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One of the problems, however, is that charging for a book signals its value. Whenever someone is offering something for free on their website, assuming I have n

by abnry 7y ago

One of the problems, however, is that charging for a book signals its value. Whenever someone is offering something for free on their website, assuming I have no prior knowledge of the reputation of the author, it is easy to make me think that it is free because no one else wants it.

insideBig3 7y ago
This is really sad. I saw a off site PDF was the top result of my book. So I gave up and gave the book away for free. Guess I'll be charging money now.
umvi 7y ago
Why not both? Charge for physical/kindle copies on Amazon, give away PDF for free on your personal website.
- abnry 7y ago
  This is a good middle ground. Alternatively, you can charge an incredibly small amount for the book, like $1. Even asking for donations when you download the book suggests greater worth, in my mind.
- bor0 7y ago
  This is exactly what I did with my first book. It is available for free on Leanpub, but I charge minimum for Kindle/print using Amazon KDP. I just wanted to get my message across and learn something on the way. It also sells relatively well, but that is a side-effect of my initial intentions :)
rikroots 7y ago
> charging for a book signals its value Evidence is mostly anecdotal (not my anecdotes) but the main reasons why people buy a book are: - they know, know of, or have heard good things about the author (author platform) - the book was recommended to them by a friend, or authority they trust - they have to buy it either for themselves (textbooks, reading list, bookclub, etc), or for someone else (gifts) ... Which indicates (to me) that the price point of the book is generally not a high priority on the reader's decision-making tree, especially as the majority of books are cheap (compared to the costs of other forms of entertainment). Smashwords (my main distribution channel) currently tells me I've given away 3,900 books over the past 360 days. Google books generally reports smaller numbers than Smashwords (60-70%). Amazon results are less than 100, but then they force me to price the books on their platform. I'm not disputing your point (that my books are so crap I have no choice but to give them away). But it doesn't take away from the quote I lifted from the article, in my first comment: giving books away for free is a good thing if you're not in the business of writing books for profit.
vasili111 7y ago
I can speak of myself. I think that author is giving away ebook for free because his book is so good that when you will see ebook you will want to buy it in paper. Paper book is more convenient for me than ebook. It is much easier to jump back to the other part of the book when needed and make notes in paper version than ebook. Yes you can print ebook, but it is less convenient to use separate lists than whole book. I have many paper books that are available for free in internet.
- DrNuke 7y ago
  Ebooks can be updated, though, and you can get updates for free after you make a single purchase, for example through the Kindle platform? It becomes a sort of BaaS or Book-as-a-Service, which seems a nice way to accommodate both parties.
  - Avamander 7y ago
    They can also be updated in the sense that they're removed from my device. I've had that happen to my apps, it happened to people using Microsoft's service, I simply can't trust any proprietary software to do the updating unfortunately, I'd love to have a few typos fixed in 50-year-old books however.

by abnry 7y ago

insideBig3 7y ago

This is really sad. I saw a off site PDF was the top result of my book. So I gave up and gave the book away for free. Guess I'll be charging money now.

umvi 7y ago

Why not both? Charge for physical/kindle copies on Amazon, give away PDF for free on your personal website.

abnry 7y ago
This is a good middle ground. Alternatively, you can charge an incredibly small amount for the book, like $1. Even asking for donations when you download the book suggests greater worth, in my mind.
bor0 7y ago
This is exactly what I did with my first book. It is available for free on Leanpub, but I charge minimum for Kindle/print using Amazon KDP. I just wanted to get my message across and learn something on the way. It also sells relatively well, but that is a side-effect of my initial intentions :)

rikroots 7y ago

> charging for a book signals its value Evidence is mostly anecdotal (not my anecdotes) but the main reasons why people buy a book are: - they know, know of, or have heard good things about the author (author platform) - the book was recommended to them by a friend, or authority they trust - they have to buy it either for themselves (textbooks, reading list, bookclub, etc), or for someone else (gifts) ... Which indicates (to me) that the price point of the book is generally not a high priority on the reader's decision-making tree, especially as the majority of books are cheap (compared to the costs of other forms of entertainment). Smashwords (my main distribution channel) currently tells me I've given away 3,900 books over the past 360 days. Google books generally reports smaller numbers than Smashwords (60-70%). Amazon results are less than 100, but then they force me to price the books on their platform. I'm not disputing your point (that my books are so crap I have no choice but to give them away). But it doesn't take away from the quote I lifted from the article, in my first comment: giving books away for free is a good thing if you're not in the business of writing books for profit.

vasili111 7y ago

I can speak of myself. I think that author is giving away ebook for free because his book is so good that when you will see ebook you will want to buy it in paper. Paper book is more convenient for me than ebook. It is much easier to jump back to the other part of the book when needed and make notes in paper version than ebook. Yes you can print ebook, but it is less convenient to use separate lists than whole book. I have many paper books that are available for free in internet.

DrNuke 7y ago
Ebooks can be updated, though, and you can get updates for free after you make a single purchase, for example through the Kindle platform? It becomes a sort of BaaS or Book-as-a-Service, which seems a nice way to accommodate both parties.
- Avamander 7y ago
  They can also be updated in the sense that they're removed from my device. I've had that happen to my apps, it happened to people using Microsoft's service, I simply can't trust any proprietary software to do the updating unfortunately, I'd love to have a few typos fixed in 50-year-old books however.