There are, broadly speaking, two sorts of independent authors.  Some are happy to publish a few books and satisfy a nagging artistic itch — money be damned.  Art for art’s sake, if you will.  If you’re in this category, my rant isn’t for you.  Carry on doing whatever you want.  The second type, while still very much enamored by the art of writing, also seeks income from publishing books.  It could be either as a supplement to regular employment income or, more often, as a way of becoming a full-time author, unconstrained by dull, soul-sapping jobs.  If that sounds familiar, then this rant is for you.

One of the more notable phenomena unleashed by the flood tide of self-published books is the whole idea of free.  Giving away your work for nothing in the hopes of what precisely?  Ebook retailers — Amazon in particular — are awash in free offerings, and I daresay many of those books aren’t even worth what a reader pays for them, i.e., nothing.  That’s both the beauty and the tragedy of this new era.  Anyone can publish, regardless of talent or ability.  But I’m not here to critique the ever-growing ebook slush pile.  This blog is aimed at authors trying to make money from their art, and that means understanding the role of free books in an increasingly messy ecosystem.

First, a few basic principles.  One, price signals quality.  It may not make sense at times, but such is human nature.  People will naturally attribute a greater quality to a potato peeler bought for $10 from “Kitchens R Us” than one bought for a buck from the Dollar Store.  It might be the same crappy peeler made in the same Chinese factory, but never mind. 

Second, when people pay real money for something, they will have a greater tendency to use the product, read the book, etc.  This leads to the not so startling conclusion that free ebooks downloaded from retailers have a much lower chance of ever being read than ebooks for which someone paid real money. 

Third, confirmation bias is alive and well in the realm of book purchases.  To wit, free books will often be hit with more bad reviews than paid books.  Human nature is such that most people will not want to signal how bad they found a full-price book lest it reflects badly upon their own choices.  Therefore, they rationalize.  Free books, on the other hand, are fair game for the most vicious one-star reviews because the reader has invested nothing other than his or her time, something he or she considers valuable when measured against an uninspiring novel.  This means they can signal their virtue as discerning individuals without admitting they made the mistake of paying money for garbage. 

Fourth, well, this one is pretty obvious, giving away books will not earn you any money, and will not affect your book’s rankings on bestseller lists.  And no, achieving a #1 ranking on the Amazon free books list does not mean your book is a bestseller.  There is no sale involved, which means said ranking is virtually useless other than stroking a writer’s ego by making him or her a “bestgiver.”  Remember, publishing is a business endeavor and businesses exist to generate income, otherwise they have no purpose.

At this point, you might ask where does that leave the whole concept of free?  As with so many facets of business, there is a time and a place for everything.  Even giving away a high-quality book you slaved over for months on end.  Of course, there is never a time or place to give away low-quality books.  Low-quality books should never see the light of day because they inevitably tarnish your brand, whether or not you offer them for free, but the subject of branding will be for another rant.  Nor will I discuss giving away books as advance reader copies, because that’s a different concept.

Publishers offering free (or radically discounted) samples is a tried-and-true marketing technique that has been proven over and over.  Attract the consumer with a taste, and if he or she likes it, paid sales will follow.  Even the scummiest of drug dealers understand that concept and use it to nefarious ends.  So far, so good.  But what’s a sample in publishing?  While it can be an excerpt from a new novel tacked onto the end of an existing one, I’ll focus on the idea of an entire book as a sample because that’s what we’re essentially discussing.

Simply put, if you have a series, whether it’s three, four, ten or twenty books tied to one another, offering the first in series as free is the sample.  You’re hoping that by getting a positive taste of that free story, the reader will eagerly buy the subsequent volumes at full price.  And yes, it works, as does offering a first in series for 99 cents.  That’s what I call the smart use of free, whether you make the first in series permanently free or severely discounted, or only do so for periodic promotions.  If you don’t have a series and put a standalone book out for free, you’re not offering a sample.  You’re just giving away your work.

