Free E-Books

[Carl East]

Hi guys/gals, hope all is well? I'm feeling stupid now and the reason is, I've been going around telling people in blogs all over the net about my E-Books and forgot to let people here at Lit know. So to rectify that blunder I thought I'd come in to give you links to my free E-Books.

You can find me in most big E-Book sites such as Amazon, B&N, Sony etc, but I prefer to let you have my free books from Smashwords. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11702

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41507

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40656

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39172

All the best and good luck in your book marketing future, I wish you well.

Carl East

ps I actually put this up once already here, but I think I put it in the wrong place. If you do decide to read one or two leave a comment, I've yet to hear from anyone I actually know. lol

 

[lovecraft68]

Hi guys/gals, hope all is well? I'm feeling stupid now and the reason is, I've been going around telling people in blogs all over the net about my E-Books and forgot to let people here at Lit know. So to rectify that blunder I thought I'd come in to give you links to my free E-Books.

You can find me in most big E-Book sites such as Amazon, B&N, Sony etc, but I prefer to let you have my free books from Smashwords. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/11702

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41507

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40656

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39172

All the best and good luck in your book marketing future, I wish you well.

Carl East

ps I actually put this up once already here, but I think I put it in the wrong place. If you do decide to read one or two leave a comment, I've yet to hear from anyone I actually know. lol

Okay I know I am going to sound like a jerk but have to ask this question. Wg=hy are yoiu giving these things away? Does the average cheapskate out there not get enough for nothing? I mean how many stories can they read on this iste alone for the bubble?
I am getting ready to make my forst submission to smashwords as soon as my cover art and website are all set. Looking ta the site you can sell these for as little as .99 for a short story. Mine will probably be $4.99 as it will be around the 65,000 or so word mark. $5 lousy dollars and there are people who will do nothing but comb that site for free shit.
Don;t ge tme wrong it's a nice gesture with the thought behind it that "If I give them one they will enjoy it and want to buy my other stuff" That worked maybe ten years ago, Nw they take their free stuff then go look for more. I am placing teaser excerpts on my web page that end in cliffhangers and see what that does. I will admittedly have link to a "free story" that they will receive if they sign up. It is a two page BDSM that was my first published lit story and has nothing to do with any of the actual E-books. Anyway I am not picking on you I am just pointing out that i is getting impossible to make a dime these days anywhere and "freebies" are not going to help matters.

 

[michchick98]

Okay I know I am going to sound like a jerk but have to ask this question. Wg=hy are yoiu giving these things away? Does the average cheapskate out there not get enough for nothing? I mean how many stories can they read on this iste alone for the bubble?
I am getting ready to make my forst submission to smashwords as soon as my cover art and website are all set. Looking ta the site you can sell these for as little as .99 for a short story. Mine will probably be $4.99 as it will be around the 65,000 or so word mark. $5 lousy dollars and there are people who will do nothing but comb that site for free shit.
Don;t ge tme wrong it's a nice gesture with the thought behind it that "If I give them one they will enjoy it and want to buy my other stuff" That worked maybe ten years ago, Nw they take their free stuff then go look for more. I am placing teaser excerpts on my web page that end in cliffhangers and see what that does. I will admittedly have link to a "free story" that they will receive if they sign up. It is a two page BDSM that was my first published lit story and has nothing to do with any of the actual E-books. Anyway I am not picking on you I am just pointing out that i is getting impossible to make a dime these days anywhere and "freebies" are not going to help matters.

Giving away free stuff can get you exposure. Literotica, while one of the most read sites on the web, can't always be relied on for getting your pen name out there. Especially if you write under a different name.

And I beg to differ, I think getting freebies will prompt people to pay for other works by the same author. I give away free stuff all the time and I've noticed that since I have, sales of my other works have gone up.

And let's face it, self-publishing isn't going to make anyone rich anyway, so what's the harm in giving away a few freebies? I've never self-published, but from the people I've spoken with who have, they're not making a ton of money off their work. Of course, there are exceptions, but I'd imagine the self-publishing route is still fairly new and rough around the edges.....particularly if the author doesn't edit his/her own work or have someone edit for them. And trust me, I've read some horrendously edited stories that were self-published.

Just my two cents.

 

[lovecraft68]

Giving away free stuff can get you exposure. Literotica, while one of the most read sites on the web, can't always be relied on for getting your pen name out there. Especially if you write under a different name.

