Gail Z. Martin

Charlotte, NC

United States

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Something About Me and My Book:
Do free sample downloads hurt or help a new book?
My belief is that, now more than ever, free sample downloads help to sell readers on your book, especially if they haven’t gotten to know you yet as an author. Readers today are pinching pennies just like everyone else, and before they pay good money for a book by an author they haven’t read before, they want to know whether or not they’ll like it. They want to read a sample—and often, a bigger sample than the few pages they might see on Amazon.
Sampling is a time-tested successful marketing technique. Food kiosks at the mall offer you a bite of their best dish because they know that if you like one bite, you’ll come back for the whole platter. Retailers and service providers offer free samples for the same reason. A free sample overcomes resistance and makes it risk-free to give something new a try.
A growing number of authors don’t just stop with free excerpts; they offer the whole book for free, and report that doing so helps, rather than hurts, sales. Scott Sigler and Cory Doctorow are among the loudest proponents, but many other authors have also commented on the effect.
In my own experience, not only does offering free sample excerpts of my own books boost readership and sales, but when I offer (with permission of the authors) special online events with free samples from my author friends’ books, the whole online event gains more visibility and everyone wins with more web traffic. Check out my Days of the Dead blog tour that’s going on right now, and you’ll see seven different sample excerpts of my own books, plus samples from 13 participating authors. Everyone wins!
What do you think about free excerpts and sample downloads? I’d love to hear.
Thanks for reading this post—it’s part of my week-long Days of the Dead blog tour, so please catch the rest of my posts, contests, giveaways and goodies at www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com and my other partner sites. You’ll also find free downloads from my books, as well as freebies from some of my author friends as Trick-or-Treat favors. Download Vampires Inc. by Rick Taubold & Chris R. Hosey (Trick-or-Treat goody #9 www.double-dragon-ebooks.com\free\vampireinc.pdf ) plus a preview chapter of my new book, The Sworn http://www.chroniclesofthenecromancer.com/TheSworn.html
Website:
http://www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com

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