It's amazing when opportunities to sell a book come along! I was in desperate need of a hair-cut so I made a beeline for a barber I know that is (a) cheap and (b) usually quiet - when you have a hair style as simple as mine there is no point paying more.
I found the young lady barber was deeply engrossed in her Kindle. As one does, we got chatting. To my slight dismay I found that she only read free books. I guess that is understandable; if you get offered something for nothing you are going to take it. It is hard on an author though; sure I like to have people read what I write but I would also like to receive something for my efforts in creating something that they enjoy. Fortunately, I found that her father was also an avid reader and was willing to pay for books, so I left her the details of 'The Last Mountain'and told her that I would be putting new stuff out at the end of the month.
It has got me thinking though. There is no doubt that the trend is towards free. Think of the really successful companies/ventures in recent years - Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. All are free at the point of consumption, the corporations who own them have found otherways of monetising them. This has even got its own name now - freeconomics. Perhaps that is what the publishing world and us writers need, though what exactly that should be I can't, at this moment, say what that should be or even look like. Amazon with KDP have taken a small step in that direction (VERY small in monetary terms). I would be interested to hear what people think.
But in the meantime I'm glad to get another sale, even if it is one reader at a time!
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