Giving away something for free is very hard for some people to get their head around. I mean, for a novel, the author has spent many, many hours writing and editing, surely they deserve to get paid for that work?

There are lots of things we ‘deserve’ in this life, but the truth is, deserving something doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically get it. I prefer to look at what works. What helps me sell more books.

It’s easy to think that every book you give away is one that someone might have paid you for. It’s easy to think that you’re losing money by giving away your ebook for free. But I don’t believe it works that way.

I think, when you give something away for free, you’re trading it for good will. People love to get something for free (especially if it’s something good, an ebook that’s well written and edited). They’re likely to tell their friends, even after the promotion has ended. They’re likely to come back and buy another book later on.

Yes, many free ebooks are downloaded, and many don’t ever get read. We all have ebooks on our devices that we haven’t gotten around to reading. It’s true. But the more your book cover is in front of people’s eyes, the more likely they are to remember it later, and the more people download it, the more people will read it (even if it’s just a portion of the downloads). I know that at least some people read my book during the last promotion, since I had several hits on the Reckless Rescue extras I uploaded and linked to from the back of the book. I’m sure there were more who didn’t visit.

Reckless Rescue will be free from today (the 15th of May), to the 17th. Please help me spread the word using the buttons below.