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Frankly, yes I do think that you should give a PDF version of your book for free, as it not only makes sense but experience shows that it works too.
Presently I am helping a first time Danish author figure out how he could use the social web and freemium principles with relation to his first book. The main thing that I am impressing upon him is to make a pdf version of his book available for free online.
How does it make sense?
Any successful professional author will vouch for the fact that the biggest fear a first time non fiction author has is facing oblivion. First timers fear that only friends and family will buy/read their first book. However, by providing a free PDF potential readers can judge for themselves if the book is worth reading,
Our experience shows that it works without cannibalizing on book sales. A recent study on the impact of free on publishing has further strengthened the case that free version has a positive outcome on the sale of the hardcopy version of the book.
In another interesting piece of research, four random house books increased sales by 11%.
I have personally looked at over 25 different cases where a free book was given away for free. Most of these were personally interviewed by me. In almost all cases there was no effect on book sales either positive or negative. In none of the case where a physical book was also available did any author complain of drop in sales. In fact, a good number of authors experienced a spurt in sale of their physical versions.
An excellent example of this is celebrated and award winning author Paulo Coelho. In 1999 he posted a free Russian version of ‘The Alchemist’ on his website. With no additional promotion book sales climbed from 1000 to 10,000 in a year. The next year the figure touched 100,000 and by 2002 he was selling more than a million copies of several other titles. Paulo Coelho is convinced that free downloads of ‘The Alchemist’ made this possible.
We cannot be completely sure that a free ebook will not hurt book sales. However, experience of those who tried it shows that it in fact helps book sales.
Apart from the experiences of the publishing business, it is reassuring to look at the experiences of the music industry. A great number of recording artists and musicians will testify that they have had a lot of success just by letting their fans listen to their music for free.
An overview of this will be presented in another blogpost.
What is your experience ?
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I would like to give a free pdf file of my book, He Holds The Sparrow, to anyone that would like to read it. Also I was wandering if I asked the reader to leave feed back if that would help me to know the real feelings people have about the book. Could you please tell me the best way to do this? I self published my story, a true account of being kidnapped from an orphanage when I was very young, taken by an escaped convict and hidden under bridges, in cotton camps and totally isolated for six years. I have many amazing, unique, frightening and even humorus stories but I don’t know how to get my book noticed. I need help, a partner or any advice I can get. Thank you sincerely. Fran Grubb.