Lately I've been wondering what the best way is to reach readers and get them to buy your books.
I'm on Twitter, I blog, I Facebook. I occasionally visit Goodreads and Amazon message boards and groups. I participate in blog hops. I run contests.
I recently did a reader survey to find out what entices readers (read it here) and most readers told me they get most book recommendations from friends. Makes sense. If you love a book, you tell the world. So I've assembled a Street Team and will be shipping out promo packets in the next few days. Hopefully that's a step in the right direction.
But recently I was told readers have found new authors by free Kindle reads. Who doesn't like free??? Just about anyone will give a free book a chance. No loss if they hate it. But if they like it, and like the author's style and voice, will they go out and buy their other books? This is what I'm wondering now.
What do you guys think??? Has anyone done this before??? I am not self published...so I'm not sure it's even possible for me to give my book away for free on Kindle.
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YES! If I read a free book (even if it's a Novella, short story, whatever) I am more apt to go and buy the rest of that author's inventory at a cost.
ReplyDeleteI think giving out a free short story or novella would be better. That way, they get a sample of your writing which should steer them to look for more of your work. I work for a newspaper, and while it's not the same thing, we're having a really hard time figuring out how to make money on the internet because from the beginning we've made it available for free. that makes charging for access to it now almost impossible.
ReplyDeleteI had been wanting to read the NEED series by Carrie Jones. I saw the first book on sale for the Kindle for $1.99 (or maybe $2.99) and bought it. I paid full price HAPPILY for the next two books in the series! I admit to being skeptical about the free books unless I already know of the author. :-)
ReplyDeleteI haven't done free but I'll be interested to read what everyone thinks.
ReplyDeleteI do think it can work in the right circumstances--free or on sale. I know Dear Author does a feature once a month or so where she list romances that are on sale for either free or a deep discount. I totally have impulse bought from those lists. This method is probably most effective when it's the first in a series (that you can hook someone into) or is a novella/short story to give them a little taste for your writing style.
ReplyDeleteNow the problem only is finding time to actually read them, lol.
This is a very timely post for me. I'm seriously considering putting out a free short story as a way to promote my just-published novel in the same genre (SF). I just need to be sure that the story is good enough to have the desired effect!
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