I'm doing a marketing experiment. I recently got the rights back to Taste of Candy, a short novella originally published in 2011 by The Wild Rose Press.
After re-editing the book and giving it a shiny new cover, I self-published it for free by making it free on Smashwords, and having Smashwords distribute it to Apple and Barnes and Noble at the free price point.
Anyway, Amazon price-matched from 99c down to free once B&N had it up for free.
Right now, going through Smashwords seems to be the only way to get a perma-free book on iTunes, B&N, and Amazon. I uploaded it directly free to Kobo.
The first week the downloads were intense, getting me to #154 overall Free in Amazon, and up to #3 on the Free Amazon Erotica Bestseller list (which is higher than my paid books have ever gone, including Overheated and Enslaved, both Paid Amazon Erotica Bestsellers).
The book's gotten great reviews, but so far it seems like the Also-Boughts on Amazon are other free books, or other rockstar romances. We can compare that to Enslaved, where the also-boughts are the rest of the Enslaved Trilogy, or to books like Snowed in With the Tycoon or The Man Who Holds the Whip, where the also-boughts include the rest of my books.
So the experiment is still up in the air! So far, I'm happy reading reviews that say the reader loved my voice and will read my other books. Free for the win? Perhaps!
If you're an author, have you experimented with making one of your books free?
Read an excerpt from my free rockstar erotic romance Taste of Candy here.
