Yet Another Author Discovers Giving Away Ebooks Increases Sales
from the more-and-more-and-more dept
We've been posting a ton of examples lately of authors giving away ebooks for free and seeing that it noticeably increases sales of their actual books. By this point, I'd think that such stories are old hat and don't need to be repeated. But if you look through the comments on some of our posts, you'll find people who insist that this doesn't work or that we haven't shown any examples. One commenter recently said that there's no proof that this works unless "50% of publishers adopt such a model." So, for the time being, here's yet another example, as pointed out by my colleague, Chris. SciFi author John Scalzi just participated in publisher Tor's recent effort to offer up free ebooks, and discovered an almost immediate boost in sales. He admits that there could be other factors involved, but tries to account for all of them, and concludes that it's almost definitely the free ebooks that are driving the noticeable increase. So, here we are. Yet another example of it working. How long until someone points out in the comments that this, too, is a special case? Just how many special cases do we need to show before people recognize that this model does work? Update: Just for clarification's sake, I should note that Scalzi has apparently been giving away free stuff for years, and seems a bit upset that I implied otherwise. Sorry about that. Doesn't change the point of the post, of course. If anything, it would seem to enhance the point.
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Filed Under: books, ebooks, free, john scalzi
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Quote me correctly
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Re: Quote me correctly
There are enough other industries where we've seen something similar and seen that it works. Take music. While not authorized, just about all music is available online for free -- meaning that it's all competing. Yet the overall market for music has *greatly* expanded. More people than ever before are making music. More people than ever before are listening to more music than ever before. More money today is being spent on music-related purchases than ever before. Live performance revenue is greater than at any time in history. Even the sale of musical instruments is higher than in the past. Yet, by your argument, that couldn't be, since all this free music is competing with each other.
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Re: Re: Quote me correctly
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Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
Ugh. Corey, I've repeated this many times directly to you: yes, authors do not make much money outside of selling books NOW, TODAY with TODAY'S system. But if the system itself changes, then new models open up where they can make much more money outside of selling books.
20 years ago, you would have said the same thing about musicians and concerts. They made more money selling the music directly and concerts were loss leaders as a promotion. That equation has flipped.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
The new model tried may fail, but the effect of trying something new certainly will lead to better than the status quo.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
Yet more money is coming in from the purchase of music and related products now than at any previous time in history.
To believe that an advancement in technology will destroy publishing of a scarce resource (the authorship of new materials) is completely ignoring historical trends in almost every field. Yes, it most certainly will change the business model around that material and likely in an unpredictable way, but it won't remove the incentive to produce...otherwise there's no incentive to produce.
No incentive to produce leads to a much greater scarcity, thus opening up an even greater opportunity for whoever decides to take advantage of it.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
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Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
Stop focusing on the what-if scenerio and start focus on what is really happening in the world
Experiment. Research. Find examples. Study economics.
Your "what if" is nothing more than an assertion. An untested assumption.
If you're not willing to plunge yourself testing Mike Masnick's theory, that's too bad and understandable. But you haven't prove Mike wrong yet.
He have horde of evidences to back his point up. You have none by which to prove him wrong.
I already tried what Mike proposes. Despite prediction of my business model not going to work. It never did fail. I still make money and the things that would happen never did.
You didn't experiment. You don't know if it work. You're just saying that it will likely fail. Understandably you scared to experiment. But you can't beat Mike in the court of science with what you have now.(Which is no counterexample, no research, etc)
You're a historian right? Act like one. You said that there are many examples that would contradict Mike's theory right? Point them out for us!
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Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
Jim Butcher is another author that I have done this with. When I was still in high school, a friend loaned me a book from Frank Herbert called Dune. I went out and purchased a copy of my own. I have no problem with purchasing books or giving authors money in order to help them write more books that I will enjoy. Getting free copies into my hands lets me try out new authors and find new prospects.
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Re: Re: Re: Quote me correctly
What happened to this? I'm sure it would have made us all a lot happier.
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Re: Quote me correctly
I can download free ebooks of thousands of books from the Gutenberg project, yet you can walk into any bookstore in the country and buy physical copies of many of these. There are also many authors working today who give away their books and still make money in many other ways. To give the obvious example, Cory Doctorow. All of his books are available with CC licences, yet he makes money from lectures, even from comic-book adaptations of his work.
"I don't care about your OPINION on that, the point is it hasn't been proven one way or another until a large % of the market does it."
So in other words, you're saying the exact thing that Mike predicted in his article:
"How long until someone points out in the comments that this, too, is a special case? Just how many special cases do we need to show before people recognize that this model does work?"
You're just another one of those "that darned newfangled automobile won't last because not enough people will buy it" types, aren't you? Go back to sleep, we'll wake you up when the world has finished changing to the new business models.
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wonder how long it will take
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Is it really any wonder...
> In my case, I would guess my readership would have to increase...
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It will be much easier to just simply crush them in the free market instead of trying to advise them on how to survive.
