Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: To Free or Not to Free?
There’s no one answer to this question; it depends on your purpose.
One conventional book marketing strategy for self-published authors is to have at least one book that is free.
This is particularly true of authors who are writing a series of novels: you make the first book free to prove yourself to readers and get them hooked on the story, and then they’ll buy the sequels.
Should Non-Fiction Books Be Free?
There’s no one answer to this question; it depends on your purpose.
If you’re a non-profit producing books for teachers all around the world, you may want to make your books free.
This book, for example, has reached hundreds of thousands of readers in service of OpenIntro’s mission: OpenIntro Statistics.
If you’re an individual author, and your non-fiction book is in service of some goal, then making your book free may be a good idea, too.
How Leanpub Changes the Game for Free Ebooks
Leanpub changes the calculus of the “To Free or Not to Free?” question in two pretty important ways.
First, we have a variable pricing model, which means you can set the Minimum Price to $0.00, and the Suggested Price to a paid price, like $19.99.
People can then choose to get the book for free, or pay you something for it. (Pro tip: lots of people pay something for books on Leanpub that they could get for free.)
Second, we have a royalty pool for “Free With Membership” books.
This is a great option for people who want their book to be part of a big set of free books people can essentially get subscription access to. You can learn how to opt in here.
But Usually Free is Not the Right Idea
With all that said, our position is that making your book free is usually not the right idea.
Typically self-published authors make their books free just because they’re shy!
Your book took a lot of work to write and it’s worth something to other people. That means you should charge something for it - and usually more than you think!