And I beg to differ, I think getting freebies will prompt people to pay for other works by the same author. I give away free stuff all the time and I've noticed that since I have, sales of my other works have gone up.

And let's face it, self-publishing isn't going to make anyone rich anyway, so what's the harm in giving away a few freebies? I've never self-published, but from the people I've spoken with who have, they're not making a ton of money off their work. Of course, there are exceptions, but I'd imagine the self-publishing route is still fairly new and rough around the edges.....particularly if the author doesn't edit his/her own work or have someone edit for them. And trust me, I've read some horrendously edited stories that were self-published.

Just my two cents.

You of course have some points and as I said to my chagrin I will be giving something away juts not an entire book. For the record self publishin gand e-publishing are a bit different. Self publishing will set you back an intial $1500 or so investment depending on how many bells and whistles are attached to your work. E-publishing is pretty much free so it does give you the ability to give something away at no overhead cost. I tend to get a little pissed off with "free" because I had a brick and mortar business for a few years and it(like many otehrs) was put under by the internet. Between unrelaistic discounts (e-anything has no real overhead) and "free" stuff a real store cannot compete. This is that "why buy the cow when the milk is free" theory.'
You are right however few and far between are going to make a living off of e-publishing, I am doing it because I quit school and back in high school always swore i would be a published author so smashwords isn;t Del-ray but hey it's a published work.
Also agree on te horrendous editing. I could have already published if i wanted to go with my half assed grammar but am actually paying a retired english professor to go through my stuff.

 

[PennLady]

Okay I know I am going to sound like a jerk but have to ask this question. Wg=hy are yoiu giving these things away? Does the average cheapskate out there not get enough for nothing? I mean how many stories can they read on this iste alone for the bubble?
...
of the actual E-books. Anyway I am not picking on you I am just pointing out that i is getting impossible to make a dime these days anywhere and "freebies" are not going to help matters.

There may be some merit to the free = exposure theory, I'm not sure. i have four e-books out, two at $4.99 and two at $1.99. The latter two were an experiment to see if there would be increased sales, and there are -- both of those have sold over 200 copies, while neither of the others has reached 100 sales. And one of the $4.99 is the third in a trilogy, the other two being the $1.99 books.

I have to say I'm one of the ones who looks for free stuff -- I just can't afford to drop $5 (or more, and many are more) on an e-book every time I see one I'd like, much as I'd like to, and I would like to.

 

[lovecraft68]

There may be some merit to the free = exposure theory, I'm not sure. i have four e-books out, two at $4.99 and two at $1.99. The latter two were an experiment to see if there would be increased sales, and there are -- both of those have sold over 200 copies, while neither of the others has reached 100 sales. And one of the $4.99 is the third in a trilogy, the other two being the $1.99 books.

I have to say I'm one of the ones who looks for free stuff -- I just can't afford to drop $5 (or more, and many are more) on an e-book every time I see one I'd like, much as I'd like to, and I would like to.

Now see that drives me crazy. people will literally go without finding out what happens at the end of a trilogy because it's three extra dollars. It is a rock and a hard place people do need to save money and don;t have alot to burn but in your case that is shitty I would have to know how something ended but apparently I am in the minority. I certainly am not in a great place financially but $5? It's not going to break the mortgage payment. This does defeat a theory of mine however. I wrote a 5 chapter lit series that I left off with one hell of a cliffhnager and keep getting requests for it. Well the conclusion will never post on lit but will be put in an e-book featuring different versions of those 5 chapters as well as two additional and of course the ending my theory was someone would pay the $4.99 to find out. maybe not. So i have not started on smashwords yet does the .99 to 4.99 base on word count? do they have a "chart" so to speak or you just sort of wing it?

 

[michchick98]

For the record self publishin gand e-publishing are a bit different. Self publishing will set you back an intial $1500 or so investment depending on how many bells and whistles are attached to your work. E-publishing is pretty much free so it does give you the ability to give something away at no overhead cost. I tend to get a little pissed off with "free" because I had a brick and mortar business for a few years and it(like many otehrs) was put under by the internet. Between unrelaistic discounts (e-anything has no real overhead) and "free" stuff a real store cannot compete. This is that "why buy the cow when the milk is free" theory.'
You are right however few and far between are going to make a living off of e-publishing, I am doing it because I quit school and back in high school always swore i would be a published author so smashwords isn;t Del-ray but hey it's a published work.
Also agree on te horrendous editing. I could have already published if i wanted to go with my half assed grammar but am actually paying a retired english professor to go through my stuff.

