I’m busy mugging up about book marketing and came across the term ‘freemiums’. To my shame I had no idea what they were, so I looked them up. A freemium is promotional or business model that offers something basic for free, while charging for more advanced or premium related products. (That’s where the ‘free’ and ‘mium’ of freemium come from.) So I’ve been coming across freemiums all the time without realising when I’ve signed up for free ebooks or newsletters on sites that are hoping to sell me something eventually. This website explains the model in detail.
Will they work for authors? Undoubtedly. The Internet is all about getting things for free, so surfers these day expect to get some sort of freebie from every website. And if they don’t find it on yours, they’ll go elsewhere. Joanna Penn explains in a fascinating guest post here on The Savvy Book Marketer that authors have an advantage when it comes to freemiums as they can write, and the vast majority of the free products offered are written articles. It’s fairly painless, therefore, for us to rattle them off. Her suggestions for some good freemiums for writers to offer include:
- Blog posts and articles for free, but your books are premium.
- Short stories or first couple of chapters are free, but the whole book is premium.
- You make your first novel free, but subsequent ones must be paid for.
So, freemiums look like being an interesting book marketing avenue to explore.