Saturday, July 06, 2013

Addicted to Writing Presents: No More Free Books.


HAPPY DAY AFTER!

Are your words exploding onto your word doc? I hope so. July is hot and after the beautiful fireworks all over this great country I hope everyone's writing is following suit.


Highland Miracle, part of a May Day Anthology by Rogues Angels, will be released this month as a single. The anthology is filled with fun and laughter, fairies and elves, time machines and wacky professors, and yes romance. Even if it's no longer May this is a fun read. Highland Miracle has Will o' wisps and matchmaking faeries, time machines and a mischievous little dog called Bandit.



Topic of the day: free books and expectations of readers who read ebooks.

So why is it that so many readers of ebook are coming to expect free books? Because they can get them free! Why buy one book if another can be purchase for no cost?

Will this trend end? I'm not sure. Free books seem to be good for everyone but the author. Oh, I'm guilty of giving books away, but no more. Perhaps I did gain a few fans because of the freebies, but are they fans only when they get something free? I wonder... How many of my other books do they purchase?

And what about the $0.99 book? I for one put a lot of work into my writing and know I've earned more than 99 cents a book. I write it, edit it, then edit again, send it to a critique partner, then complete edits from my publishing house, then read it again for galleys. And yes, I'm guilty of selling books for 99 cents. I've rationalized this. Three of my 99 centers were published by other houses, Kennsington and Awe-struck plus they are the first book in two different series. 
The Lakota/Pinkerton series begins with these two books originally published in the Zebra line at Kennsington. Dakota's Bride and My Angel. Then Allura is the first book in the Twelve Dancing Princess series published first with Awe-struck. All three now are published with Rogue Phoenix Press.

Will I offer more books for 99 cents? Probably not. 

Hopefully this trend will end and yet I'm not going to hold my breath. 

What do you think? Will the enormous number of freebies continue or will the trend come to an end?

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