A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Do Book Giveaways Work?
It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's post addresses the oft-asked question, "Do book giveaways work to increase sales?" The quick and easy answer here at MSI Press is "no." We have run giveaways of paperbacks on Goodreads to have the only books "sold" be the free ones earned in the giveaway. We had no additional sales that we could track to that promotion. We have also run freebie e-books on Kindle promotions. Again, lots of takers for the free books; zero additional sales. The Kindle stats are actually quite clear and disappointing. For a broader set of experiences, here is a useful post from BookBub, which does an immense number of g...