When you should give a book away for free- An indie insight

Welcome to the smuttier side of romance, , with alien peens and the readers who love them!

Giving away a book for free seems counter intuitive, doesn't it?

Especially since there is psychological research that confirms that most people who grab anything for free, do not actually use the free thing. Or in this case, read the free book.

For every 1,000 books given away, you may only have 1 more reader that actually reads the free book within the month it was grabbed.

BUT, like most indies out there, that extra 1 reader was more than you had before. Profit on zero sales is the same as zero profit on free books, EXCEPT that some of those free books are a marketing expense towards finding an indie author's reader tribe.

Take for instance my free book Her Alien Exchange, available free to everyone who has joined my newsletter, if you missed it, you can grab it here: https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienexchange

Her Alien Exchange has been downloaded 7,614 times from Bookfunnel and 1557 times from StoryOrigin

That's a total of 9,171 downloads of Her Alien Exchange!

With 98 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.37 average

79 people who added it to their TBR pile

and 5 people currently reading

It's a newsletter exclusive, meaning there were over 9,000+ people who joined this very newsletter to grab that book.

Out of those 9,000+ people there are over 6,000+ people who are still here, and still reading what I have to say, or excited to learn more about me, and my alien romance books, or perhaps even my fantasy romance books?

That is around 2% activity from the free book (people who went out of their way to add the book to their Goodreads lists, since the book is not listed anywhere else accept to those who join my newsletter.) And a 70% retention rate of people who continue to be part of my newsletter!

So, yes, I earned zero pennies on Her Alien Exchange, but I gained a tribe!

I started Sky Robert last year:

I wrote Jewel of the Alien Bandit, then Her Alien Exchange in November's NaNoWriMo, Launched Sky Robert January 2023 and Released Jewel of the Alien Bandit, Her Alien Prince in May 2023, Her Alien Savior in August 2023, Her Alien Warrior in March 2024, Her Alien Insurgent in May 2024, and Her Alien Starbreaker coming in Dec 2024 in the Beyond Earth Anthology.

Giving away a book for freezies is a great way to give readers the opportunity to get to know your writing style with low risk/investment from them.

And I know that when people give my book a try, my tribe will grow!

My books aren't for everyone, because I know that if I write for everyone then I write for no one. I write for my tribe, the readers who LOVE my writing and can't wait for me to give them the next installment because I'm building trust and proving to them book after book that I am sticking around, that I am going to keep writing, and that I will keep entertaining and bringing the love and acceptance that a good alien romance excels at!

Speaking of free books, this is the last day to check out my other genre fantasy slow burn romance, Greek Mythology Medusa retelling today with no risk in trying something different or outside your comfort zone:

Taking Medusa is free for the first time ever and has had over 7K+ downloads in just a couple days. This is the last day to grab it and give it a try.

https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa

Sure, I don't make a penny on anyone picking up the book for free today, but I may just earn the trust of another reader who wants to continue the story with book two Breaking Fate coming out October, and maybe they read it in KU, or help support the Dark Gods Rising series by grabbing the preorder, or maybe they simply tell other readers about the book! Win-win!

As you can see from my dashboard, Taking Medusa has only made me $8 this month, only a $1 worth of pages read in KU, and 2 people grabbed a paperback!

Thank you to everyone who has supported my writing, both my fantasy romance, and my spicy alien romances.

Thank you for joining my tribe and taking a chance on my books!

Happy Reading!

My favorite of the alien romance series so far is Her Alien Warrior, an older FMC in her 40's who decides to do something for herself after 20 years of doing things for others. General Sou-el is a necia warrior who has a biological condition that makes it difficult for him to heal and thus had to become a scientist instead of a warrior to honor his tribe. He never thought he'd honor a mate, until he meets Renee! https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienwarrior

And don't forget to review the books you read and help an indie author out! For every review you give an indie author gets a smile, and a new human gets their alien mate!

https://books.steviemarie.com/jotab

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienwarrior

PS: If you've read Jewel of the Alien Bandit, you're going to love Her Alien Starbreaker where Vareo gets a cameo appearance when he was part of the Birds of Zorn.

xoxo

Sky

Standalone plot with spice adventures of fated mates, space vampires, knotting, and bonds that will last beyond the stars! All available in Kindle Unlimited!

https://books.steviemarie.com/jotab

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienprince

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralieninsurgent

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienexchange (Freesies with this newsletter, dig it out of your e-reader!)

https://books.steviemarie.com/heraliensavior

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienwarrior

(Next book Her Alien Captor I want to work on for NaNoWriMo)

https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa

https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate

Happy Reading and thank you for being part of my author journey!

~Sky

monster september book fair

Paranormal Women's BookFair

Sci-fi Book Fair

Check out Alien Unlimited September

This is the place in my newsletter where you can check up on my word count/progress on any given project. So, if you're excited about something and where I'm at with it, or what's next on the writing agenda, this is the place to check. I don't post this anywhere else but on my newsletter. Not even my website has a progress update zone.

Breaking Fate: off to ARC READERS!!! Breaking Fate (currently available for Pre-order) Launches October 2nd 2024

Read Taking Medusa on Kindle Unlimited to get caught up! It's FREE TODAY ONLY!

TKManAteHer is on Amazon and Audible! A short erotic sentient robot romance, to be enjoyed in around an hour. Perfect for a quick escape that won't interrupt your beauty sleep if you start at bedtime!

It is a complete story, no cliffhangers, 2.5 spicy scenes, and a romance that defies time itself.

It's available for 99 pennies on Amazon, or from my author store:

Amazon: https://books.steviemarie.com/tk

Author Store: https://payhip.com/b/XgOuk

Also available on Audible! https://www.audible.com/ac/TKManAteHer-Audiobook/B0D5GC1ZDK

When you grab the book direct, more pennies are kept with the author. For every 99 penny book, an indie makes around 35 cents from Amazon.

Direct, I get around 50 cents depending on if you use Stripe or Paypal as your payment method through my author store. That's 40% more pennies in the author's pocket by grabbing direct!

Her Alien Starbreaker My goal is to have this completed before end of September 2024 for an anthology. Best of all, the personal cover for the book is commissioned by Deborah Garcia! So, this is the first cover I have made from commissioned artwork instead of cover designers! (Note: I make sure all my covers are done by designers that do NOT support A.I., No A.I. is used for my covers, nor my writing. I R hooman.)

Word Count: 27k/50K goal

This book will be included in the upcoming anthology Beyond Earth available for pre-order for only 99 pennies and you also get 7 other complete sci-fi romances from awesome indie authors!