AT LAST SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME! In fact, I have lost contacts on other social media over this issue. Can I add one thing? All this giving books away has trained many readers to refrain from buying and to wait for those freebies. A great disservice to any writer, even those who don't want to make a living from their writing. Paying for books is a value for value exchange. Authors giving books away destroy that idea and make it harder for other authors to get paid. Bravo for posting this! You are now one of my fave people here (well, you already were, but even more so now).
Thank you! You're one of my favorite people on Substack too. 😎
I totally agree with your added insight. You're absolutely correct. I have friends and relatives who proudly proclaim they will wait for books to become free before getting them on Amazon. (They don't buy my books either, in case you're wondering.) It truly harms all authors when a few consistently give away their books for nothing.
I was going to make this very point, and it just cannot be said enough that people value more what they paid more to get. I've seen that in action in several market places and never known it to fail. It can be an unfortunate fact when you're more interested in being heard than making money, but it remains a fact.
Knowing your worth is definitely important to me. I also agree when looking at authors like Brandon Sanderson and professing, "he's giving away his novel for free as a serial" as a way to say "we should do it too and not gripe about it" doesn't help the conversation much. He can afford to give a large portion of his novel away as a serial for free. Sure he's been doing this tradition all his life, even before he was "famous" but that doesn't mean his journey will work for us as well.
I try to do a lot of forward thinking/planning with my fiction work. And as the year draws to a close, there will be a considerable amount of my fiction behind a paywall and less of it will be free-for-all. This decision, for me anyway, is based on proven ability to stay the course. Once I cross 500 100-word stories I feel I have shown that these stories are a guaranteed reward to paid subs. That, and now that my stories are available in print, there is that option for people to avail themselves of.
I never really thought about money when it came to my writing but I think about it a lot more and setting standards for myself means that total strangers who happen upon my Substack will hopefully see those standards and understand why I have things behind a paywall the way that I do.
Non-fiction, my tips and tricks and lessons learned about my writing journey will always be free because I could never imagine charging fellow writers to learn something I just learned and want to share. A hand-up is all that is.
But for my fiction, I intend on publishing all of it, given time. So it will go behind a pay-wall and for someone who can't afford monthly/annual fees they have the option to just buy the book one time. Either option helps the author in the end.
Thanks for making me think about this again and apologies for my long comment! lol
I love the insights, Erica. No need to apologize for a long comment. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 😊
The conversation around Brandon Sanderson partially inspired this article. People who like to point out his free serialization of each chapter as an argument for offering your writing for free also tend to conveniently ignore that Sanderson raised $40+ million on Kickstarter for his next four novels and makes tens of millions of dollars annually on his fiction. His actual books definitely won’t be free when they’re published.
I love your forward-thinking strategy and it’s a smart one. One thing free writing advocates don’t realize is Amazon and other book retailers require you to offer your books for free on their sites if those works are offered free anywhere else – even if it’s on your own website or blog. That’s spelled out in the terms of service you agree to when you publish and distribute in those places. Locking stories behind a paywall on Substack is a smart and necessary business practice if you plan to publish those stories elsewhere.
Putting a price tag on your creative works also intrinsically enhances their value. Like you, I strike a balance. I offer articles, essays, poems, and select short fiction to free subscribers. But I also offer longer short stories and serials to paid subscribers alone to give added value to a subscription to my Substack.
I also reject the notion floating around lately that Substack subscriptions are too expensive for you to expect readers to subscribe. Monthly subscriptions to a Substack are as low as $5 per month. That’s the price of one cup of coffee. It isn’t out of reach for many readers. And the best part is you can offer special discounts to make monthly and annual subscriptions even more affordable.
Preach, John! Absolutely. To be quite honest, if I see that a book is free on kindle, I assume that it will be poorly written. Things need to be reassuringly expensive. This happens in the design world too. You are pressured to offer your designs for free because others do.
I have the same perspective with free books on kindle. I assume they are lower quality and the author is desperate to be seen.
I see the pressure to offer services for free across the board in creative arts. Everyone thinks they can write, or take photos, or do graphic designs, and so on. Too many people get indoctrinated with the idea that doing these things require scant time or skill, so you shouldn't charge money for those services. You should just aim for exposure. It's a frustrating attitude to combat.
I have had a 1st book in a series for free for years now, and, yeah, it hasn't done much for sales in the rest of the series when I'm not paying for a promo of said free book. Even then, it seems you have to sink a lot of money in the right places to get a ROI.
