I’ve found a new site to give away free books and collect reader e-mails. I’m not all that worried about collecting e-mails but it matters to some.
ThirstyAuthor.com works on similar principles to Prolific Works and Bookfunnel but also cross-promotes actively. I put my books up a couple of days ago and have already had several downloads despite doing nothing.
Obviously, the more you promote your links the more giveaways you get so I’m going to get more pro-active. Check out the site here. Uploading the books is easy enough except, for some reason, the site didn’t like my epub versions. They say most downloads are pdf so it probably won’t matter.
This kind of site works well for self-publishers giving away the first book in a series in order to sell the rest. I’m a horse of a different colour. (For my novelette An Orc of a Different Colour see the latest issue of Outposts of Beyond here) I mostly sell short stories or novelettes to magazines then bundle them together into books later. I’ve tried selling these collections without much success so now I just give them away and hope someone might donate money in return or buy one of my small press books from Alban Lake Publishing or Nomadic Delirium Press. No one has yet but here is the link in case you get a mad urge to give me money because you like my free books. Paypal me Itsy bitsy teeny weeny contributions are welcome.
This free-to-readers-pay-if -you- like model is similar to The Guardian, a very famous, very left-wing and sometimes very informative British newspaper which is backed by a charitable trust fund. I’m not but I get by with the day job and would rather have my stories read than not.
Anyway, here below are my free book links so you can see what happens for the reader with ThirstyAuthor.com. Feel free to read one of mine!
