Friday, July 5, 2013

The Price of FREE books! Why Leave a Review?

These are the facts the author you know won't tell you because it's indiscreet.

Friends, family, and thousands of unknown friends and tweeters often take advantage when an Indie author sets his/her book to free. Many people ONLY download free books, taking advantage of the authors' generosity. But some of these same people never buy a book and don't even have the courtesy to leave a review.

Does that mean you have to leave a review? No. In fact, if you don't like the book or decide not to read it later the author would rather you didn't leave a review because it can hurt the person's chances of success. (However the author might like to know in a private email why you didn't like it). But if you did like the book, the reviews help. Why? Visibility. That is why the author is giving you the book for free to begin with. S/he is hoping that he can amass enough positive reviews so that the big book promoters will pick up the book and help the author to promote it. What happens then? Hopefully, sales.

You see, a self-published author (a good one, anyway) puts in anywhere from 2000 to 6000 hours of writing time, and up to several thousands of dollars for cover, editing, proofreading to bring you the book. That you are reading for free. Can you imagine how you would feel if your employer expected you to work for free for years and then your boss said, "Well, there are so many other people out there, why should I pay you?" All the author really wants is a chance to see if you like his or her work. And if you do, the least--the minimum--you can do is leave a nice review.

And if you're downloading so many books that you feel overwhelmed and don't have time to read them all, stop it. You'll find the books you do download are more precious, more meaningful, and become a better read if you don't minimize their worth.

Treasure your authors as your authors treasure you.