I'm not upset with people for pricing their books free. I understand the concept of a free sample to get someone to try one of your books in the hopes they will go on to buy the second one and so on. I have done it myself. Unfortunately, over the years so many people are doing it that a lot of readers never have to really pay for a book, they just go on to the next free one. I would love to see this practice change back to a short story or a little prequel to entice people to buy. Or may a limited time at a reduced price first in the series book. I do think that if you are looking for a lot of reviews on these free books you will probably end up disappointed. There are so many out there a lot of them never get read and the ones that do, some readers feel they don't really have a lot of value because they were free which makes the chances of getting great reviews, greatly reduced. In the meantime those authors trying to get just a little compensation for their work grow frustrated with trying to make sales and fall into the temptation of FREE, making it harder for the next author hoping to recover their costs or make a few dollars for their hard work. There are a lot of great books out there that never sell and never get the readers they deserve. It's a tough cycle with no easy solution and no end in sight.
I do believe that educating readers on the cost of publishing and marketing a book helps. There are a lot of readers out there that want to support an author's efforts, that don't want them to give up. Others just don't understand how expensive it can be to publish a good book.
Maybe events like this will help. I really feel that something still needs to be done.
comments welcome....
Event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/565616523906689
I hope you will join us!