What about publishing a new book for free to put your name out there, then making it paid after the initial rush of avid readers downloading yet another free ebook they’ll never read?  Returning to first principles, price signals quality.  An author so eager to entice people into downloading books by offering them for free right off the bat and not as part of a strategy to draw readers with a first in series isn’t signaling quality, sorry.  That author is signaling desperation, which, human nature being what it is, shows the author doesn’t think his or her work is of sufficient quality to command even the price of a crappy cup of coffee.  And, of course, putting that new book out for free means you don’t earn any money during the most productive portion of its life cycle, the first 30 days after publication.  If you’re not interested in making money from your hard work, then okay.  Fair enough.  But why are you still reading this rant?  You’re not part of my audience.  This blog is to help authors who want to succeed in the business of writing once they master the art of writing.

And that leads me to a few uncomfortable truths.

A lot of self-published authors can’t write a decent novel to save their lives, and probably never will.  Offering bad writing for free won’t change that.  It’ll simply make sure the author’s brand is mud, which doesn’t matter unless said scribbler develops talent over time and eventually produces commercially viable products.  Then the past will come back to haunt him or her with all the negatives you might imagine.  Sure, art for art’s sake is fine.  Most painters, sculptors and other artists don’t have the necessary talent to stand out from a crowd of mediocrities either, but if they’re happy doing their thing and don’t expect the adoring multitudes to offer them money, it’s all good.

Seriously, folks, if you can’t sell your books for love or money and are stuck giving them away, then perhaps you should make time for self-reflection and honestly decide whether you have what it takes.  And more importantly, why you’re in this racket.

But let’s say you can write well and spin a good yarn, meaning that with a proper cover, you produce a commercially viable product.  Does that mean instant success?  Of course not.  Overnight fame and fortune are rarer than an honest politician or seeing the Yeti family on a shopping spree in downtown Katmandu.  If you think publishing a book for free is a good way of circumventing the hard marketing effort necessary to achieve name recognition and subsequent sales, you’re not a serious player.  You’re a unicorn hunter.  It can take many books and many years to finally find traction in a business clogged with competition because of the ridiculously low entry barriers.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint, as they say.  And so many lousy writers are offering free books nowadays that your magnum opus will not stand out in any way.  In fact, you’ll be tarnished by the same reputation for bad quality, despite your book’s intrinsic merits.  That’s Human Nature 101.

How about this for an uncomfortable truth?  Independent authors have conditioned a not inconsiderable segment of the reading population to look only for free books.  Human nature, right?  But it shows there’s a race to the bottom which affects all of us.  And quite frankly, I’m not okay with mediocre authors or authors unwilling to do the hard work necessary for success dragging the market down.  My work has value.  Imagine a world where authors can no longer make even a tiny living off their efforts.  How many will keep writing?  And if they walk away, what’s left?  Mainly crap?

And one final truth.  The heyday of success via free offerings is probably behind us.  The sense I get from the independent publishing scene makes me think 99 cents is the new free.  Again, price signals quality, and plenty of readers have been burned by wasting their precious time on mediocre free books.  They won’t look at them again.

In the business of independent publishing, success takes effort beyond simply producing a good story.  A lot of it.  If you can’t be bothered to put in that effort, I think I speak for those of us who do when I say please find another hobby.  Free offerings remain a tool in every author’s marketing strategy, though one with decreasing effectiveness.  But they have a specific time and place.  If you’re serious about the business of writing, you’ll learn what that is and use free judiciously.  Here’s a hint.  Free does not belong in any rational launch strategy, no matter what you’ve been told.  Unless you belong to the art for art’s sake crowd, in which case, why the heck are you still reading this?

For the record, I have never given any of my books away, though I’ve run many limited duration 99 cent promotions on several of my firsts in series.  My debut novel, published in 2014 and leading off a seven-book series, has been permanently set at 99 cents for the last year after being launched at full price and spending four years at full price.  It sold over 2,000 copies in 2019 and the aggregate sales of its six follow-on books numbered 8,000 copies during that same year.  So the concept of offering a low cost sample works.

As always, the above is my opinion.  If I’ve made you think about the value of free as a properly thought out strategy, even if you disagree with my views, then my work here is done.  Go forth and do as you will.  Just don’t complain to me if you’re not having any success.