Free.

(Get The Redemption for free on Kindle download, 9/28-9/30 here. Won’t show free till this weekend.)

It’s something I said I’d not do. Yet when you have only attracted a few hundred readers in a couple of years and only a handful of reviews, you have to decide to: (1) Stop writing – my stuff is not that good, (2) go with the status quo, or (3) try something radical.

#1 could be true but you can’t let yourself believe it. Doubt is such an insidious evil to writers, it is hard to even explain it to those who have not penned a 300 page novel. Trust me, even famous writers who draft million sellers feel like they are writing garbage sometimes. My writing can certainly improve, but the stories are there and fairly well told (IMO).

So on to #2. One of my previous blog posts dealt with what I am up against–competition for eyeballs as some would say. And I’m competing with not only millions of other authors, but with the idiot device too (your cell phone which you might be staring at right now) as well as poorly written and executed TV series that people binge watch (yes, there are a few gems). My book is one of approximately SIX million on Amazon (ebooks only estimate) – a staggering amount of competition. So make yourself better known, you say. Advertising is almost uglier than selling books. New media such as Facebook (and soon with Twitter) have made it virtually impossible to use your business page to attract new readers. If you don’t spend money “to boost your posts,” FB will only share your post with very few of your followers. If you do boost your post, you spend too much $$ for too little return. Amazon ads are a bit more effective, but still cost me more than I make per new reader. On Twitter, it’s not only Twitter’s late start in figuring out how to monetize it through advertising, the audience is an issue too. Mostly I’m connecting with a bunch of authors just like me, not my target audience. Snapchat and Instagram are a waste of time (for ads, okay maybe a waste of time for anything). Lastly the online world is full of “services” that will help you attract eyeballs or help you produce your self-published book. Most of these services are probably worthless, likely people trying to make a few bucks on all of us authors with little to offer.

That leaves #3. A radical idea. Giving my book away for free to hopefully gain some new readers. Some have done it with mixed success. So why don’t I like it? People tend to value most things by how much they cost. The 99 cent Toni home perm comes to mind. I can never find a reference for this, but when I was  in business school, the marketing types would bring up the 99 cent home perm (that debuted back in the 40s or 50s). Apparently, Toni priced the initial home perm for 99 cents and no one bought it. How good could a home perm for 99 cents be? Raised the price to 2.99 and it sold like hotcakes. Same product. My fear is that people will value a free book as something no one would want to read in the first place. If they pay a few bucks, they are at least invested.

So here goes nothing. Friday at midnight (Sept 28th, 00:00 PDT, hey it’s Amazon’s timezone), The Redemption will be a free Kindle download. But only for 3 days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)…

We’ll see if anything comes of it. I have my doubts. In a month, I’ll let you know how it went. Happy Birthday to me 🙂