Evidence is mostly anecdotal (not my anecdotes) but the main reasons why people buy a book are:
- they know, know of, or have heard good things about the author (author platform)
- the book was recommended to them by a friend, or authority they trust
- they have to buy it either for themselves (textbooks, reading list, bookclub, etc), or for someone else (gifts)
... Which indicates (to me) that the price point of the book is generally not a high priority on the reader's decision-making tree, especially as the majority of books are cheap (compared to the costs of other forms of entertainment).
Smashwords (my main distribution channel) currently tells me I've given away 3,900 books over the past 360 days. Google books generally reports smaller numbers than Smashwords (60-70%). Amazon results are less than 100, but then they force me to price the books on their platform.
I'm not disputing your point (that my books are so crap I have no choice but to give them away). But it doesn't take away from the quote I lifted from the article, in my first comment: giving books away for free is a good thing if you're not in the business of writing books for profit.
Evidence is mostly anecdotal (not my anecdotes) but the main reasons why people buy a book are:
- they know, know of, or have heard good things about the author (author platform)
- the book was recommended to them by a friend, or authority they trust
- they have to buy it either for themselves (textbooks, reading list, bookclub, etc), or for someone else (gifts)
... Which indicates (to me) that the price point of the book is generally not a high priority on the reader's decision-making tree, especially as the majority of books are cheap (compared to the costs of other forms of entertainment).
Smashwords (my main distribution channel) currently tells me I've given away 3,900 books over the past 360 days. Google books generally reports smaller numbers than Smashwords (60-70%). Amazon results are less than 100, but then they force me to price the books on their platform.
I'm not disputing your point (that my books are so crap I have no choice but to give them away). But it doesn't take away from the quote I lifted from the article, in my first comment: giving books away for free is a good thing if you're not in the business of writing books for profit.