blog cacophony
I don't promote my books much even though they are, in fact, awesome. I don't write for a living. I make my living raising hundreds of millions of dollars for charity. (Hey, it pays the bills. Don't judge me.)
So when I give my books away for free, it's not because I'm hoping to leverage some discoverability bump into a higher sales ranking. It's because I genuinely want people to read and enjoy them.
Why charge anything at all, you ask? Why not just post a PDF on my web site and make it always free for everyone all the time? Great question. I have two reasons, though others exist:
First, I have costs to recoup. Cover design was the biggest. Factor in my Starbucks and whiskey bills, and all the red pens I emptied in revisions, and pretty soon you're talking real money. (Especially the whiskey.) My day job pays me well, but not so well that budget be damned.
Second, I insist that my work has value. Even though I don't care much about the money, I do care deeply about the value. So I assign a price that I think reflects that value from the consumer's perspective. People then buy the book, or they don't. And, from time to time, I give it away without asking for any payment.
Some people and publishers think of free downloads as lost sales, or as a cost of marketing. Me? I look at them as donations to people who like to read good stories. I hope you will download these books and read them. And I really, really hope you enjoy them.
If you do, consider the value you received without needing to pay anything. And if you feel so inclined, head back to Amazon and/or Goodreads and give the book an honest rating. Because really, that's my secret reason for giving these away. Nothing makes me happier than a new rating.
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4 comments:
A fine philosophy. Too often people equate 'free' with 'of no value'. And with photography at least, equate 'copyable' with 'free', so why should they pay for it?
BTW, I've only read Semper so far, not book 2 yet, but it was GREAT!
(and for the record, +1 :-)
Aw, thanks, Gene. Say, in your profile pic, who's photobombing whom?
Thank you so much for "giving it away without asking for any payment."
The truth is that I would have been very glad to have paid for your books, but reality has made it dificult for us in Venezuela.
I can say I "swalowed" SEMPER and, right now, i´m having the privilege to be Reading Forsada. Great writing!!
Yours are "very difficult to put aside" books. Good for you!!
Thanks again.
Oswaldo, you made my day with this comment. Thank you!
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