They think it won't work. Well let see what happen 10 years latter. My bet is that those who understand and use the economics in Mike's various posts will have the last laugh.
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I believe it.
Seriously though. Read it. John Dies at the End, amazing book.
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How could that possibly boost sales?
lol
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I am willing to bet that free ebooks will change that. Are blogs not changing that? There are are industries and conferences being built of the brands created by blogs (who are written by authors), will possibly millions of paid attendance last year alone.
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LOL!
Nice!
The Bible. It's free - heck, you can find free copies no problem. Motels, Churches, etc.
Hmmm, wonder what the best selling book of all time was. Gee, I dunno. Not only has the bible sold more copies than any other book - but's it's outdone them all by at the very lest - 6 times as many sales.
Ever watch a movie on Cable or TV and then bought it?
Ever heard a song (even if they play it a lot on the radio) and went and bought the album?
OF COURSE NOT!
That's silly. And just an opinion.
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Musicians can give your songs for free, and charge for the live performance... but RadioHead has proven it can also sell CDs.
Writers can give your ebooks for free and, if they can't get paid for a "live performance" (or speech), they can charge for printed copies. Believe: many people will pay to have a printed copy of your book, after "tasting" the ebook.
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It's worked on me, at least
I don't want to read a book while tied to a computer. Makes it hard to read on the bus, or in the park or wherever. Of the three books I have downloaded, one I read part way through before deciding it was worth buying at some stage in the future and stopped reading it as a pdf, one I started reading and decided that I had to have it and went out and bought the dead tree version and one I started reading, hated inside the first 30 pages and stopped reading while being glad I hadn't wasted my money on that.
That's one sale from three reads. In each case, there was no way I would have picked the book up off a shelf in a bookstore, read the blurb and bought it. In each case, the free version was a potential sale that categorically did not exist before the free version.
I feel the model has potential and I find it encouraging to see more authors supporting it.
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You are right that those drawbacks are good reasons right now that free ebooks are actually a benefit in promoting sale of physical books, and that result has been demonstrated repeatedly. There are a few types of books for which it might not work -- books that you don't typically read large passages from, such as reference books, but I don't think that invalidates the model.
It seems from everything that Corey has written here that he doesn't believe that authors could make a living if the text of their work were freely available electronically. He must not believe that society, as a whole, will find a way to pay for production of work that they value. I guess he'll just have to sit back and wait to see it happen, eventually.
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Books will last forever.
Also, what format is the eBook manual? Another eBook? Books are eternal.
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Books, DVDs, and CDs are a form of art. we decorate our homes with them, we share them, we take pride in our personal art collections. People spend money on art despite it being free to view online, at the museum or the gallery.
As ebooks become more widely available and are free the price of specialty books will likely rise. People will still buy books, however, and the numbers sold in many genres will also likely rise. I'm sorry but bits and bytes are no comparison to a leather bound illustrated work of art. Free ebooks are probably the best thing to happen to the printed word since movable type.
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Baen Books
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dejá vù
i've just took time to write something on the other thread. I'm bored with this. It seems to produce no result and has no end.
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Corey is right.
Alternative models? Thousands of fans will PAY to lineup in Dayton, Ohio, to meet the author of some novel? Hell, most authors can't get a dozen people to lineup in Dayton for a FREE book signing, much less pay to do so. When was the last time (this will bring someone out from under the rug) that you PAID to see an author? Fine. Now, when was the fifth time?
Books aren't music. Movies aren't music. Software isn't music. 99.99% of all of the authors out there don't perfom, don't hold concerts, don't go on the road, and don't sell t-shirts.
Corey is right. "Alternative" models that may or may not work in one field may or may not work in another. And NONE of them has been proven to scale when any significant percentage of the market is doing the same exact thing.
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Re: Corey is right.
Downloaded music is not experienced in any different way to physically bought music. The only difference is the medium it's stored on (which can be easily changed if desired e.g. by ripping).
Reading a book, however, is a very different experience. I know that I will certainly never settle into reading eBooks on a regular basis - I just can't get into books on a PC in the same way that I can with a wad of paper.
If the eBook becomes the standard, people will still pay for them even if they're free. Don't believe me? Look on Amazon - you can buy eBook versions of public domain titles even though eBooks are freely available on Gutenberg. Authors can also make money in other ways - from audiobooks, for example. Besides, in this case the authors themselves didn't have to even do anything - this was a publisher-led promotion.
Maybe newer generations will be different, and we'll come to that hurdle later on. For now, the sole point of this article is that the eBook is not replacing the paper version, it's acting as advertising for the paper version. therefore giving something away CAN mean more profit and that's the whole point raised.
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But this is a special case
I can imagine a number of books i've half read (or forced myself to finish), if given away for free, would have lead me to start entire boycotts against that author :-)
"Free" only works if people see value in what you give them. They need to feel that the time THEY GIVE YOU (in consuming your free thing) was a worthwhile trade, so much so they'd pay to do it again (on other items, books, ancillaries, etc...)
