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Ask Slashdot: Funding Models For a Free E-book?

Posted by samzenpus on from the free-is-not-free dept.

danspalding writes "I'm an adult education teacher in SF who wrote an e-book about how to teach adults. It will be available to download for free in January 2013. I Kickstarted enough money for editing, design and publicity, but not enough to pay me anything up front. I'm considering making a $1, $10 and $25 version available from Amazon as a way for folks to donate money to me, as well as a straight up PayPal link on my site. Is it possible to produce quality material for teachers to download for free in a way that's economically sustainable? Might readers accidentally pay for a copy without realizing there's a free download and get angry? And where should I host the free-to-download version?"

2 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Make up your mind.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's silly. Lots of things are done for free with the option to donate something to the author.

    I know the nasty "profit-is-evil" streak is about to rear its ugly head here... but before it does, I'd suggest there's nothing wrong with providing a mechanism for this. Just so long as he honors the original arrangement from the Kickstarter, first and foremost.

  2. 10 ways to monetize ebooks by All_One_Mind · · Score: 5, Informative
    I've made some spare money writing and marketing ebooks, but I moved onto greener pastures long ago. Some of the business strategies or ideas I have had monetizing ebooks:
    • 1. Embed affiliate links to other books within the ebook
    • 2. Offer additional content that supplements the ebook for a small donation
    • 3. Require an email address/newsletter subscription before sending the free ebook, and then try and monetize through the newsletters
    • 4. Offer physical copies of the book for a fee
    • 5. Break the ebook up into smaller parts for an email newsletter series, and monetize in the newsletter
    • 6. Pledge to write additional material as certain fundraising goals are met
    • 7 .Turn the ebook into a mutipage website and populate with Google Ads
    • 8. Sell resale rights, PLR, etc.
    • 9. Initially sell the ebook only, and then unlock it for free for all people after $xxxx has been raised
    • 10. Write additional non-free books/ebooks and then use your free ebooks to advertise the pay books

    Now I know many of these are not applicable to OP, but it's what worked for me before I moved onto writing GPL software instead of ebooks.