Does Giving Your Work Away Increase Sales?

It is not just the fear of copyright violation that causes authors to avoid posting their work onlinein audio form or otherwise. Years ago, authors feared giving their work away simply because, well, it was giving their work away instead of selling it. People do not expect doctors, construction crews, and teachers to work without pay, but several people don't even blink at the thought of creative types giving away their work. This can devalue the work, causing the public to wonder the old adage about why they should buy the cow (a book in a store) when they can get the milk (stories, chapters, and so on) for free online.

One argument seemed to come up frequently, and it is the same argument that several small magazines claim when they can't afford to pay their authors: The exposure is good for you. This opinion was viewed with considerable skepticism for some time, but as the years went on, the Internet seemed to prove the adage. Whereas an independent, nonpaying print magazine might get your work in front of hundreds of eyes at best, the Internet is global and can present your work to potentially millions. Here is what Michael A. Stackpole has to say on the subject:

"A writer has to weigh the positives and negatives of posting [work for free]. To me, the positives of exposure outweigh the negatives of having stuff ripped off. Because I post stuff and include a copyright notice, if anyone were to take a story and make a movie and make lots of money, I'd get all of it once my lawyer was through with them.

"Give readers a sample on your webpage, and you can draw them into reading your books. Is that worth it against the possible losses by piracy? I definitely think so. In addition, posting stuff to the Net rewards longtime readers by giving them something they've not seen before. That's always a good thing."

Many authors, especially mid-list authors and those just starting out, began making their work available online after it had been printed elsewhere. Check your favorite authors' sites; they may have free fiction listed there. Once podcasting came about, authors began taking a chance, thinking that podcasting their fiction may increase their fan base.

Mark Jeffries, author of The Pocket and the Pendant, is enthusiastic about using podcasting to widen a fan base.

"Instead of looking at this as, 'Oh I'm losing money by giving my book away for free,' you should look at this as, 'Oh, I'm getting millions of dollars worth of promotion for freeI have this megaphone called "podcasting" on the Internet, to the entire planet.' Normally, for that kind of exposure, traditional printers haggle all kinds of deals with Barnes and Noble, etc., for endcaps, prominent placement, etc. Now, anyone can get the mindshare of the book audience out there without that kind of upfront cost."

When Scott Sigler, author of the podiobooks Earthcore and Ancestor, ended his first podcast book (Earthcore), he had 10,000 listeners. Here is what he had to say about his experience:

"There was no print book available when I launched the podcast, so all of those fans are due to that podcast. It definitely widened my fan base."

Many of these authors started out with no or little fan base and have gained one due to podcasting. But what about the established authors? Is it worth it for established authors to begin podcasting their work?

James Patrick Kelly firmly believes it has widened his fan base:

"Of this I am more certain. When I ego-surf Technorati and Ice Rocket, I can see that the podcast is getting some serious attention in the blogosphere. And then there are my website traffic statistics, which are crude but instructive. In the 3 months just before the podcast launch, my site was averaging 2,100 hits a day. In the 3 months since, I've been getting around 5,000 hits a day."