“No one has ever become poor by giving.” —Anne Frank
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I occasionally give books to friends or acquaintances or as a prize for some contest or other, but I had always said I wouldn’t set my books to free on any of the retail sites. After all, I work hard to create a compelling story. I thought setting a book’s price to zero would lower its esteem in the eyes of readers.
But I hadn’t done any promotions for a while, and sales of my books had been slow, so I began rethinking the strategy of selling a book for nothing.
Understanding the Strategy
I found a post by Jane Friedman entitled “The Strategic Use of Book Giveaways and How They Can Increase Earnings Potential.” Even though the article was originally posted in 2015, it had been updated in 2025, so I took a look.
Jane references the A-I-D-A classic sales strategy when considering a give-away:
“First, get people’s attention—whether through an ad, a freebie, traditional media coverage, whatever. That creates interest. And if all goes well, you have desire and action to make a purchase later.”
She goes on to look at how you get that attention.
“The giveaway is one of the more powerful tools in the new author’s arsenal because it’s a way to get attention when you may not have anything else going for you.”
And even established authors may want to consider a freebie:
“But should established authors do giveaways? The “permafree” strategy is well-documented as an effective marketing tool—which means you make the first book in a series permanently available for free, as a gateway drug to the rest of your work.”
Making the Decision
I’m not yet convinced about setting one of my books to permafree, but the idea of attracting more readers by setting the price of the first book in my Watch Mystery series to zero was getting more appealing.
To add to my decision-making, I discovered that BookBub recently began a new type of promotion called “Free Reads,” and those promos are priced lower than their “Featured Deals” promos. That got me thinking maybe it was time to give it a try, so I submitted The Watch on the Fencepost, the first book in my Watch Mystery series, for a Free Reads deal, and BookBub selected it.
Preparing for the Promo
My books are available “wide”, on a range of retailers including Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play as well as Amazon. The first step was to set the price to zero on all platforms, but that presented a problem. Amazon’s KDP doesn’t allow you to list a book for 0.00, so how was I supposed to change it to be free? The solution is to set the price on all the other sites to 0.00, then contact KDP and request a price match for the Kindle book on Amazon. Amazon will comply, but it may take several days.
The Results
The Free Reads promo for The Watch on the Fencepost went out on October 12, and it resulted in close to 5,000 downloads on that day on Amazon alone. And I sold a few of my other titles at full price.
As the week went on, I glanced at the Amazon book detail page and found The Watch on the Fencepost ranked #1 in Christian Suspense, #2 in Cozy Mysteries, and #10 in all free books on Amazon. And the other book sales were mounting up.
I had intended to end the freebie after a week, but I was still getting a lot of downloads, so I decided to let it go for a while longer. Although I don’t have all the data from the other sites, it appears as of today a total of more than 10,000 downloads of the book will have been completed over all five book retailers. Since I’m still getting a lot of downloads and selling other books in the process, I’m going to wait a while longer before changing the price back.
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Was it worth it?
Yes. For my goals and the price I paid for the promotion, it was well worth it. Several things stand out to me:
- Discoverability: A lot more readers know my work and my name.
- Ratings and reviews: The Watch on the Fencepost has received more than one hundred additional ratings and reviews on Amazon since the Free Deals ad. Clearly, people are not just downloading, but many are reading and rating the book. Positive ratings and reviews plus sales volume impact Amazon’s recommendation and search algorithms
- The sale of the other books in the series implies folks like the first one. Although I haven’t added up all the royalties yet, it appears that the income from book sales may pay for the promo.
Is this strategy for everyone?
With all the positives I mentioned above, here’s a word of caution from Jane Friedman:
“Where I think indie authors run into trouble is when they only have 1 or 2 books to sell, and they have nothing else to offer readers … So there is no funnel or path for readers to follow. It is a dead-end road. The potential fan finishes the book, and then … you lose them. Maybe they’ll find your next book, if and when it comes, maybe not.”
Like everything else in life, making this decision depends on multiple criteria. Each of us has to weigh our writing goals against the cost and anticipated rewards from offering a freebie.
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So TKZers: Have you ever offered one of your books for free? What was your experience? Do you have plans for doing a freebie in the future?
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Why would someone leave an expensive watch on a fencepost? Grab your FREE copy of The Watch on the Fencepost and find out. Click the image to go to the Amazon book detail page.
Enjoy!