This is also why I stopped offering a free lead magnet story. I read a good reason for why to stop from Josh Spector (I can't find the article. Sorry.) The majority of my subscribers didn't even download the lead magnet either, so it felt like a wasted story. (I really need to get off my butt and do something with it.)
There's a few other free things authors are always suggested to try and from the ones I've done, I definitely didn't end up with more sold books (or reviews.)
So true. None of these free book promos are cheap. They cost as much or more as discount price promos and don't have the results to justify the cost (except for a BookBub Featured Deal). I've had a little success with reader magnets in generating newsletter signups. But I end up using stories I previously posted on Substack for those magnets, so I don't feel like it's wasted. The funny thing is quite a few people will download the reader magnet and then immediately disable the emails for my Substack newsletter (revealing that they were a freebie chaser/freeloader all along).
I once took part in a newsletter builder where all the authors gave one of their books for free in exchange for newsletter sign up. I hit 500 subscribers pretty fast, but I bet you can guess what happened next.
How many of the 500 were still left and opening newsletters at the end of the first month? When I did one of those and gained 100 new subscribers, at least half had flown the coop within a couple of weeks.
I do NOT like the permafree structure either. I have gotten a BUNCH of Free books on Kindle in the Permafree variety that I've never read. And probably won't.
That said, I am currently publishing my serialized novel here on Substack, but my plan is to then go to Amazon and elsewhere and charge for it. This is the first in the series. As a new(er) to Amazon writer, just trying this out. I've loved it so far. I'll be switching to a paid model here on substack in the future, just not yet...
Thanks for the article, I think it brings up a lot of interesting points. Dean Wesley Smith is ADAMANT against free, and advocates charging more than most, and I'm probably going to be taking his advice.
If the big publishers can charge $9.99 per kindle book, you can too. Or at least $5.99. Sometimes price is perception.
Spot on, Adam. Appreciate your comment and your insights.
Readers assign a higher value to higher priced books. They assume a free book is poor quality literature and, in many cases, they are 100% correct. That perception is also true outside of writing. Like if we dine out, we expect a five-star restaurant to have higher quality food than a fast-food burger joint.
Assuming free books drives readers to read your books is truly a harmful fallacy. I’m glad more authors are actively starting to reject the permafree model of doing business.
Good luck on your serial. I think you have a smart plan in place.
Thanks John! Coming into fiction from copywriting tends to give me a different perspective, I think, from the standard advice. Authors need to embrace the psychology of selling, especially if they are going to self-pub. (and paid advertising lol)
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this. I agree in principle that authors should be paid for their work and that price is often perception. However, I do think that for a lot of beginning fiction writers who are an unknown quantity or who have little experience in writing fiction professionally, publishing a free book, especially in serial form on a platform like Substack, can be a good way to gain exposure to an audience and build a readership before putting a price tag on their work. Not every author has a social media following or has published in literary magazines (for all any of that's worth), and gaining a readership is not as easy as running a book up the old flagpole and waiting for readers to salute.
I used Substack as a soft launch for my first novel, where readers could ask questions and supply feedback. That gave me a chance to iron out any last kinks as I make my final revision, which I plan to publish via my new publishing co. Then, it all goes behind a paywall. But I'm incredibly grateful for all the readers who've voluntarily taken the time to read the novel, share their thoughts, and even promote it! Sure, I'd love to be compensated for all the time and effort I put into writing (nice dream!), and make some money from my books, but it's not _why_ I write them.
I think using Substack as a soft launch for a novel by serializing free chapters is a sound audience building strategy, especially when you're a novice author just starting out. You're more likely to find your target readers through growing a newsletter than draw freebie chasers who want to download a free book and run.
I put writing on Substack in a different category than giving away permafree books or spending gobs of money on free book promotions in paid newsletters. That's why I didn't really mention it in the article. The latter two strategies are more likely to attract freeloaders who chase free books rather than introduce an author to new fans, which is why I think they're harmful to authors. Substack doesn't give off the same vibe to me.
I really appreciate this post, as I've recently published my first ebook (not for free) and soon will release that book in printed format. It's hard to know where or how to turn when you're new on the scene! You've provided some very useful information and links here. Thank you very much!
You're welcome. My goal on this substack is to help fellow indie authors know what works and what doesn't work with publishing and marketing, so they can avoid wasting money or falling victim to scammers.
