Why All The Furor Over Free?

If you're an indie author, it's hard not to notice the furor over "free" ebooks.  It's become the new
John Locke / $0.99 model, and authors at all corners of cyberspace seem to be setting up for the
holiday shopping season by putting freebies out there for readers to voraciously consume.

So why, then, is it so polarizing among indie authors?  Here's an attempt to consider both sides, as
misguided as I think the anti-freebie arguments may be.

Anti-Freebie (As seen from comments on the Kindle Boards):

1. It cheapens books, making readers accustomed to getting freebies.  This is often presented as an alleged domino effect in which readers will stop buying as many books and / or will start expecting more free material.

2. Number one leads to this point, which is that freebies may hurt honest good old-fashioned capitalism among indies.  Why buy an unknown author's work, even for $.99, if a thousand other authors post free material?

3. It doesn't generate sustained interest, leading to only temporary spikes in sales.

4. It reeks of desperation rather than effective marketing.  Readers will equate free ebooks with cheap material, which may not help an author's marketing effort after all.

Pro-Freebie (As seen from comments on the Kindle Boards):

1. Insane numbers of downloads, which include potential buyers of future series or trilogy installments.

2. One free book, if well-written and well-marketed, may lead to lasting spikes in sales.  Several authors have reported serious increases in income.

3. Effective (and cheap) marketing.  Similar to loss leader marketing strategies, but significantly cheaper for authors.  Authors may be taking a financial hit on one book, but sales to other books and increased publicity more than make up for the lost sales.

4. Readers don't necessarily equate price and value, and positive reviews and buzz may build from favorably received free ebooks.

Personal disclaimer: I have current books listed for free; thus, I have a horse in this race.  Having said that, though, I just want to point out what I think are fallacies about the free ebook.

1. Fallacy #1: Customers will stop paying for books just because they download free ebooks. 
While there may be those who only get what's free, there's no evidence that this is the majority of Kindle / Nook users.  The best seller lists still include quite a few indies.

2. Fallacy #2: That "free" is something new.  This is as old a marketing technique as any in existence, and entire types of marketing include variations on the "free" model.  So far, it hasn't led to the death of books or ebooks.  In fact, Baen Books once used free ebook downloads to increase, not decrease, their paperback sales.  Go to goodreads.com or librarything.com and authors, including those put out by large New York publishers, are giving away free copies for sales.  The key, as with any marketing strategy, is to use free effectively.  It should be an author's best work, in my opinion, and making a book free for a period of time doesn't necessarily mean doing so in perpetuity.  There may be a time when it's no longer needed for some authors.  There may be authors who are better off keeping ebooks free indefinitely.

It's just my opinion, but I truly feel whoever the next Locke or Hocking is this holiday season will be an author who isn't afraid to use the "free" model effectively.  Rather than debate the practice, authors should consider trying the model out for themselves.  If it works, great--if it doesn't, well, there's always other marketing strategies.