You spent a lot of time writing your book. You invested money to get it properly edited and to give it a fitting cover. So, why would you ever want to give it away for free? You may be surprised to learn that many successful independent authors consider giving away their books for free to be a key step in finding readers, becoming profitable, and ultimately making a career out of their writing. This article explains not only reasons why you may want to give your book away for free, but also how you can set up a permanently free (aka permafree) book on Amazon.
Why Give Away Your Book for Free
There are a number of reasons why indie authors give away their books for free, but the majority of them center around one topic: marketing. It comes as no surprise that self-published authors typically have more difficulty reaching readers than authors whose books have been traditionally published. Thus, many indie authors struggle to grow an audience and make a career out of their writing. However, one method that has consistently proven to be successful for emerging authors is to give away books for free. This marketing strategy can help a book with few ratings to gain more reviews. It can cause readers to start a book series that they otherwise may have never given any consideration to. And it can help readers discover new authors to follow. Amazon, through their KDP Select program, allows authors to give away their book for free five days per quarter, and you can click here to learn more about using KDP Free Days. While a few free days can reach many readers, permanently free books will reach an even greater audience. To maximize the successfulness of a permafree book, many authors have found that it benefits them to offer the first book in a series for free in order to hook readers, then charge a reasonable price for sequels.
How to Set Up a Permafree Book on Amazon
Amazon is a business that is designed to make money. As such, they don’t allow authors to set their book’s price as free. However, since Amazon recognizes the need to be competitive, along with the benefits of offering free digital downloads, they do price match ebooks, allowing them to be offered permanently free on their site when they are priced free on other retailer sites. It requires a small amount of extra effort for authors to set up permafree books on Amazon, but many have found that doing so can be beneficial, or even invaluable, to their writing career. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial for setting your book to be permanently free on Amazon.
- Publish your book through Kindle Direct Publishing with your book’s price set to $0.99, but do not enroll in KDP Select
- Publish your book on Barnes & Noble or Kobo (which can be done directly or through a secondary company such as Smashwords), and set your price as free
- Visit the Amazon KDP Help Center > Pricing > Price Matching
- Click on the “I Still Need Help” button, then the “Send us an Email” button and let them know that your book is free via one of their competitors
- Amazon will respond right away, and they will generally price match your book within 72 hours
Once your book is permafree on Amazon, you’ll want to make sure readers know about it. There are many effective options for inexpensive promotion of free books, such as MyBookCave.com. Also, don’t miss the Free Book Promotion Opportunities for permanently free books at DigitalBookToday.com and ReadingDeals.com. For a full list of dozens of book promotion options along with their prices, click the button below.