I'd just like to add one thing. If you're in charge of your price, as you are on Kindle, for example, you should experiment with that price. Books will often sell more copies at 6.95 than 7 - or than 4.95. I have usually found that the higher prices do sell more, in fact, and for some reason the .95 sells more than the whole dollar, usually by an amazing margin. Marketing should be part of your thinking about publishing.
That's a good point. Higher prices always carry a perception of higher quality. With groceries for example, generic branded goods are often made of the same ingredients and at the same factories as their name brand counterparts. Even though the items in question are the same, the name brand products are usually seen as superior in quality because of a higher price and their brand name. I think the principle is the same with books.
I hesitate to take a write-to-market approach. I know a few authors swear by it, but it's not for me. I feel like it would box me in creatively and force me to take a paint-by-numbers approach to my stories. My philosophy is to focus on writing high quality, compelling fiction and do effective marketing to get my books in front of the right readers.
It definitely played a role. We've had nearly 250 downloads on the anthology while doing a month-long free promotion. Thus far, I haven't netted any sales on my other books as a result of the promo and the book has netted a single 2-star rating on Amazon, giving it two ratings overall. We'll see if the free promo leads to an uptick in sales of the anthology in August, but I'm not holding out a ton of hope for that happening.
AT LAST SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME! In fact, I have lost contacts on other social media over this issue. Can I add one thing? All this giving books away has trained many readers to refrain from buying and to wait for those freebies. A great disservice to any writer, even those who don't want to make a living from their writing. Paying for books is a value for value exchange. Authors giving books away destroy that idea and make it harder for other authors to get paid. Bravo for posting this! You are now one of my fave people here (well, you already were, but even more so now).
Thank you! You're one of my favorite people on Substack too. 😎
I totally agree with your added insight. You're absolutely correct. I have friends and relatives who proudly proclaim they will wait for books to become free before getting them on Amazon. (They don't buy my books either, in case you're wondering.) It truly harms all authors when a few consistently give away their books for nothing.
I was going to make this very point, and it just cannot be said enough that people value more what they paid more to get. I've seen that in action in several market places and never known it to fail. It can be an unfortunate fact when you're more interested in being heard than making money, but it remains a fact.
I've never met anyone who likes to work for free.
As a storyteller, I want people to see value in my books. I can't see value in giving away my hard work.
As an avid reader, I always strive to buy paperbacks instead of E-Books. That way, I get to keep a book, and the writer gets his royalties.
I like your attitude. (And I'm with you in regard to paperbacks over eBooks. I like having an actual book in my hands.)
Knowing your worth is definitely important to me. I also agree when looking at authors like Brandon Sanderson and professing, "he's giving away his novel for free as a serial" as a way to say "we should do it too and not gripe about it" doesn't help the conversation much. He can afford to give a large portion of his novel away as a serial for free. Sure he's been doing this tradition all his life, even before he was "famous" but that doesn't mean his journey will work for us as well.
I try to do a lot of forward thinking/planning with my fiction work. And as the year draws to a close, there will be a considerable amount of my fiction behind a paywall and less of it will be free-for-all. This decision, for me anyway, is based on proven ability to stay the course. Once I cross 500 100-word stories I feel I have shown that these stories are a guaranteed reward to paid subs. That, and now that my stories are available in print, there is that option for people to avail themselves of.
I never really thought about money when it came to my writing but I think about it a lot more and setting standards for myself means that total strangers who happen upon my Substack will hopefully see those standards and understand why I have things behind a paywall the way that I do.
Non-fiction, my tips and tricks and lessons learned about my writing journey will always be free because I could never imagine charging fellow writers to learn something I just learned and want to share. A hand-up is all that is.
But for my fiction, I intend on publishing all of it, given time. So it will go behind a pay-wall and for someone who can't afford monthly/annual fees they have the option to just buy the book one time. Either option helps the author in the end.
Thanks for making me think about this again and apologies for my long comment! lol
I love the insights, Erica. No need to apologize for a long comment. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 😊
The conversation around Brandon Sanderson partially inspired this article. People who like to point out his free serialization of each chapter as an argument for offering your writing for free also tend to conveniently ignore that Sanderson raised $40+ million on Kickstarter for his next four novels and makes tens of millions of dollars annually on his fiction. His actual books definitely won’t be free when they’re published.
