The blogger says, "Most who get your books free don't go on to buy the author's other books." WRONG. That's what makes free so effective. No, everyone who gets your freebie might not buy your other books but more will than won't if your freebie is good. I see authors all the time saying "free doesn't work." No, it didn't work for YOU (general author). If your freebie doesn't get people to dig into their pockets and pay for your other books then your freebie just wasn't that good. Or not good enough for someone to pay money for your other books. Free is a wonderful money maker for many of us.  Free is one of the best promotional strategies there is but you gotta have a plan and you gotta have a freebie that is good enough to make people wanna get your work.

The truth is, many readers don't take chances on authors who are new to them, so having a freebie can break that barrier. Freebies are also a wonderful way to keep your work visible.

Free is doing wonderfully for me. And it wasn't until I started using freebies that I started making serious income.

While I do agree with the author that "free" is powerful for selling books, I just don't agree with the "Most of them won't buy your books" argument.

In spite of proponents in the indie community, IMO "free" and "sell" are opposing concepts.

Silly spammers . . . promising me new "clients" for my blog.

I sell some through Smashwords. But I definitely sell more during the big sitewide sales there.

This might be because I don't discount otherwise, but during the sale, I always put my older stuff at 50% off, and leave my new stuff at 100% regular price.

So, for example, I have some longer running series, so all the backlist books go down to 50% off and the frontlist stays $6.99 (or higher). This tends to lead people to snap them up while they can at the lower price a couple of times a year. I don't discount the bundles or collections even during the sale.

When I first wrote letters to magazine editors, I typed them on postcards. That forced me to be succinct. It also played into what the editors wanted, which were short comments. No money involved, but the joy of seeing my printed comment was immense.