Free Books

Sorry -- didn't mean to tickle the excitable ones out there. The only place I know that's giving away books is the infamous local indie bookstore. They have cartloads out on the sidewalk. This store is also where you find locally published books and poetry in KC.

Anyway. No. Just a tip for other small-potatoes self-publishers.

When you're working up the numbers on how many books you need to sell and at what price, keep in mind that you will want to reserve a part of your inventory to send out to people for free.

Everytime I do a "here's a book for you" mailing campaign, my sales bump for a good two months and I get my best word-of-mouth for the least pile of dollars. My biggest mailing was about 30 books to obesity researchers, which is how I got listed in the NYU medical literature database and recommended in the literature of a medical conference.

Don't worry that you're giving away your work. But do send it to a list of people who might have bought it -- if they'd ever heard it existed. They'll tell others.