I love your forward-thinking strategy and it’s a smart one. One thing free writing advocates don’t realize is Amazon and other book retailers require you to offer your books for free on their sites if those works are offered free anywhere else – even if it’s on your own website or blog. That’s spelled out in the terms of service you agree to when you publish and distribute in those places. Locking stories behind a paywall on Substack is a smart and necessary business practice if you plan to publish those stories elsewhere.
Putting a price tag on your creative works also intrinsically enhances their value. Like you, I strike a balance. I offer articles, essays, poems, and select short fiction to free subscribers. But I also offer longer short stories and serials to paid subscribers alone to give added value to a subscription to my Substack.
I also reject the notion floating around lately that Substack subscriptions are too expensive for you to expect readers to subscribe. Monthly subscriptions to a Substack are as low as $5 per month. That’s the price of one cup of coffee. It isn’t out of reach for many readers. And the best part is you can offer special discounts to make monthly and annual subscriptions even more affordable.
I live for long Erica comments too 😅
Preach, John! Absolutely. To be quite honest, if I see that a book is free on kindle, I assume that it will be poorly written. Things need to be reassuringly expensive. This happens in the design world too. You are pressured to offer your designs for free because others do.
I have the same perspective with free books on kindle. I assume they are lower quality and the author is desperate to be seen.
I see the pressure to offer services for free across the board in creative arts. Everyone thinks they can write, or take photos, or do graphic designs, and so on. Too many people get indoctrinated with the idea that doing these things require scant time or skill, so you shouldn't charge money for those services. You should just aim for exposure. It's a frustrating attitude to combat.
I have had a 1st book in a series for free for years now, and, yeah, it hasn't done much for sales in the rest of the series when I'm not paying for a promo of said free book. Even then, it seems you have to sink a lot of money in the right places to get a ROI.
This is also why I stopped offering a free lead magnet story. I read a good reason for why to stop from Josh Spector (I can't find the article. Sorry.) The majority of my subscribers didn't even download the lead magnet either, so it felt like a wasted story. (I really need to get off my butt and do something with it.)
There's a few other free things authors are always suggested to try and from the ones I've done, I definitely didn't end up with more sold books (or reviews.)
So true. None of these free book promos are cheap. They cost as much or more as discount price promos and don't have the results to justify the cost (except for a BookBub Featured Deal). I've had a little success with reader magnets in generating newsletter signups. But I end up using stories I previously posted on Substack for those magnets, so I don't feel like it's wasted. The funny thing is quite a few people will download the reader magnet and then immediately disable the emails for my Substack newsletter (revealing that they were a freebie chaser/freeloader all along).
I once took part in a newsletter builder where all the authors gave one of their books for free in exchange for newsletter sign up. I hit 500 subscribers pretty fast, but I bet you can guess what happened next.
How many of the 500 were still left and opening newsletters at the end of the first month? When I did one of those and gained 100 new subscribers, at least half had flown the coop within a couple of weeks.
I forget but they started unsubscribing right away and many never read. I ended up scrapping that newsletter and taking a break. Then I came here.
I do NOT like the permafree structure either. I have gotten a BUNCH of Free books on Kindle in the Permafree variety that I've never read. And probably won't.
That said, I am currently publishing my serialized novel here on Substack, but my plan is to then go to Amazon and elsewhere and charge for it. This is the first in the series. As a new(er) to Amazon writer, just trying this out. I've loved it so far. I'll be switching to a paid model here on substack in the future, just not yet...
Thanks for the article, I think it brings up a lot of interesting points. Dean Wesley Smith is ADAMANT against free, and advocates charging more than most, and I'm probably going to be taking his advice.
If the big publishers can charge $9.99 per kindle book, you can too. Or at least $5.99. Sometimes price is perception.
Spot on, Adam. Appreciate your comment and your insights.
Readers assign a higher value to higher priced books. They assume a free book is poor quality literature and, in many cases, they are 100% correct. That perception is also true outside of writing. Like if we dine out, we expect a five-star restaurant to have higher quality food than a fast-food burger joint.
Assuming free books drives readers to read your books is truly a harmful fallacy. I’m glad more authors are actively starting to reject the permafree model of doing business.
Good luck on your serial. I think you have a smart plan in place.
