Should I Give My eBook Away for Free?
Once the production stages of a book have been completed, one of the most difficult tasks can be simple and a bit daunting: How do you distinguish your book from the seemingly endless list of competing titles?
A simple search within your genre or discipline is advisable and can be revealing. For example, let’s say you write a book on woodworking, such as one needed to make the toys shown in the photo. Amazon currently lists over 10K results for paperbacks on woodworking. For eBook (Kindle) editions, the number drops to ~4K.
These days, having both a printed book and an eBook can be a big advantage in terms of exposure, which may translate to sales.
But a question that has recently come up often concerns whether or not you should actually give your eBook away for free.
Let’s look at pricing: For the 4.5 star Amazon-rated DIY woodworking book I selected the paperback goes for $20.95. The Kindle edition is a whopping 76% less: $4.99. While the paperback will likely be more popular despite the price differential, having an eBook available is a wise decision that requires minimal additional investment for a self-published author (SPA). (Related to this see our post eBooks versus Printed Books.)
From the book buyer’s perspective, given a choice of $20.95 versus $0 (if it’s given away for free) may lead them to opt for the eBook despite the fact that they may actually prefer the paperback. While one may argue that the free eBook may drive them to buy the paperback, the chances of that happening are rather remote.
When eBooks were first introduced, there was fierce opposition to the cost, since the customer was just (in their mind), “buying a file.” But what that doesn’t take into account is that the preliminary costs to produce an eBook are the same as those to produce a print book (copyediting, proofreading, formatting). When an SPA gets to the final stage, the decision to be made is whether to produce a print book, an eBook, or (more commonly), both. So this initial investment must be factored in when deciding whether to give the eBook away for free.
The decision can often vary depending not only on what type of book it is, but what type of author you are.
Stand-Alone, One-Off Titles
If you have written one title, selling the eBook is definitely advisable. There really isn’t anything to be gained by giving it away, since you have already incurred costs.
Series Titles
If an SPA publishes a series, the landscape changes: It may be advisable to give away the first eBook in the series, to get the reader hooked, so that they’ll buy the rest to complete the series.
Small-Business Owners
Many small-business owners who are SPAs use their books as a calling card, to drive sales and generate business. In those cases they may consider giving the eBook away from free.
Conferences
Some SPAs may hold (or speak at) conferences or other events that are related to their book. In those cases, including a coupon to download the eBook for free may increase attendance and generate publicity for the book.
At Virtus, we can advise the SPA with regard to marketing, so that an informed decision can be made.
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