The Free Ebook Experiment: What I Have Learned So Far

 

Several years ago, a writer I knew gave herself the following challenge: Write and publish an ebook every month for one year. I followed her while she was on this journey and kept tabs on her progress (and I also enjoyed reading some of her free ebooks!). I was excited when she accomplished this goal and wondered if I could do it, too.

 

Before 2022 started, I decided that this would be the year to try my hand at this challenge.

 

And it’s definitely been quite a challenge!

 

I didn’t experience any challenges while writing the ebooks – a prepared list of books to write before beginning the challenge gave me the “book writing assignment” I needed to keep going – but I did face some challenges while going through this process.

 

After 6 months of this challenge, I have set aside a lot of time to think about this process and what I have learned from it so far.

 

Here are some of the challenges I faced while taking on this challenge:

 

·        Learning how to publish an ebook (I started with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) then moved to Smashwords)

·        Finding the right editor (I had one at the start of the year, but now she can no longer edit for me, and I’m venturing into other types of books she does not specialize in editing)

·        Getting an ebook cover (before the year, I created a bunch of covers for these ebooks, but now the service I used for the cover design is no longer working and one cover in particular will be more personal)

·        Finding reviewers (I have advertised free copies of these ebooks online and in my newsletter but so far, no reviews or review requests)

 

In reviewing these challenges, I can see how they are similar to what a lot of self-published authors have to deal with as well, whether or not they are giving their books away for free. In self-publishing, you have to go through the motions of picking a distributor, finding the right (and professional) editor for your work, selecting the right cover designer and deciding on which cover works best for your book, as well as finding people willing to review your book.

 

In other words, those challenges I dealt with are pretty much the norm for self-publishing! When I started out in self-publishing, I had to learn how to format the manuscript and use a publishing service like KDP in order to publish my book.

 

These ebooks in and of themselves have certainly not been difficult to write or come up with ideas for. Most of the ebooks are original content – meaning, I wrote and published them for the very first time – but some of them are also revised or rewritten content. The Christian poetry book I am offering this month, for example, is revised content. I wrote that book back in the early 90s but, when typing it up this month, I revised the poems. A novel I plan to release will be a rewrite of an incomplete novel I started writing in the early 2000s.

 

Aside from this, however, the topics I write are very easy to write. One ebook was a book of writing challenges, and I had no difficulty in writing it. Another was a book about mental health tips and it was a breeze to write. So, they are not really a whole lot of work. I would probably still be writing them even if I was not self-publishing them.

 

The topics I chose to write for nonfiction were ones which I knew I would have difficulty getting into print should I have elected to find a small, independent or traditional publisher for these books. For one thing, I am not an expert. I do not have a platform as an author on this topic, I do not have educational training (although my vocational training did come in handy while I was writing two of the ebooks), and I am not well-known as an authority on those topics. I did have material to write those books, however, and I WANTED to write those books. I did consider acting as a ghostwriter instead and hoping someone more established would buy the rights of the book from me, but I decided not to go in that direction. It would probably take too long to find a buyer, anyway.

 

The novels I will be writing, however, might have some difficulty. Writing novels is hard work and trying to write and publish one in a month will be harder, but I’m looking forward to giving it a try because I just want to see if it is possible.

 

Another thing I have learned from this experience is that the free ebooks are a chance for me to try my hand at writing in different genres. Two of my novels are paranormal and the other one is romantic suspense, and while one of my other planned free ebooks is a paranormal story, I’m trying my hand at writing other things too. I did this when I challenged myself to write a short story for every week of the year (done!) and now I want to do this again with the free ebooks. One of them is a chick lit story and another one will be horror. I HAVE had horror stories published and I hope to get horror poetry published too (if I can find a publisher of horror poetry chapbooks!). But I am not established as an author of horror novels. (My publisher originally categorized my novel Shadow of Samhain as horror, but it is more paranormal than horror). I do plan to try to establish myself as a horror novelist at some point (I even have a horror novel in progress!), but right now, when it comes to novels, I write mostly paranormal stories. I want to give the horror novel writing thing a shot and see how it does.

 

I guess this experiment will let me know if I can be a good horror novelist or not! It’s a test, I suppose.

 

Finally, I have learned that these free ebooks are not exactly a waste of effort. They can be used as promotional materials. I put one up on BookFunnel, hoping to get subscribers for my newsletter. (Sadly, it hasn’t happened.) I also include information about my other books in some of them. Finally, the free ebooks can also act as freebies in the event I need to award a writer a “bonus” for some thing or another.

 

So, the free ebooks do serve a purpose. They are not a waste of my time (as I’d probably still write them anyway!), they are not a waste of my effort, and they take nothing away from all of the other books which I have out there that are not available for free.

 

I kinda like having ebooks available for people to read for free. People just can’t afford to buy books as much as they used to, especially now with high gas prices and the current inflation. As a booklover who is on a very tight income and can’t afford to buy as many books as I would like to, a free ebook to read (or even free books!) is definitely a nice thing to have. I am grateful for free books and free ebooks to read, and grateful to the authors who put them out there.