I wrote back in November 2015 that I don’t like free promotions. Well six months later, I’ve changed my mind. Here’s why.
My views still stand regarding how people regard free books. Free books typically don’t get many reviews. People will download them because they’re free, even if the book isn’t in a genre they like. “I’ll get to it eventually,” they say. I’ll be first to admit that I am guilty of doing this exact thing once or twice.
People tend to read (and in the end, review) the books they spend their hard-earned money on. Otherwise they’re wasting their hard-earned money. So as a generator of reviews, a free book promotion isn’t going to be that successful.
Where free promotions do shine is moving books up in rankings. It has been shown that if an ebook receives a lot of downloads, it can help rankings when it reverts to paid status again. I’ve got to focus on that and change the way I think about it. I can’t think of books downloaded for free as lost income, but a promotional boost in visibility. If I was advertising any other way, I’d have to pay out of my pocket. Instead, I’ll be paying with an ebook instead of money.
So, I’m going to try it and document the results in future posts. What’s the worst that could happen?
Stay tuned for the date!
