For one day only - Karen Bush

As I grow older, I get grumpier, but if there is one thing which is really guaranteed to annoy the hell out of me, it is when I've bought an eBook for the full whack and then a few weeks later I spot it on promo at a hugely reduced price or even - horrors! - free.
          I feel unfairly treated. It's like those offers that banks and building societies use to suck in  new punters - a bit of giveaway cash or a bucketload of vouchers or whatever. Yet as a long standing customer of the same institution, what do I get? Zilch. My loyalty and long term custom is not rewarded.
          Those freeby eBooks make my blood boil in much the same way. Fair enough if they start out as free or very cheap: it can be a great way of enticing new readers into picking up your book. Especially if it is the first in a series, a permanently free or very cheap price can be the perfect way of hooking someone - it's happened to me several times, most recently with the hugely enjoyable tongue in cheek time travelling romps written by Jodi Taylor.
Promotions are terrific when a book is new out, but as far as I'm concerned, to knock the price down after it has been out for a while, sucks.
          Speaking as a  customer to all you writers, if you are going to do it then you might at least warn me so I can decide whether I want to buy at full price now because I want it this minute or whether I'll be happy to wait a day/ a month/a year (please specify the promo date you have in mind) when I can buy it more cheaply, or even download it for nothing. That seems fairer.




Comments

julia jones said…
completely fair point
JO said…
I agree - I know we all need to do something different on the marketing front from time to time, but I still think we should be thinking about our own worth as writers. If we give stuff away, we are effectively devaluing everything we do.
Umberto Tosi said…
I agree as well. Long-after-release freebees not only annoy cash buyers, they're lame when it comes to rustling up new readers. It's like spotting a book in the discount bin at a used bookstore. Better if an author-publisher offers an excerpt or a new short story free as a loss leader.
glitter noir said…
How about five years after pubbing the first Boss MacTavin mystery, Southern Scotch if I mark it down indefinitely when the fifth book come out next year?

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