Give your writing away, and still make money

Does it make sense to give away your writing for “free?” Yes it does, when your free offerings are an advertisement for your commercial offerings. I give away lots of free content in order to promote my writing guides, manuals and classes.

Publishers are becoming aware of the “free” model too.

A Plan to Promote Cookbooks – Give Away Recipes Online at Cookstr.com – NYTimes.com reports:

“the Internet is shaking up the publishing industry, as authors in all genres debate whether giving away content generates or diminishes sales. In some respects cookbooks would seem particularly vulnerable, because recipes are self-contained in a way that a chapter of a novel is not.

But Mr. Schwalbe — along with more than a dozen publishers and 100 cookbook authors who have signed up to contribute recipes to the site — believes that a carefully chosen selection of recipes will whet the appetites of prospective cookbook buyers.”

Can the free model work for you?

Yes, if you have a plan in place to make it work for you.

The “give it away” model works for many different kinds of writers. So, whether you’re writing books to sell to traditional publishers, are selling ebooks, or are selling your writing services, you can give it away and still make money.

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