When I say self-publishing, I mean exactly what you are doing or what anyone can do on Smashwords and Amazon....which is publish their work themselves, without another party doing it for them. That's free, right? So where is the $1500 you're talking about? And with CreateSpace, I believe you can get something published in print for much less than $1500.

And what bells and whistles? What kinds of bells and whistles would you get with a print book or an e-book? If I can read it, turn the page (or push the button to turn the page if it's an e-book), what more do I need, as a reader?

 

[michchick98]

Now see that drives me crazy. people will literally go without finding out what happens at the end of a trilogy because it's three extra dollars. It is a rock and a hard place people do need to save money and don;t have alot to burn but in your case that is shitty I would have to know how something ended but apparently I am in the minority. I certainly am not in a great place financially but $5? It's not going to break the mortgage payment. This does defeat a theory of mine however. I wrote a 5 chapter lit series that I left off with one hell of a cliffhnager and keep getting requests for it. Well the conclusion will never post on lit but will be put in an e-book featuring different versions of those 5 chapters as well as two additional and of course the ending my theory was someone would pay the $4.99 to find out. maybe not. So i have not started on smashwords yet does the .99 to 4.99 base on word count? do they have a "chart" so to speak or you just sort of wing it?

Not saying that PennLady is on a fixed income, but some people are and $5 can mean the difference between paying your light bill or not.

I was going to do the same thing you're doing with one of my series of books, but I decided against it. There are actually 4 books in the series (the 4th isn't written yet) and I pulled the first two from Lit for publication. I didn't have to because Excessica has non-exclusive rights, but I wanted to....for the whole "why pay for it when I can get it for free?" thinking.

But then I wrote the 3rd story in the series and I was torn about sending it directly to Excessica or posting it here first. Eventually, I did post it here. First off because it'll be another few months before it's out for publication with Excessica but second because I know some of my long time readers would prefer to read the continuing series here...for free.

I've also offered up the two previous books in the series, the ones I pulled for publication, for free to anyone who wanted to catch up on the story. Perhaps not the wisest idea, but I figure it could get me a few more sales of my other works.

I've got a whole folder of e-books that I've downloaded for free from various sites, most of which are part of a series. Sure, I could probably afford to get the rest of the books in one particular series or another, but until I'm sure I can, I won't. I continue to look for other books for free....let's face it, who doesn't? I've even gotten lucky a few times by emailing the author of certain books and they've been so grateful that I've read something by them, they offer another book (sometimes in a series, sometimes not) for free. It's great publicity and it tells the readers you're not in it just for the money.

Besides, there's no telling if the people who read stories on Literotica are the same people who buy my e-books. So perhaps if they read something here, or something I've offered for free, they'll buy my other works. If not, oh well. At least I know some of my stuff is getting read.

Bottom line, everyone likes free stuff. I don't think it's always that someone can't afford it, just that they prefer freebies. And sometimes that's the best way to promote yourself.

Yeah, it's a good feeling to say you're a published author, but when it starts to be about making money and not about your love of writing, then it's not really such a thrill anymore.

 

[PennLady]

Now see that drives me crazy. people will literally go without finding out what happens at the end of a trilogy because it's three extra dollars. It is a rock and a hard place people do need to save money and don;t have alot to burn but in your case that is shitty I would have to know how something ended but apparently I am in the minority. I certainly am not in a great place financially but $5? It's not going to break the mortgage payment. This does defeat a theory of mine however. I wrote a 5 chapter lit series that I left off with one hell of a cliffhnager and keep getting requests for it. Well the conclusion will never post on lit but will be put in an e-book featuring different versions of those 5 chapters as well as two additional and of course the ending my theory was someone would pay the $4.99 to find out. maybe not. So i have not started on smashwords yet does the .99 to 4.99 base on word count? do they have a "chart" so to speak or you just sort of wing it?

Well, I can't help it if people don't want to finish the series. One thing with writing -- once you're done, you've given control to the reader. My husband, for example -- he has an incomplete series of the Aubrey/Maturin novels because he can't find them with the same artwork on the cover, and he won't fill in the gaps with new ones. Go figure.