Thanks John! Coming into fiction from copywriting tends to give me a different perspective, I think, from the standard advice. Authors need to embrace the psychology of selling, especially if they are going to self-pub. (and paid advertising lol)
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this. I agree in principle that authors should be paid for their work and that price is often perception. However, I do think that for a lot of beginning fiction writers who are an unknown quantity or who have little experience in writing fiction professionally, publishing a free book, especially in serial form on a platform like Substack, can be a good way to gain exposure to an audience and build a readership before putting a price tag on their work. Not every author has a social media following or has published in literary magazines (for all any of that's worth), and gaining a readership is not as easy as running a book up the old flagpole and waiting for readers to salute.
I used Substack as a soft launch for my first novel, where readers could ask questions and supply feedback. That gave me a chance to iron out any last kinks as I make my final revision, which I plan to publish via my new publishing co. Then, it all goes behind a paywall. But I'm incredibly grateful for all the readers who've voluntarily taken the time to read the novel, share their thoughts, and even promote it! Sure, I'd love to be compensated for all the time and effort I put into writing (nice dream!), and make some money from my books, but it's not _why_ I write them.
I think using Substack as a soft launch for a novel by serializing free chapters is a sound audience building strategy, especially when you're a novice author just starting out. You're more likely to find your target readers through growing a newsletter than draw freebie chasers who want to download a free book and run.
I put writing on Substack in a different category than giving away permafree books or spending gobs of money on free book promotions in paid newsletters. That's why I didn't really mention it in the article. The latter two strategies are more likely to attract freeloaders who chase free books rather than introduce an author to new fans, which is why I think they're harmful to authors. Substack doesn't give off the same vibe to me.
I was reading most of the article thinking about free fiction on substack so I needed that clarification.
As an author just diving into the indie world this is a refreshing take. Great piece with fantastic info.
Thank you, Rob. I appreciate it. I'm just trying to do my part to combat the misinformation that indie authors are fed on a regular basis.
I really appreciate this post, as I've recently published my first ebook (not for free) and soon will release that book in printed format. It's hard to know where or how to turn when you're new on the scene! You've provided some very useful information and links here. Thank you very much!
You're welcome. My goal on this substack is to help fellow indie authors know what works and what doesn't work with publishing and marketing, so they can avoid wasting money or falling victim to scammers.
I can’t afford to give away paperback, but I’ve given away free ebooks.
The people who paid for ebook and paperback were the ones who were loudest with their praise.
Human beings truly don’t value free things.
I agree with you 100%.
In the six years I've published, I've never seen any meaningful growth in my readership from giving books away for free.
I'd just like to add one thing. If you're in charge of your price, as you are on Kindle, for example, you should experiment with that price. Books will often sell more copies at 6.95 than 7 - or than 4.95. I have usually found that the higher prices do sell more, in fact, and for some reason the .95 sells more than the whole dollar, usually by an amazing margin. Marketing should be part of your thinking about publishing.
That's a good point. Higher prices always carry a perception of higher quality. With groceries for example, generic branded goods are often made of the same ingredients and at the same factories as their name brand counterparts. Even though the items in question are the same, the name brand products are usually seen as superior in quality because of a higher price and their brand name. I think the principle is the same with books.
The affable, contemplative, and practical comment section won me over. I have subscribed.
Welcome! Happy to have you here. I hope you will find the advice I share on this substack helpful and useful.
"But you know you have to make money, right?"
- Every time I tell people I'm a writer.
Those same people usually tell me I need to get "a real job."
IMHO there is no such thing as a "real" job.
If you are writing to see income target the audience you want and tailor you work accordingly.
I hesitate to take a write-to-market approach. I know a few authors swear by it, but it's not for me. I feel like it would box me in creatively and force me to take a paint-by-numbers approach to my stories. My philosophy is to focus on writing high quality, compelling fiction and do effective marketing to get my books in front of the right readers.
There is nothing wrong with not having a market. Then don't expect income from it.
I think my approach has served me well. I've sold 10,000 books over the last three years.
I too am skeptical of the the free-funnel's actual conversion rate. I couldn't help but notice the recent Phillip Carter post where you were co-authored and it offered a free book. Did that experience help inform this post? https://substack.com/home/post/p-146401627?r=315ttv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
It definitely played a role. We've had nearly 250 downloads on the anthology while doing a month-long free promotion. Thus far, I haven't netted any sales on my other books as a result of the promo and the book has netted a single 2-star rating on Amazon, giving it two ratings overall. We'll see if the free promo leads to an uptick in sales of the anthology in August, but I'm not holding out a ton of hope for that happening.