Are you crazy? This was my wife’s response when I told her that I plan to give my book away for free. She couldn’t understand why I would want to give my book away for free and bear the cost of not just printing the books, but also shipping them. The reason was simple. I want to share my experience with as many people as I can.
When I published my book in 2014, I was all excited about my first book. I had my book launch event in London with a number of other authors and that year was generally very eventful.
One of the things that every first time author has to go through is to face up to the question we dread. “So how is your book doing?”. This happened to me as well and the honest answer is that “it was not doing anything at all.”
When I wrote my book, I never thought about making money from the sale of the book. Writing a book was something I wanted to do for a long time. When the opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it with both hands. It was at a life changing seminar in Cyprus in 2013 when the opportunity came by and for the first time in my life I did not think before taking a decision. My wife knows how bad I was when it comes to making decisions. That day was the turning point in my life and I have never looked back again. This was also the day I learnt an important lesson in life. When you are not sure ..Leap before you Look!
Coming back to my book and how it is doing. The truth is, I have only sold a few copies over the past 2 years and most of them were bought by friends and relatives. Sadly, this is the story of many self-published authors. While we pour our hearts out into writing the book, we don’t spend even 10 % of that effort in trying to get people to read it. The fact of the matter is that no matter how good your information is, it is of no value unless it adds value to someone’s life.
There are some hard truths about self-publishing a book which I have learnt
- You are not going to make tons of cash by selling your book unless you are already a well know celebrity
Unless you are an established celebrity, you are not going to become a millionaire, or even earn thousands of dollars by selling your books. Most self-published authors have their 1st goal to recover the expense they incurred on publishing their book. I’m not trying to discourage you. However the facts on the ground are not very favourable to first time self published authors. You may be interested in reading the below
Forbes Article : Do self-published authors make money?
- You have to be your biggest promoter.
When I published my book, I like many other authors expected to see sales climb. I never expected to sell millions of copies, but I was pretty sure the number would be at least in thousands. 2 years since publishing my book, I’m still to touch the 3 digit figure. Talking about millions of copies, a recent report published in the New York times states that according to Amazon, only 40 self-published authors have ever managed to sell over a million copies. That’s right. A mere 40. Does that mean your book cannot sell million copies. By no way am I implying that. I wish and pray that you be the 41st, 42nd, 43rd…. However the simple lesson you have to learn is to promote your book like hell. This is something I did not do very well in the initial period of the launch.
- It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
Unlike 10-15 years ago, the advent of technology and the internet coupled with the ease of self-publishing has made it very easy for anyone to publish a book. It is estimated that in the US alone, more than a million books are published every year. Like everything else, books are competing for visibility and a share of the readers time . Each book is competing with more than ten million other books available for sale, while other media are claiming more and more of people’s time.
Read this: The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing
Am I disappointed that I haven’t managed to sell my book as much as I initially thought I could?. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. I was quite disappointed in the beginning. However when I received feedback from a few people who read my book, it completely changed my perspective. I realized that if my book could impact a few, it could impact many more. That’s when I had the idea of making my book available to more people.
So why am I giving my book away for free?
- I hope that I can reach out to all those young millennials out there who are in search of some answers about their careers.
- I want to remove price as an impediment for people to get access to this information.
- I’m eager to get some feedback from the readers on what they think about the book. If you have read my book, I would be grateful if you left a review on Amazon.
- I miss interacting with the younger generation and hope to see some conversations starting after they read my book.
- Because I have a BIG heart (Nahhhh. Just kidding).
If you haven’t registered for the Free Giveaway on GoodReads, click the link to enter the giveaway.
If you don’t manage to win a free copy of my book, don’t lose heart. I’ve got another exciting offer coming up shortly in August.
Thanks for reading. I really appreciate the time you have spared to read my post. If you liked my post or have a question to ask please feel to leave a comment below.