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You say that like it's a bad thing.
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Another 1st Amendment Exercise against US Music
I believe that "Free" should be tied to scarce economics, much like how the music industry has set aside a portion of reproduction rights to create promo-only CDs, with hopes to increase retail sales. The thing is, promo-only versions usually went through a 2nd re-engineering who fixed the issues at the label. (See Link)
So I bought another CD from a US-based artist yesterday. and yes, as you may guess, the music industry gets another rant from the industry's biggest fan...
___________________________________________________________
I am tired of having to buy $32.00 CDs from Amazon. When you add in shipping and import fees, it's easily $57 bucks.
Some may say it's because the dollar is exchanged well below the Euro, but the problem, as I perceive it, is industry wide (At least stateside.)
Your Mickey Mouse Club that minted the industry's last decade's paychecks are getting old, falling out, shaving their heads, trying to become an astronaut, taking jobs on the TV Guide Channel. Timberlake is the only levelheaded one in the whole group. Good God. Maybe he can convince Timbaland to take a few audio engineering classes, even at a community college.
Some go so far as to ask that we "Leave Britney Alone". Question is- do such outbursts come from the realization that all the teen pop idols manufactured in the past two decades lack a lifecycle-focused safety net?
So in the end, I say good job RIAA, and fantastic work in falling in line, labels. When it comes to economics, an industry can be graded on several factors such as gross, net sales. They seem to be pretty good at these numbers.
However, one of the more important KPIs you should measure your business should be productivity.
Productivity in economics refers to measures of output from production processes, per unit of input. This seems to be overlooked within this industry. When we look at RIAA efforts in removing productivity capability over the past decade, it's not surprising that the entire music industry is having the challenges they are.
RIAA, this is for your own good: you should have stayed focused on what you were originally created for: standardization of depth and pitch of vinyl recordings between labels. You have no usefulness to adding productivity and promotion of artists or sales. Possibly consider letting half of your lawyers go and replace them with stellar folks who have Masters or Doctorates in Business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA
American Music: get out of my house. I'm supporting Britain's efforts.
http://tinyurl.com/26buuc
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ebook marketing
Does anyone have any experrience with this approach? Send me your comments ( divineeconomyconsulting@msn.com ).
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Re: ebook marketing
Why, when I'm in the store, do i have to fill out some piece of paper, stick a postage stamp on it, and mail it away, eventually getting back a cheque that I have to take to a bank? Just discount the dang thing right then and there.
Their hope is that a certain percentage of people will simply lose the paper or never drop it in the mail or not bother to deposit the cheque (often for just a couple of bucks).
My understanding is that Best Buy has changed their practice on this whole rebate thing, but I've not bothered walking in one of their stores in two or more years to find out.
So what is the point of offering a rebate? You aren't "selling" anything if you are getting the money back, unless you are hoping to cash in on those that don't rebate...in which case it is sort of a sleazy approach (IMO).
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Re: ebook marketing
I've bought a few books from authors after reading a few chapters on Google Book Search and Amazon as well.
As for the entire book, that's completely up to you. Rebates are a fallacy- some statistics show that 70% are never cashed in or are incomplete when submitted.
With a literary work, the last thing you want to do is have someone buy a book, love the content, and then get a letter saying that something was missing. This could negatively reflect on the campaign endeavor which could also skew customer's perception of your product.
Here's one that's a little more creative- In leu of a rebate, can you include a coupon of equal value for a value-added product that your customer's demographic would likely purchase anyway? A simplistic example would be to sell the book at Starbucks, and upon purchase, customers get a free Starbucks coffee, perhaps?
If that rebate value could be traded for something which allows instant gratification (and lower level of effort to the consumer than a rebate) it may have a better value to you as the publisher and additionally be valuable to the Point-of-Purchase partners whom you decide to do business with.
I really have no idea, Bruce.
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How about ad supported e-Book?
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Free Ebooks
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Prisoner's dilemma
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Free E-Books = Good Stuff
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Add another author
Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications is still available for download and sales of the book are doing just fine. We're even selling a few e-books!
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Alternative models
how many authors/publishers have had proprietary works turned into major motion pictures since the advent of film?
Even barring the recent trend of comic book adaptations and Shakespearean classics, the number is incredibly high.
Atonement, the Girl with the Pearl Earring, Golden Compass, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, HARRY POTTER etc. etc. etc.
And these movies make their authors MILLIONS of dollars. And then there is the ancillary products: toys, games, lunchboxes, etc., ALL of which CANNOT be pirated even.
If you will insist that this only favors a minority of authors, all you are saying is that "Only those authors whose story is entertaining enough to the public will receive such endorsements." Ergo - The MARKET will chose which authors it wants to reward with wealth for their production. Which is how the whole system is supposed to work anyhow, isn't it?
How's that for a business model?
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