Comments on: Free vs. The Long Tail http://www.johnhiltoniii.org/free-vs-the-long-tail/ Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:29:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: admin http://www.johnhiltoniii.org/free-vs-the-long-tail/comment-page-1/#comment-92 admin Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:13:05 +0000 http://www.johnhiltoniii.org/?p=96#comment-92 Matt -- thanks for sharing those thoughts. I agree there may be troubles with this "diminishing marginal returns." I am interested to see how this plays out with books where sales have flattened out or even with out-of-print books. If the commercial life of the book is over, is there any harm in giving it away? I don't think The Long Tail is available for free, and the written version of Free is no longer available for free. But an audio version of Free is available at http://hyperionbooks.com/free/. I really enjoyed it! Matt — thanks for sharing those thoughts. I agree there may be troubles with this “diminishing marginal returns.” I am interested to see how this plays out with books where sales have flattened out or even with out-of-print books. If the commercial life of the book is over, is there any harm in giving it away? I don’t think The Long Tail is available for free, and the written version of Free is no longer available for free. But an audio version of Free is available at http://hyperionbooks.com/free/. I really enjoyed it!

]]> By: Matt Sommer http://www.johnhiltoniii.org/free-vs-the-long-tail/comment-page-1/#comment-83 Matt Sommer Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:29:32 +0000 http://www.johnhiltoniii.org/?p=96#comment-83 It seems that giving away raises your profile but that you quickly reach the point of diminishing marginal returns. Perhaps instead of giving away an entire book for free, an author should give away excerpts and bonus chapters, thereby raising their profile but retaining the ability to make a profit from their work. The music equivalent would be to give away a B-Side single or one track from an album in order to convince buyers to purchase all the songs. Bill Simmons from ESPN is using the strategy above for a new release. It would be interesting to see if he could generate sales for his new book by giving away other works. Perhaps the strategy of Free doesn't work as well for an established author because you may alienate your fans that purchased previous works. Any risk there? Is the Free strategy primarily for those wanting to raise their profile? I'll have to pick up Free and The Long Tail. I assume I can get both for free? It seems that giving away raises your profile but that you quickly reach the point of diminishing marginal returns. Perhaps instead of giving away an entire book for free, an author should give away excerpts and bonus chapters, thereby raising their profile but retaining the ability to make a profit from their work. The music equivalent would be to give away a B-Side single or one track from an album in order to convince buyers to purchase all the songs.

Bill Simmons from ESPN is using the strategy above for a new release. It would be interesting to see if he could generate sales for his new book by giving away other works. Perhaps the strategy of Free doesn’t work as well for an established author because you may alienate your fans that purchased previous works. Any risk there? Is the Free strategy primarily for those wanting to raise their profile? I’ll have to pick up Free and The Long Tail. I assume I can get both for free?

]]>