By Edward Nawotka
For a long while now publishers have released sample chapters online to give readers a sense of what a book might be like. You can have them e-mailed to you, download them, or browse for them on the Web. Then there’s Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature and others that allow you to “browse” the flaps and opening of a book, much like you might do at a bookstore. Unfortunately, argues Kevin Smokler in today’s lead story, it isn’t working.
He advocates that publishers come up with a small, format neutral sample — something akin to a music MP3 single: cheap, portable and, hopefully, catchy. What that might look like remains to be seen.
Certainly, there are good reasons to give something away for free. I have certainly used the “download a sample” feature available on my Amazon Kindle. If you like the sample, you can immediately download the entire book. I wonder how many sales are lost in the interim between reading a sample online and having to click through to a Web site to through the whole online ordering process?
On the other hand, projects like Google Book Search — which often offers a significant portion of a book, recent ones included, for free — calls into question how Google plans to ever monetize such eyeballs.
The question is: what is the most effective format to give readers a taste of literature and entice them to buy a book? Chapters? Excerpts serialized in magazines or online? And in what format/size?
Let us know your preferences — and recommendations to the industry — in the comments below or via Twitter using hashtag #ppdiscuss.
8 Comments
myebook.com answers all your questions. It works perfectly for me and now the addition of being able to sell my books as well through myebook I am finding great results.
It is a nice format that was very easy to use and compile and has very nice marketing tools to be able to link potential readers back to the sample.
Why does Kevin Smokler say it does not work??? You have a much better chance of letting people read a free sample and making a sale then not letting anyone read a sample!!! I don’t understand his point. Isn’t that what books on shelves in bookshops are for?
MT
Marion,
myeook looks like a great service for writers. For readers, does it solve the “I havent’ heard of this author” problem or the sample size problem? I’m not asking for a whole book anymore than I’m asking for a marriage proposal. One date would be fine.
I am all for free samples just those in a format that actually encourages sampling rather than piling on one more task for the already overtaxed reader.
I am a busy person and a slow reader. I do not have 45 minutes to spend on a 1000 word sample of a book I haven’t heard of by an author I haven’t heard of any more than I try out a new restaurant by ordering the 3 course dinner instead of an appetizer or dessert. Maybe this just makes me cautious but my time is the most valuable thing I have and I simply would rather bet on good uses of it.
As far as browsing at bookshops, there is nothing in the world I love to do more. I also do not work in an office, have no kids and live around the corner from a great bookshop my wife likes to visit also. In other words, my circumstances are lucky and rare. I simply to not feel comfortable telling a single mother in say, Laredo Texas (which just lost their last bookshop) that, in 2010 she should have to haul herself and her kids to the shop to try out new books. She doesn’t have to leave the house to try out new music, or new movies or television. Browsing in bookshops is wonderful but it is a luxury for many readers, not the answer.
I am totally in favor of samples – preferably a look at the first chapter or at least the first few pages. I don’t like to rely on reader reviews, and, as noted above, when you’re able to hold a book in the bookstore, picking it up and reading some of it is the best way to tell if you want to buy it. I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I have been known to judge it by its first paragraph!
I think bite size snacks are going to work a lot better for some books than others.
Daniel,
I agree. Some books take longer to get going and a “snack” is not going to add much value. For others, infinitely valuable and worth trying.
See my comment on the original article. I make samples freely available. I’m just not going to give away the whole book.
It’s a good question, Edward, and I don’t think too much should be given away. Much as you get the opportunity to read a few pages of a book in a shop, you would never read the whole lot in the shop, therefore, why should the opportunity to read more than what is usual in a bookshop be offered for an eBook?
The concept of swapping and sharing books is pretty much gone when it comes to eBooks, as is trading games with some of the new personal game consoles where you can only download new games.
So, publishers should not be tempted by giving away more than have done to date What is much more powerful, though, is the opportunity to use the recommendations and gift options available to get people reading your eBooks. Sites like BookArmy offer a wealth of opportunity for publishers to sell more eBooks based on the ratings and reviews of other people.
Furthermore, I read books which people send me a presents because they know what I like but also they occasionally send me a book which they think I might enjoy but which is out of my normal genre of choice.
Publishers should be far more imaginative than simply giving away more free sample content to tempt people to buy their ebooks.
Putting books on line for free reading promotes sales of books. This is proven by both the experience of those of us who’ve tried it and formal studies, including a recent study done on behalf of Random House and O’Reilly, Impact of P2P and Free Distribution on Book Sales (2009). At http://www.libertary.com, our website, we have several copyrighted, in print books available for free reading and as the books get read, book sales go up. Publishers do so much hand wringing about free reading online, yet continue to make printed books available in libraries and bookstores for free reading. If you want people to buy books, you’d better encourage reading! The author of this posting asserts that free reading doesn’t work — but can’t give any evidence for this, because there is none. The future of books depends upon reaching out to new reading communities and extending the model of libraries and bookstores — read all you want for free but if you want your own copy you’ll need to pay. The future for online books is not digital shrink-wrapping, any more than it is shrink-wrapping books on shelves in bookstores or trying to prevent people from lending books for free to each other or closing libraries. The Internet provides great new ways to market books but only if the books are there for people to read.
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