should be considered as a promotional tool.

Readers don't like being over-charged. I have seen quite a few reviews on Amazon where readers have vented their anger at being kept in the dark, sometimes even misled over the length of the product they're buying. They are understandably irritated to find they've paid a paperback sum for a short story that has taken them a few minutes to read. And who can blame them?

I think we need to be asking ourselves this question: if I paid this price for this product would I feel ripped off?
And we need to be answering that question honestly.

The most important thing for me when I start selling my work will be keeping my readers happy. Not alienating them to make a buck. The writer that does that will find himself in trouble. Readers will vote with their purses and one star reviews.

1 comment:

  1. You are a highly talented writer Damien. The pieces of your work which I have read are intriguing, intricate and very well written.

    I am also loving your blog. You did a fantastic job of setting it all up. Your perspective on free ebooks is really quite interesting. Your honesty is refreshing and it is fantastic to see a writer not ripping off the readers!

    Love Debbie x

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