Your Book Should Not Be Free

It makes me sad to see authors price their books at zero. On the surface, it might seem like a good idea. Lowering your product's price can be a great way to encourage people to give it a try, and is there ever a price lower than free?

Only, that isn't as appealing as you would think. Here's why.

Perception of value

You have got two baseball balls. One you have found at your school's backyard, the other you caught at the first game your father took you to when you were eight.

You must give up one. Which would you choose?

Most, if not all, would choose the first ball because you have less emotional attachment to it. It matters less to you. You perceive it as less valuable.

Both balls are equal physically, but you assign them a different value based on how much you've invested in them. That investment can be emotional or financial, and it is made each time you acquire something.

Like when you buy a book.

It is fair to say that as an aspiring author very few readers will have any emotional investment in your books. You will get there. But before you do, the only investment they will be making is financial.

Importance of price

Humans are cautious about the cheap but excited about the cheaper.

Life teaches us that cheap things are rarely worth pursuing. A cheap shoe will get ruined from the first rain, and a cheap tire might blow up at the very worst moment of your commute. We understand that a price is made of many things: the cost of the materials and the cost of labor being the most important factors. And so we often project the price onto the quality of a product.

Pricing your book is more than estimating how much you will make from each sale. The primary roal of the price is to inform the reader where it sits on the market. They might have never read an indie book before, but they've read $14.99 fantasy novels and know what value to expect for the price. It is your job as an author to make sure the price clearly communicates the value of your book.

Selling your book for free makes about as much sense as selling it for a million dollars. Either price tag is equally ridiculous because it's out-of-touch from the market it exists in. We have long established that self-published books often meet, if not exceed, the quality of traditional publications. Indie authors have had great financial success, won literary awards, received TV show adaptations, and proved that at the end of the day it always comes down to the writing.

So why should you undersell yourself?

Because nobody will buy my books!

This is what you likely think and there's certainly some truth to that. Finding your audience is hard, and you would do well to employ all the tools at your disposal. The thing is, making your book free is not one of those tools because it never works.

For many indie authors, the challenge is to get the reader interested in their work, and the price tag isn't something that achieves that. Here are some of the things that do:

• Cover art. Invest into an eye candy cover to steal the reader's attention (and don't forget about a great typography).
• Captivating blurb. The blurb is the first piece of your writing most readers will interact with. Make it stand out. Tell a premise that hooks with your own voice.
• Reviews. Send your book to your friends, colleagues, or a group of ARC readers. Ask them politely to leave their honest review so others would know what to expect from your book.
• Free samples. Give them a taste of your writing. Don't charge them for something that might not work for them.

Sales are great

Humans are cautious about the cheap but excited about the cheaper.

If you've managed to communicate your book's value to the reader, only now we are talking money. And even then, zero isn't something that should be your end goal.

Running an occasional sale can do wonders. 50% because it's summer. 80% because it's your birthday. You can work out the numbers, but remember that the reader should still feel like they've invested in your book. You don't want the story you worked so hard on to end up in a pile of things people download and never watch or read. Low investment, low engagement. It is only fair.