I decided to make The Penal Colony free at Smashwords (and hence Smashwords’s partners), knowing that Amazon would follow suit and reduce the $2.99 price to zero. For some reason, Amazon does not allow publishers to set a zero price directly. I don’t check my Amazon stats very often, but yesterday I noticed that The Penal Colony was being offered free at amazon.com, and that some 4,300 copies had been downloaded in September. Just now (20.09 GMT on 15 September) I looked again and the total is up to 10,649; the title is now at No. 10 in “Free at the Kindle Store”.
This seems an effective way for an author to bring his work to wider notice. Obviously it would be nice if some of those downloaders decided to explore my other books; Refuge is a better novel than Penal Colony, and The Tide Mill and The Drowning, in my view, are far better still.
The main point is the illustration these figures make of the power of Amazon.
Print publishing, of mass-market fiction at least, is not just sinking. It’s hurtling down the lift-shaft.
7 comments:
For what it's worth, I was introduced to the works of Richard Herley through a free copy of The Penal Colony (Mine was a rescued paperback, rather than a free e-book download; it was 1998, after all!). A decade and change later, you're one of my very favorite authors, and I am proudly a Herley completist, having read and enjoyed everything you've published.
Ben, your staunch support and advocacy mean more to an author like me than you probably realize. Thank you.
I'm one of those people who've downloaded The Penal Colony for free from Amazon. I'd only visited Amazon to buy John Le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but found your book too, and am reading it in preference to the Le Carré...
I came across Penal Colony on kindle free best sellers (currently chart position no2) and thoroughly enjoyed it, having finished the book today.
As a result of reading this free book I have subsequently discovered your blog (via google) and have taken the opportunity to order Refuge via the kindle store.
I have noted on other free kindle e-books that there are links immediately at the end of the book to the authors other kindle store titles. (a good example of this is Dougie Brimsom - The Crew which is also currently in free bestsellers)
There were no links at the end of Penal Colony. I think Amazon need to provide these links to readers.
Graham, glad you liked it and I hope you enjoy Refuge. Thanks for the tip about author links. I'll look into that and see if anything can be done. I believe Amazon are pretty strict about hyperlinks in ebooks, but we'll have to see.
Hi Richard, congrats on The Penal Colony yesterday reaching #1 in the Amazon Kindle Store Best Sellers Top100 free titles.
I would be interesting to know how many downloads that equates to (so far) and trust all these new readers equate to extra interest in your other titles.
I have just finished The Refuge while on holiday this week and yes thoroughly enjoyed it. Many thanks
Thanks, Graham, and I'm very pleased you liked that book. It's not to everyone's taste, apparently :-)
I checked my Amazon numbers this morning at 8.25 and the UK downloads of Penal Colony for September totalled 12,459. The US downloads were up to 32,295. It was listed free in America in the middle of the month, and here about the 22nd.
Post a Comment