Back in October, I celebrated the one year publishing anniversary of The Buddha’s Bone by giving away the eBook for free in a 5 day promotion. I decided to wait for over a month to pass as a bare minimum to see any impact on subsequent sales, sales ranking or reviews; this has also given me time to assess whether or not I think offering free downloads is worth it. I’ve decided to divide my observations into the benefits, drawbacks and my opinion. Here is what I learned:
Benefits
1. It got free promotion for my book: I had 59 downloads without using any advertising other than posting on my author social media. (See counterpoint 1 below in drawbacks).
2. It boosted my sales ranking to #2 for free bestsellers in psychological literary fiction on Amazon UK and #7 for the same category on Amazon US (See counterpoint 2 below in drawbacks).
3. My book received a boost in Kindle Unlimited page reads in the weeks after the 5 day free deal finished, therefore the exposure worked (See counterpoint 3 below in drawbacks).
Drawbacks
1. None of the people who downloaded it for free have left any ratings or reviews, which I had been hoping for. It’s possible that they haven’t yet read it, or don’t intend to – maybe they habitually trawl for free books, whether or not they would read those books if they were being asked to pay. As an author, I’ll never know for sure.
2. Since my sales ranking was in the Top 100 free books category, this had no long lasting effect on my sales ranking once the promotion was over; my sales ranking returned to how it was before the 5 day free promotion.
3. There were no paid sales of my book in the week after the 5 day promotion, only Kindle page reads, as mentioned above. I assume that was because the exposure from my boosted sales ranking during the promotion ended after the 5 days. Furthermore, there were no spikes in sales of my other books in the week after the 5 day free promotion ended; it seems none of the readers who downloaded it for free turned into paying customers for my back catalogue.
My opinion
Before trying a free promotion, I had read around on other sites that offering free downloads works well for books at the start of a series, as often readers will then buy any subsequent titles. As The Buddha’s Bone is a standalone novel, I can’t confirm whether that may have worked for me or not. Do I think it was worth running a free promotion? Honestly, no. Getting more Kindle page reads in the weeks after the promo ended was a small boost, but not significant enough to make it worth giving away 59 copies. Do I have regrets? Again, no. I had been curious about what offering free downloads would amount to in terms of both my book and my author career, and I have learned much. I can say with certainty that I won’t be offering any of my other books for free. But it was valuable information for me to use when considering marketing techniques that work, or don’t, so in that respect, it was worth doing even if not to be repeated.
Leilanie Stewart 
My thinking has evolved about this issue. I think the goal of freebies (at least for the first year of the ebook) is to build author brand awareness and increase the numerical rating (how many stars on Amazon/Goodreads). Freebies haven’t brought many reviews (indeed, practically none), but it has brought (slightly) more ratings.
When I advertised an ebook on freebooksy and ereaderiq, I was paying on average 3-7 cents for each ebook downloaded. That was good. But I would recommend advertising a freebie on the same ad network no more than twice; results seems to fall off significantly after that point.
What’s concerning though is that the day I run freebie promotions I don’t get any increase in sales on the other ebooks on the same day. So consumers aren’t checking other titles by the same author on the day they see the freebie.
Lately I’ve been pushing towards methods to get email signups while giving away freebies. (Librarything, Booksirens). I would gladly give out freebies if I knew I could send recipients casual promotions via email later.
I think in my case I really didn’t see any significant benefits to offering a free ebook to do it again. But, I might play about with price promotions and see how that compares, as it’s something I’ve tried, though not extensively. Glad you got an increase in your ratings though, something like that would be a motivational factor for me, though in my case I saw neither an increase in ratings or reviews.
[…] 1. Giving away books for free reaps no rewards. To celebrate the one year bookiversary of The Buddha’s Bone in October 2022, I made the eBook free for 5 days. I had 59 downloads after promoting it for free on social media (I personally disagree with paying book marketing sites to run a promotion if a book is free. It doesn’t gain readers, just freeloaders). None of the ‘readers’ who downloaded it left ratings or reviews, as I had hoped might happen in exchange for a freebie, therefore I have no proof that any of them read it. You can read more about that topic in my blog post: Is giving away free ebooks worth it for authors? […]
I’m starting to wonder if book giveaways are only effective in certain genres and if you have a long series (so first in series free). It seems to me that everytime I do a free promo people who are not my target audience download and then my book’s rating takes a hit. For the books I haven’t given away copies I have less reviews but they seem to have found the right audience and sales are stronger.
I have a lot to think about between now and my next release.
I agree that it might only be worth it to make the first in a series free. It seems readers who download free ebooks will often be from outside the target readership as they’re often just trailing for any freebies, so chances of reviews or ratings is a gamble. I personally still feel the same way that I won’t be offering any free downloads at all, just doing 99p Kindle countdown sales instead, which have more positive results for me.
The free book gig has gone light years past its usefulness as a tool for budding authors. In fact, it has become another highly abused idea that has become an expectation from the vast majority of readers. It also attracts and feeds a community of book hoarders who will never read your book. At one time, it served a purpose… In moderation. Like all good things, it has been abused and converted into a way for other entities to make good money off your efforts. All the while leaving you paying for those outfits to take your money and giving you nothing in return. It’s a terrible business model on your end.
I did one free Goodreads giveaway early in my first book’s release. That was plenty, a popular platform of Amazon’s creation with a mega-huge readership. Of the one hundred books given away, I did well. I received eight reviews and twenty ratings with an average of 4.7 stars. It took a few weeks to get here. I may do that again with the release of the next series episode, but that will be the only free book promotion I will do.
The only outfits benefitting from your hard work when you continue to give it away in huge numbers are the book promoters and Amazon/KDP massively and hugely. There are millions of free book promotions being visited every day on Amazon. All those have Amazon Ads running continuously when you visit them, not just for books. Your free book is a free and successful advertising draw for Amazon.
Having a free book in the top one hundred for any amount of time on Amazon is not a best seller. It is a good giveaway and one hell of a good gig for Amazon and any other promotional service you may be paying to promote your free book. You’ve sold nothing but produced a lot of profit and benefit for others.
KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited are slightly better deals for your eBooks. Except for the monopoly enforced against your book being listed anywhere else. I make between $1.10 and $1.40 per full page read of the book’s number of pages. A free book generates a goose egg and a $.99 deal is about half as much as a KU book.
Free books have hamstrung the self-publishing industry, yes… industry. It produces a product and creates job opportunities for other industries. Mainly due to a gross overuse of the tactic and a plethora of promotional services heavily promoting the free book gig to generate good stats for their promotional gig.
Okay, I’m getting writer’s cramp now. ;^)