Does permafree still work?
Occasionally I see writers taking about whether or not “permafree” still works. Permafree is a marketing tactic where a writer with a long series of books makes the first book of the series more or less permanently free. The idea is that readers will read the first book, enjoy it, and then move on to purchase additional books in the series.
Some writers strongly dislike the idea of permafree, since they feel it devalues literature and writing in general. Other writers aren’t opposed to the idea, but doubt that it is effective.
Fortunately, while feelings are subjective, math is not. I recently made CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP, the first book in the CLOAK GAMES series, permafree. Here is the Amazon sales chart of the last thirty days for the second book in the series, CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER:
Note that CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP went permafree on November 30th.
Permafree, like any other marketing tactic, has its time and place, but it still can be useful if employed at the proper time and place. Generally, I think permafree works best once a series has 3-5 books, but a writer can’t expect older books to sell well forever. Eventually, you do have to write new ones.
Fortunately, I enjoy doing that. 🙂
-JM
At the moment I have more favorite authors who are writing more favorite series faster than I can read them.
But before that, here was my formula for finding new series/authors and it’s how I discovered you:
I go to amazon, select the genre, select more than 4 stars, select price lowest to highest (since there’s so many in most genres all the books for the first many dozen pages are free), look for books with at least 20 reviews (averaging more than 4 stars), first book in series with at least four books already written in the series. For science fiction/fantasy also preferably male author, preferably female lead character.
Then, assuming the book description catches my fancy, I read the first book for free and if I like it enough I’m more than happy to pay for the rest of the books in the series (up to $6 per book). A must for me is that the first book must end at a reasonable stopping point – if it leaves me hanging I won’t continue on which is basically a way of saying that the author has to have enough confidence in his writing that his readers will want to keep reading without needing to do the cliffhanger thing.
In my experience, my enjoyment of non-free first books and subsequent series has been no better than free books, so I will stick with free first books.
On the other hand, I’m the only one I know who uses this formula, so it’s only one data point.
On the third hand, I recommend books like Ghosts to others, some of which have liked it and are working their way through the series. Their are a few of them so that one free book has probably generated a few hundred dollars in sales; none of which would’ve happened if Child of the Ghosts wasn’t permafree (or at least free when I stumbled upon it).
That is a pretty good system, I think. I suspect most people aren’t nearly as systematic about it. 🙂 For me, I usually just operate off word of mouth.
CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is still permafree.
Unfortunately, I haven’t enjoyed the books I’ve read via word of mouth even as much as those I’ve read via my system, and at least with my system I don’t have to pay for reading the duds.
Apparently, I have bizarre tastes (a 50+ year old male reading magical fantasy – pretty silly, really). Perhaps bizarre tastes is why I like your books? 🙂
By the way, I’ve started a typo pass on Shatter Stone and there are remarkably few typos so far. There may not even be enough to bother with a revision (but I’ll send them to you anyway). Whatever you did for proofreading for that particular book worked (so far)!
Nothing wrong with your tastes! Best of part of ereaders is that no one can easily see what your tastes are anyway. 🙂
I’ve found myself with more free time in Q4 2016 than I thought originally, so I’ve been reading my books aloud to myself. I did that for MASK OF SPELLS, FROSTBORN: THE DWARVEN PRINCE, and CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE, and it does seem to work for catching typos.
I also agree about the “reasonable stopping point” – if a writer’s going to do permafree, it has to be a complete story.
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I got a free omnibus of eight books from Amazon. I read the first book and loved it, bought the rest of the series and then anything else I could find by that author. The same thing happened for the second book in the omnibus, and the third. I did this for seven of the eight books in the omnibus and now have seven ‘buy anything this person writes’ list. That’s how I found you! I think ‘first book free’ is a great ides and I agree that you need to have most of the series written before doing it. I currently have four series wher I’m waiting for the next book.
Thanks! I am glad you liked the books. I have a bunch of series I am currently reading and awaiting the next volume too. 🙂