Back before I published my first book, I had the idea that I would make a special book that I could offer for free. The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning was the book that evolved into what we in the indie publishing world like to call a “permafree” book. That is, it’s a book that anyone could download from one of the ebook retailers for free. And since August of 2014, I had made The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning available on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple and a little later on from Google Play Books for free.
This morning, I went to my dashboard at Draft2Digital (a digital book distributor I highly recommend) and set the price back to $0.99. And then I went to Google Play Books and did the same thing. Once the price change is in effect, I expect that Amazon will stop the free price match and reset the price to $0.99 there as well.
You might be wondering, especially if you are a fellow indie author, why I decided to take ISTB off permafree. The short answer is because I am initiating a few really exciting changes, and for this to work, I need to have ISTB back to it’s original price. I don’t expect it to sell that well, but that’s hardly what I’m after, to be honest.
The longer answer is because… Drum roll please… I’m going to work on making The Inventor’s Son my permafree book! I’m creating a new funnel, one that uses The Inventor’s Son, the full length Book 1 of the series, to get readers introduced to the series. I am at a point now where readers who liked book 1 can go on to buy a book 2 and a book 3. Soon there will be a book 4 as well.
ISTB fits into this in two ways:
- Readers who liked The Inventor’s Son can then pick up ISTB as a prequel novella and I think there will be far more appreciation of the book if it is actually read after IS.
- Using IS as a loss leader from Amazon and the other retailers can get people to sign up for my mailing list by offering ISTB for free if they sign up (even though it’s available at a cost from the ebook stores). I think this creates more value for the reader by offering a thorough introduction to the series, and also by being on my mailing list, I can keep in better touch with them about other upcoming events and goodies in the works.
I will work on getting The Inventor’s Son priced to free as soon as the changes from The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning have gone through. In the meantime, I have posted the first chapter of The Inventor’s Son on Wattpad if you are a member and want to take a peek over there. I’m going to be uploading one chapter every couple of days until the entire book is posted. And I will soon be setting up a mailing list segment that gets The Inventor’s Son for free by signing up for the list. Watch this space for that if you are interested!
SB James, Doing the Write Thing 