The Freebie Flaw & The Fickle Reader
I now own 800+ free ebooks. (Yep. I counted.)
Which, in all fairness, isn’t even close to the limit. Amazon boasts its newer Kindles can hold up to 3500 books!
I need 20 more lifetimes to ever get around to half of these that I already have.
…And I get 20+ emails per day offering even more freebies. I don’t even remember signing up to half of these newsletter subscriber sites. So… yeah.
Honestly, I’m not surprised authors are complaining about “no/low sales”.
We’re not “part of” the problem. We ARE the problem.
The Path to Freebie Addiction
First of all, I should probably mention how I became the not-so-proud owner of this RIDICULOUS amount of freebies.
Less than a year ago, I had literally zero idea that free ebooks could come to you almost automatically. I either bought books I wanted in a bookshop, or online… simple as that.
Then in July 2018, I decided to finally push the button and become a published author. Once I did that, I realised I was way behind in understanding the indie author life, so I joined a bunch of author groups and Googled the hell out of everything I could devour online in terms of resources.
POST-publishing my own book was the first time I even heard about the term “reader magnet”.
I used to think if it was free, it was a pirated copy. I had no idea you could even give your book away freely in any way, shape or form. Legitimately. Like, on an Amazon page where “$0.00” shows up and you just click on it and BOOM! Free book on your Kindle, like magic.
I repeat… NO IDEA.
But once I heard about it, I figured everyone’s doing it… so I tried it myself. So far, I’ve given away 3315 copies of Book 1 of my series through two freebie promos (the first, more successful promo is documented here: I hit #1-#3 in my categories, and #87 overall on the Free Kindle list).
Despite those great results, I’m pretty sure only one of my reviews came from this freebie promotion. And *maybe* a handful of sales, if I’m lucky.
And my book (Book 1, that is) was well received, with mostly stellar reviews. So I figure — okay, surely if someone reads and loves Book 1, they’ll rush for Book 2.
…Nope.
That’s just not how it works, you see…
The Magnet vs. The Fickle Reader
I took a step back and decided to look at it from my own viewpoint as a reader.
In the writing community, there’s this notion of “the ideal reader” who will lap up everything you produce on the spot, with no question. An ideal reader who will BUY your books.
And here’s the thing: I am no one’s ideal reader.
I love reading, but I read a lot. I’m not genre-monogamous, so I also hop around a lot, and I generally don’t read the same “type” of book continuously. In the past month alone, I’ve read 20+ authors from at least 5 genres — as you’ll note from my Book Reviews Reader Blog.
I should mention — I’m also a foodie who loves a little of everything and gets excited by new restaurants, tastes and fusions. And I’m also a traveller, who prefers to go to a new place rather than back to the same spots all the time.
So, yep, you’ve guessed it… I love — love — love VARIETY. That’s just who I am as a PERSON. So as a reader, yep… the same applies.
I’ve signed up to newsletters for at least 20 individual authors, and I still open their emails, and I don’t unsubscribe (that’s just rude). I love hearing what they’re up to, and getting those lovely sneak previews and behind-the-scenes moments. But at the same time, I’m fickle.
Even if I enjoy a freebie, I may still hesitate to click “purchase” on another book, the moment I’m done. I’m in the mood for a different flavour, so I may wait awhile before I go back to that author. And, sometimes by that time I’m “in the mood”, I might have forgotten how to find them or their books! (This is actually why I started following some authors… so I could “bookmark” them for later!!!)
So, as a reader… I’ve gotten something for free (the magnet), and I’m unlikely to ever be in a position to always be giving something back (actually sticking onto the damn fridge).
“Tough Sell” or “Grazing Consumer Culture”?
Now, I’m a tough sell, because I read a lot. And I’m a super-picky reader. The amazing books ARE out there. I know they are. I’ve found some of them!
And I HAVE purchased books that rocked my world, after reading the author’s freebie first. It just doesn’t happen often enough.
Sometimes, part of my hesitation is that I’m actually afraid it WON’T be as awesome. I’m scared to risk NOT getting that “reader high” again. I’m wary that it might have been a fluke, and I’ll be crushed. (*Sigh* I’ve been burnt by this before.)
But usually it’s a much more basic reason: I’ll be hovering over the “Buy” button, knowing the book will probably be just as awesome, and then remember — oh F##!@#!@K! Do I really NEED this book? What about the others I still have to read???!!!!!
Sigh. It’s a bleak outlook, but there you have it.
This is me as a reader. And I know I’m not alone in this.
We’ve cultivated a culture of “grazing” that celebrates low attention spans. And cheapness. Nope. Scratch that. FREENESS.
In my non-writer life, as a marketing professional, we’re encouraged to “get our message” across in the first 5-10 seconds of video content. Our applications are chock full of ads that we mindlessly close off, to get to the free stuff.
Netflix throws the entire world of entertainment at you, and the abundance of choice can be crippling. Flick, flick, flick… nothing to watch!
And, in the book world, there’s Kindle Unlimited, where the “pagereads” concept expects you to never have to necessarily finish a book. And the scary part is that unlike Netflix, you don’t even need a Kindle Unlimited subscription to get “free” books!
Authors throw them at you. All the time. We even PAY to GIVE AWAY our books. Yes. That is crazy. The even sadder part… is that it’s also NECESSARY.
Volume vs. Validity of Work
So if I’m a fickle reader, what about the flipside?
As I writer, I don’t write nearly fast enough, I barely market myself, and I work a full-time job on top of my sideline writing “hobby”. So…
How can I expect my “ideal reader” to be patiently waiting on me?
No wonder authors are pumping books out like it’s going out of style!
The indie author life is a numbers game… the more you have, the more money you make, even if you hardly sell anything.
The trick is VOLUME. After all, if you have 20 kids, you have a higher probability that ONE of them will do something important with its life, right? That’s how authors seem to be operating. More books, more writing… if you want even a trickle of money.
And I’m not saying that having a huge backlist necessarily means the writing is bad. (This is a HUGE point of contention on a well-known Facebook author group that has almost 30,000 members to date, and even holds writing conventions and everything. I repeat: a HUGE point of contention! So I’m not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole!)
There are AWESOME writers with FABULOUS books, and LOTS of them. They’re just doing it wayyyyyyy faster than I am, or ever could!
I can put my best foot forward, with each book… but I just can’t compete, volume-wise. At least not anytime soon.
Many authors can afford to give away one or two “freebie” magnet book babies, with 10-100+ other book babies to pick up the slack. What about those that only have a few… or maybe even just one?
It’s an uphill battle.
Notably, I recently made a concerted effort to:
- BUY BOOKS FOR MYSELF
- BUY BOOKS FOR OTHERS
- TELL FRIENDS & FAMILY TO GIFT ME BOOKS
So I’m trying to be a little less fickle.
But these days, “freeness” is so easy to come by, that I myself am always going to be WAY more of a “consumer” than I am an actual “buyer”. So, like I mentioned earlier:
I am no one’s “ideal reader”.
…What if I’m also no reader’s “ideal author”?
Fellow authors, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
