Instafreebie seems to be the big thing for authors these days. It’s been said that you can collect a lot of email addresses by using the service. If you are not familiar with Instafreebie, let me explain a bit about what it is and what it can do for you.
Instafreebie is a website that offers authors the ability to post free material (either whole eBooks or samples chapters) that readers can download in exchange for their email address. The free service does not make readers opt in to your list, but for $20 a month, they will pass along the emails they collect from people downloading your material. They will provide an EPUB, MOBI, or PDF version of your book or sample for the reader.
To get started, I made up an account, and uploaded an EPUB version of my book, which is the same one I use for typical mailing list sign ups. Right now, to give it a spin, I decided to keep the free option, though you do get a trial month of the paid service for free. I’m offering The Inventor’s Son as a complete book readers can download. Right now, I am not making people opt in to my list. I’m actually rather keen on growing an organic list, but I have heard that Instafreebie is a great way to gather a lot of mailing list sign ups quickly. If you like to listen to podcasts, Mark Dawson had this episode not too long ago featuring Ashley Durrer of Instafreebie, discussing the ways that Instafreebie helps authors build their lists quickly.
You might be wondering why I haven’t gone ahead and just started making readers opt in, and that is because I want to grow an organic list if possible before resorting to Instafreebie. But, if the opportunity comes along in the form of a mailing list share like I’ve done with Patty Jansen in the past, that might push me off the fence and in that direction. For the time being, though, I just like that I have the book on there, and one of the really great things about Instafreebie is that you can update your book info instantly. I’m experimenting with a new blurb for The Inventor’s Son there, and it’s radically different from the previous one I’ve had for over 2 years. If you want to check it out, you can find my book on Instafreebie here.
If I find the blurb seems to have an effect on the number of downloads I get there, I will post the new blurb on Google Play Books next, because this is another sales channel that I can change things like that very quickly, and I don’t need to do a rain dance to get a change like that through.
Have you decided to try Instafreebie too? What do you think of the service?
SB James, Doing the Write Thing 