http://www.tom-mccluskey.com/2009/02/questions-about-giving-it-all-away-for-free/ Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:37:25 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.tom-mccluskey.com/2009/02/questions-about-giving-it-all-away-for-free/#comment-52 Tom Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:09:45 +0000 http://www.tom-mccluskey.com/?p=85#comment-52 Oh, I definitely agree that giving away added our value material is a great way to market. I was mostly just playing devil's advocate for the idea that maybe giving your base content away for free won't work so well for people who aren't already known. Oh, I definitely agree that giving away added our value material is a great way to market. I was mostly just playing devil’s advocate for the idea that maybe giving your base content away for free won’t work so well for people who aren’t already known.

]]> http://www.tom-mccluskey.com/2009/02/questions-about-giving-it-all-away-for-free/#comment-51 bk Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:36:10 +0000 http://www.tom-mccluskey.com/?p=85#comment-51 I think that some of it has to do with what the goals of the IP in question are. Granted a famous person or group giving away some stuff could actually drive sales for existing well-known products, but what about using free stuff to promote lesser-known services? What about a fantasy or sci-fi book that has a lot of supplemental material that the author made while writing. I'm thinking of the vast notebooks that an author would have detailing the 30 year war that happened prior to the storyline, history of races, spellbooks, whatever. These things could be used to build up readership with the ultimate goal being the release of a book. Additionally, ebooks could be free, but the book could contain more material, be printed exquisitely (for the book-o-phile), or just be plain badass. I do agree though that as the technology gets more widespread and embedded in every day life the nature of giveaways will change slightly. But I think that there will be more chapter giveaways (a la Itunes), and hence, more 1 and 2 chapter hooks, further changing the structure of the "successful" book. I think that some of it has to do with what the goals of the IP in question are. Granted a famous person or group giving away some stuff could actually drive sales for existing well-known products, but what about using free stuff to promote lesser-known services? What about a fantasy or sci-fi book that has a lot of supplemental material that the author made while writing. I’m thinking of the vast notebooks that an author would have detailing the 30 year war that happened prior to the storyline, history of races, spellbooks, whatever. These things could be used to build up readership with the ultimate goal being the release of a book. Additionally, ebooks could be free, but the book could contain more material, be printed exquisitely (for the book-o-phile), or just be plain badass.
I do agree though that as the technology gets more widespread and embedded in every day life the nature of giveaways will change slightly. But I think that there will be more chapter giveaways (a la Itunes), and hence, more 1 and 2 chapter hooks, further changing the structure of the “successful” book.

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