Giving it away for free: Obscurity vs. Making Money as a Writer

Mar 29 2010

The debate about whether or not it’s a good idea for authors to provide their work for free (especially back titles) continues to rage on around the internet. I usually think of this in terms of ebooks, as they are easier to give away for free without the burden of printing and shipping costs.

The main argument in favor of giving your works away for free goes something like this: You provide an ebook or two for free, and it will give readers a sampling of your work, enticing them to buy future ebooks that they would, of course, pay for. This has worked for many authors who claim that giving their stuff away does increase their sales of other books.

On the flip side, the argument against giving your work away for free is that readers will expect it for free and will expect the same thing with all of your books, thus no one will want to pay. Why pay when you can get it for free, right? The other issue that comes into play here is that authors should be fairly compensated for their work.

I recently read good article about this subject by Angela Hoy who runs writersweekly.com. I have been reading her site and subscribing to her newsletter since at least 2002-2003, so I highly respect her opinions and what she says. In her recent article Think Twice Before Giving Away Your Entire Book Online for Free she argues against what I often promote here at Brad’s Reader, and many other writers/bloggers promote as well – giving stuff away for free as a promotional tool.

A big part of Angela’s argument is this:

Giving someone an entire ebook for free, especially for unknown authors, gives the potential buyer zero incentive to buy your book. Why pay for something (by an unknown author) that’s completely free, especially in this economy? Some authors think doing this will generate lots of press (it won’t – too many authors have done it before so only well-known authors get big press for this now). Others think giving away their book will increase their readership and help sales of future books.

Based on my own personal experience, when I download a free ebook (either onto my iPhone or Sony Pocket Edition), I want to like the author’s work enough to buy their future novels. I’ve bought many ebooks from authors who offered their back list titles for free, and I know a lot of others who have done the same.

Obscurity or Making Money as a Writer?

Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author, blogger and a tech guru is one who knows something about giving his work away for free. Whenever he has a traditionally published novel released, he also releases it as a free ebook and audio version – making the title available in as many formats as possible. He says this increases his sales. He also makes an interesting comment about obscurity.

“I really feel like my problem isn’t piracy,” Mr. Doctorow said. “It’s obscurity.”

While piracy is another subject for another day, the issue of obscurity rings true in the whole should-I-give-stuff-away-for-free debate. Unknown authors have a big problem: No one knows who they are. By itself, this makes it very unlikely anyone will read his/her work whether it’s free or not.

So what’s the unknown author to do? My first response is to get out there and start publishing your work on sites like Smashwords. But more than that, you need to somehow establish yourself. This involves more than just giving a few titles away. This also means:

Setting up your own blog to build a healthy base
Being active on Twitter
Starting a Facebook fan page
Connecting with other like-minded authors
Continuing to write, write and write some more!

The whole purpose of all this is to avoid the obscurity trap. If you establish yourself online and have a following (even if it’s only 20 loyal readers on your blog), you are much more likely to have success giving a few titles away for free, and when the time comes, charge a reasonable price for your work. Your base of readers and followers, those who value what you have to say, will have no problem paying for that new novel you just published.

One blogger I follow is Joanaa Penn who started Author 2.0, a package of information that shows authors how to leverage technology and the principle of free to establish a following. She gives away a lot of free information to build her brand and help sell books.

What do I give away for free?

The short answer is anything you want. However, I have always felt that short fiction is the perfect “teaser” to get readers to buy your novels. If you have a few novels under your belt and are releasing new ones on at regular intervals, giving away your old back titles for free will give readers a taste of your work and will entice them to buy your newest release.

Another strategy is to give your readers something when they take a specific action. For example, you send out a monthly newsletter to your blog followers (you do have a blog, right?). Offer a free title or two (whether it’s a short story or novel) when they sign up. Make it exclusive to subscribers only. This will not only bring you more followers, but will help disseminate your work to more people.

In the end, the name of the game for all writers is marketing. Using a healthy mix of free and paid content can help you climb out of the obscurity trap so you can start commanding higher (but still reasonable) prices to those novels you work so hard to write.

4 Responses

Quite a conflict, right? For an established (published to print) old-timer, their backlist might be fair game for them to give away.

To me a judicious choice of “older” works such as a short story collection or an early novel will give me a good flavor of what that particular author has to offer.

I tend to be somewhat eclectic, but if I like an author, I’ll try to track down pretty much everything he’s written. Even early works which the author might consider somewhat flawed will give a decent idea of how well he matches my tastes.
Bruce H. Johnson´s last blog ..Tech Writer to Fiction Writer 10: Truth Revealed

Bruce H. Johnson 3/29/2010 9:08 pm
Hi Brad, thanks for the mention and I absolutely agree!
I give a lot away for free in order to build my profile as you say. After 14 months now of giving away information on my blog, I have reached thousands of people who would never have heard of me otherwise.
However, on top of the free giveaways, I have also sold ebooks, print books and my online Author 2.0 course as well as getting a number of paid speaking engagements based on my profile. I am also in the process of writing a novel, which will make it into the world in 2011 somehow. I definitely think that I will have more book sales as a result of building a platform based on free information and raising my profile – if I had done nothing then I will sell nothing.
I also think I am far more likely to get a publishing deal based on a successful platform – if that takes me a few years of giving stuff away for free, then no worries! Writing is a lifetime game, don’t you think?!

Thanks, Joanna
Joanna Penn´s last blog ..Writing, Book Marketing and More: March 2010 Ezine

Joanna Penn 3/30/2010 5:35 am
I use the free giveaway model with my fantasy series. The first book is a free ebook in its entirety, but the following three novels are paid content. The system gains me sales. I have always done it this way, but I believe I need to give the first book away to entice people into giving me a chance. People who are looking for a fantasy series to read all have the experience of buying a book one but deciding that the story/author lack personal appeal. So, with the free ebook version of Book I there is no cost for trying.

I think many readers understand that authors give away one or more works free as a promotion. If they like the author, then they are OK with buying something.

Tracy Falbe 3/30/2010 5:25 pm
Same in the music business…… Give it away I say

Songs from our catalog have been played by hundreds of radio stations and podcasters worldwide and it didn’t cost them a penny, in return we got exposure and promotion…..sounds like a good deal to me, that’s why many of our tracks have been released under a creative commons license and are free to download. So what if you lose out on lost sales, you gain more in the long term by increasing your fan base (If you can survive that long)

With such an overcrowded market place giving away your music is essential in my opinion. The biggest problem for emerging indie artists today is obscurity, not piracy. To find out more listen to The Antiqcool Podcast
http://antiqcool.podbean.com/2010/01/22/the-antiqcool-podcast-episode-1-how-can-you-be-a-part-of-our-success/

Pete Smith 4/19/2010 3:38 am