Despite criticism, ‘free’ is very powerful
For those of you who have been reading this blog, you know I’m a big advocate for using the ‘free’ pricing model. In the Sunday Books section of the New York Times, this article Absolutely, Positively Free…if you think you can afford it takes author and blogger Chris Anderson to task over his new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
The article examines both Chris’s book ‘Free’ and a book by Ellen Ruppel Shell called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. While I’m not very familiar with the latter, I have been reading Chris Anderson’s blog for a while now. In fact, his blog postings have highly influenced me in advocating the use of ‘free’.
So when I read the NYT article, I was a little disappointed to see that its author Janet Maslin really went to town in trying to discredit Chris and his new book. I have not read Chris’s book yet, although I did pre-order it and received confirmation that it shipped today. But I think Maslin takes a lot of cheap shots at Chris – like mentioning the little debacle of not properly citing Wikipedia material. Chris took responsibility for that error as soon as word of it started hitting the internet and corrected the problem. His publisher has stood behind him.
Then there’s Maslin’s criticism of Chris’s idea of using free:
But after beating the drum for giveaways throughout most of his book, Mr. Anderson eventually acknowledges that his idea is in fact not viable. Such are the perils of his sloppily constructed sweeping argument. No, he doesn’t envision an economy based entirely on giveaways. “Free may be the best price, but it can’t be the only one,” he says. He advocates the balancing of differently priced versions for different markets, acknowledging that this tricky balance is not easily achieved.
Well duh! No one can make a living just by giving free stuff away (there’s always a catch), and Chris has never advocated this. Rather, when free is used to complement other prices, it has a powerful effect. I can’t think of another word other than ‘free’ that catches our eye so easily and immediately grabs our attention (maybe other than ’sex’).
Free is a part of our everyday lives and it seems to be everywhere. Here is a few examples I can think of:
1. Buy one get one free at my local supermarket. This is often applied to bags of chips, cereal and the like. It’s something I almost always take advantage of, whether or not the item was on my list.
2. Buy 2 books get the 3rd free at my local bookstore. Customers lap these up like you wouldn’t believe. Even when it’s the classics, people will buy stacks of books falling into this category of free.
3. Publishers offering free ebooks of author back titles, usually to promote a new release. I’m seeing this more and more. Being able to sample an author’s work for free can really drive sales of books when they hit the shelves.
There are plenty more examples, but you get the idea. Free is powerful. Recently, I wrote about how the legendary band the Grateful Dead used free concerts to launch their career in this post 6 Lessons the Grateful Dead can teach us about writing. And authors are using it today, eschewing traditional publishing powerhouses to promote their work and build a follow. Most notably, the 2 authors I see using free are Cory Doctorow and JA Konrath.
I want to repeat that I have not yet read Chris’s book, but I will read it as soon as it arrives on my doorstep and then I will post a review right here.
Related posts
- New ‘Free’ book by Chris Anderson to be released July 7
- How giving ebooks away for free increases print book sales
- Power of FREE: Selling books by giving them away!
- Literary criticism being shaped by Google
- Writing for free – who’s to blame?
Read More: Misc.
