Talk to any experienced author and they will tell you that the permafree books strategy is the best thing they ever had since a slice of bread.

Well, what’s not to love about the permafree books strategy when it can bring more eyeballs to your books?

Just set the first book from the series to free and thousands of people will flock to your book right away.

Sure, not all of them will like the book.

But hey, they will buy the next book in the series or any other books that you write if they like it enough.

That’s how you can get people to buy more of your books without needing to be salesy.

What’s more, all these things can happen on autopilot too.

It’s no wonder that it’s a holy grail strategy for most authors.

What in the world is permafree books strategy anyway?

For those who aren’t familiar with the term permafree books, it basically means permanently free books.

It usually applies to the digital version of the book, for the most part.

While it’s easy to set the price of your books to free on other retailers, it’s hard to do that on Amazon since the only way to make the book free is to enroll the book on KDP Select.

The good news is you can still make your book permafree on Amazon even if you’re not exclusive on Amazon.

All you need to do is to set your books for free on other retailers and set your book price to $0.99 on Amazon.

Once your book is already available at other retailers, contact Amazon through your KDP dashboard and tell them that you want to make your book free.

Don’t forget to add the links to other retailers as proof that your book is available for free at these retailers.

After a day or two, Amazon will let you know that your book is already set to free on Amazon.

That was what I did when I set the first book from the Trigger Locked series, The Mind Control Assassins, from $0.99 to free on Amazon.

What makes this strategy a game changer to many authors?

The amazing thing about this strategy is that it’s easy to implement.

And you don’t need to become a household name to make this strategy works for you either.

You can still use this strategy even if you’re a brand-new author. Or you’re launching a new series and you want to bring more exposure to it.

Of course, what I say here is only the tip of the iceberg. Here are other reasons that make the permafree books strategy work like a charm for many authors.

It helps with giving your target readers a full taste of your writing

Just imagine yourself in the reader’s shoes. Do you think that your target readers will pick your book right away when they don’t even know who you are and aren’t familiar with your writing?

Of course, the answer is no, right?

Unless you get a celebrity or famous author’s endorsement, it’s unlikely that your target readers will pick your book regardless of how good is the writing and how enticing and professionally designed your book cover is.

If they’ve never heard of you, they’re not going to pick your book.

It’s as simple as that.

This is where having your book as a permafree comes in.

Think of the permafree book as a way for your target readers to sample your work with no risk involved on their side.

If they like your book enough, they will buy the next book in the series or anything that you publish.

It simplifies the list-building process

Yes, it’s important to offer something as a way to entice your readers to join your email list.

But it’s pointless if you don’t know where to find them in the first place.

Having your book as a permafree solves the problem since you can make full use of the traffic that you get from the permafree book.

Just be sure to add the link to the email opt-in at the front and back of your book and the list-building will take care of itself, more or less.

It makes garnering reviews for the book much easier

It’s no secret here that it’s a lot easier to get people to leave a review when your book is permafree.

Why is that, you wonder?

If you already build a street team, you can get them to download your book for free and ask them to leave a review once they’ve finished reading the book.

It’s much better that way too since the review that you’ll get will be the verified ones.

Just so you know that you can only get verified reviews from people who did buy the book. You won’t get that if you give the book for free in exchange for a review.

Even if you don’t have a street team, people are still going to leave a review for your book.

But if you don’t have a street team, then it’s best to remind your readers to leave a review for the book and why it matters to you.

The more reviews you have, the easier it is for Amazon to push your book to more readers.

It’s the best thing that can happen to you since Amazon is doing all the heavy lifting for you.

So, why do I no longer make the first book from the series permafree then?

Well, the reason for that is simple – it creates opposite effects for me instead.

Yes, it does bring more exposure to the book when I set it to permafree.

But those exposures are meaningless if it attracts the wrong type of readers to the book.

Rather than attracting those who enjoy reading a thriller light novel, I end up attracting those who are only seeking free books instead.

They’re not going to care if it’s in the genre that they enjoy reading or not as long as it’s free.

It’s no different from me offering a free book to get people to join my email list. They only join the email list because of the free book.

They’re not going to care about what I say or my next releases unless it’s free.

So, it’s not going to help with bringing more sales for the second book onward if they have no interest in buying the books.

And the reviews that I got for the book aren’t so stellar either when you’re attracting the wrong type of readers to the book.

They will say things like the book is hard to read when they failed to realize that books in the thriller genre never have a walk-in-the-park kind of story.

Does it mean that this strategy is a total dud?

At this point, you may have this notion that this strategy must be dud based on my experience.

But here’s the thing that you must understand here.

Yes, this strategy doesn’t work for the type of readers that I want to attract.

But it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to work for your audience.

All I can say to you is to give this strategy a try and see for yourself whether it works for you or not.

You can only know whether this strategy will work for you or not once you already give it a try.

So, don’t dismiss this strategy just yet only because this strategy has the opposite effect on me.

You’ll never know that this strategy may work for you than it does for me.

Will I ever see myself adopting this strategy once again?

As you can expect, the answer is no. There’s no way that I’m going to revert to offering the first book from the series for free again, even if it’s for a brand-new series.

But what I will do instead is to offer the first book from the series lower than the second book onwards.

That’s what I did with the first book from the Trigger Locked series where the price for the first book is $4.99 while the second book onward will be $7.99.

I find that this strategy works in my favor since the people who buy the book are indeed interested in the series.

And they’re more likely to buy the next book in the series too if they’re curious enough about the story.

P.S It doesn’t matter whether you have a permafree book or not. It can still be an uphill battle to get more eyeballs for your book if none of your target readers know that your book exists.

If you’re using Twitter to get the word out about your book, then my Twitter Marketing for Business guide can be a great companion for you.

It’s a lot easier to connect with your readers when you have a proper plan in place.

Want to learn more about Twitter Marketing for Business? You can take a look at it right here on my Payhip store:

Twitter Marketing for Business

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