Friday, September 23, 2011

Why buy the Cow?

We've all heard the expression, "why buy the cow, when you get the milk for free?" And it makes sense when speaking to a teenager about dating and moral integrity. In fact, this saying may apply to many things in life, along with its counterpart, "there's no such thing as a free lunch."

But I submit that this is not always the case - especially when it comes to stories given away.

Recently, someone chastized me for offering some of my works free to all those interested in reading them. This person told me that "no serious writer should ever give their work away." They went on to tell me how giving one's creative efforts away with no expectation of compensation cheapens the work, and the author. Basically, they just kept talking until I was made to feel like an idiot for ever giving anything away.

Instead of cowering to this person's harsh words and unfounded opinions, I fought back with confidence and reasoning. I told them why I choose to offer samples of my creative efforts free of charge.

I believe that allowing readers to sample my work, and decide for themselves if they like it enough to buy other things I've written, is a great thing. I've found many new writers, and still enjoy their stories because of a simple free offering. These are authors I might not ever have read if they did not offer something free.

Readers response well to freebies. Why? Our economy, the flush of material out there since the onset of the eBook revolution, uncertainty of something new and untried. I could go on, but most of you understand full well, the reasoning for accepting someones offer of freebies.

From a writer's perspective, offering freebies gives my work a wider audience - and for someone like me, relatively unknown, this wider audience is invaluable. Plus, I believe it is the right thing to do. I feel offering a sample of my work free to the public is an honorable way to advertise my work.

So, for all of you out there that take full advantage of a free offering, I commend you. To show my gratitude to those few who frequent my website, (Yes, I believe they are few, and I really wish I knew who you were) I will relay this little tidbit of super secret information. From now on, in addition to my regular sales, I will occasionally offer one or more of my stories FREE for a limited time (usually one day) at All Romance eBooks. These offerings will be completely random, so you'll have to keep looking for the offers.

In addition to this offering, remember that I still have a couple of items offered free at both Smashwords and All Romance eBooks now, and always.

Those stories are: The Fifth Beauty at Smashwords, ARe, and Fantasy League at Smashwords, ARe.

By all means, if you do enjoy my stories, and would like to receives an occasional newsletter with excerpts, news of upcoming stories before anyone else gets it, and other special insider information, please leave your email address in the box above, and to the right.

Enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! I believe you may be the first person to ever respond to one of my posts here for a long time. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you. Your comments are valued.