Free eBook does not cause declining book sales!
During the last spring, I researched on the best practice examples of freemium business model outside of IT. One of the areas where this model is gaining traction is within publishing; quite a few different companies and authors are using this model. Of the people I talked to or read about, no one expressed that a free downloadable copy of their eBook had hurt the sale of the physical book.
Stephen King has expressed some negative experiences with the release of his book “The Plant”. Yet this book was not a freemium model with a physical book for sale. It was a pay-what-you-want model, where there was only a digital copy available. In my opinion his disappointment is also due to the lack of understanding of web economics. However, since the model was not freemium, that is a different topic.
While none of the opinions within freemium book releases was negative, there was a variety of conclusions. Some thought it had made no difference; and some thought that it had made a huge difference. One among the latter is Paulo Coelho.
Paulo Coelho
After having trouble selling his book “The Alchemist” in Russia, he released a free copy of the book online. Without much other PR, the book sales increased from 1.00 to 10.000 within a year. The following year the sales were up to 100.000. Three years after the first free book was put online, he sold 1 million copies of different books. He is confident that it was the free download that made the difference. Today you can find free copies of all his books online, in many languages.
Still others thought that it made some difference but not a huge amount. Among these were the authors of the virtual handshake.
The Virtual Handshake
Before working with freemium I actually downloaded this book personally and ended up buying it. The authors thought that the free download had helped a little towards the sale of the book and consultant services. Yet they pointed out that simply having a free eBook will not create a bestseller. Even though it helped, it should not be the only strategy.
With “The virtual Handshake” I noticed that their online model met one of the two conditions for success. They had effective complimentary products in the physical book and their respective consultant practices. Yet they did not promote the book as much as they could have. I am convinced that the book would have enjoyed much higher readership and sales if they had.
Conclusion
Looking at freemium within publishing, I have found no examples of the free book hurting physical book sales. The opinion of the experiences with freemium varies from neutral to very positive. With correct implementation, I believe that some of these experiences could have been even better.
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Photo: Feuillu & Eirik Solheim
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