$5 is not a lot, I realize, but $5 on a book is $5 that can't go towards the groceries or the clothes or whatever. Also, I sometimes have a hard time rationalizing it to myself b/c I read so fast -- to pay $5 for a couple hours of reading seems like paying too much, but like I said -- that's me, I read fast.

Wait wait -- I realize that $5 is nothing compared to the time the author put in on it. I've spent weeks/months on my own books, so I know. (I could just see the arguments here so wanted to try to clarify.) If there's something I really want, I'll pay for it, after finding the best price. And if the best price is $4.99 for an ebook, then I'll be happy to pay that.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[sr71plt]

Carl East is a best-seller. I guess that's a good response in itself on why someone would give free reads away. It's probably an element in why he's a best-seller.

I have free e-books in several of the categories I write in. At a place like ARE, they put a book of mine high in the category best-seller columns (e.g., my Snowball's Chance --a straight story--has set on top of the "Historical Medieval Romance" category at ARE for two years, my free read Hitchhiker and my coauthored Shabbu Rough Road to Happiness are both in the top 40 in the "Gay" cateogry of over 5,000 e-books at ARE and have been for two years).

Name recognition and an initial read. A long-honored technique of establishing a fan base. Getting someone to read your first book is one of the hardest nuts to crack in book promotion. If that free-read book is good enough, it will move free readers to buying readers.

 

[sr71plt]

I do somewhat what Lovecraft is suggesting about extending or expanding what were free reads into for-pay expanded pieces. (an example, both now free can be seen in my "Silas's Choice" which was expanded to an e-book which is still selling well--and will shortly have a sequel out--but lives here on Lit. under the title "Silas's Choice Expanded")

When readers of a free-read story ask for more of the story and my mind decides I want to expand it. I expand it and put it on sale as an e-book. Quite a few of my stories here on Lit. exist as expanded for-pay e-books.

One phenomenon of this erotica business that still has my head scratching is that there is a market in e-book form for stories that are simultaneously floating around on the Internet for free. I don't try to figure it out. I just cash the checks. As for the reader affording it, I let the reader decide that.

 

[TxRad]

The reason for giving away some free stuff to the people here at Lit might be that Carl started his writing career here, met his wife here, and at one time had many friends here.

Some people are just what they seem, nice people. Maybe he just wants to give something back.

Glad to see you around Carl.

 

[Carl East]

I'm a strong believer in getting the word out and one of the best ways to do that is to give a book away now and again. Okay, so I get my name out there and find a book of mine is rising up the chart, the free chart that is. Suddenly, I'm getting noticed (Big Time) and it wasn't just any old book, it was one of my best. Now one of the books I gave you all a link to has been downloaded 12,000 times at just Smashwords alone and it's available at all the other sites for free as well. Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, Amazon. You do the math.

I've now established myself as someone who can entertain with the written word and people want to know what else I've written. That's when they discover books like "Hell's Gate" and "The Vampire Berserker" and suddenly I'm making good money. The only downside to all this (if you can call it a downside) is that all of this has taken me some time to achieve, but at the end of it all, it was worth it. I'm now retired at the age of 54 and earning more money than I ever earned while I worked.

I hope you all take notice of this information because I believe it's priceless.

All the best

Carl

 

[Carl East]

The reason for giving away some free stuff to the people here at Lit might be that Carl started his writing career here, met his wife here, and at one time had many friends here.

Some people are just what they seem, nice people. Maybe he just wants to give something back.

Glad to see you around Carl.

Hi Tx, hope all is well in your part of the world?

Carl

 

[Carl East]

So i have not started on smashwords yet does the .99 to 4.99 base on word count? do they have a "chart" so to speak or you just sort of wing it?

I have my own idea's about pricing and they go as follows:

1. A story that has 4000 to 5000 words is always $0.99

2. A story that has 5000 to 10,000 words is always either $1.99 or $2.99 depending on how good the Author thinks it is. Let's face it if the Author doesn't know how good/bad it is, why should anyone buy it.

3. A story that has 10,000 to 50,000 words is anything from $2.99 and above, but never over $9.99.

Over pricing your work is a no no, simply because thousands of others are using the chart above (or something similar) to gauge what they are charging.

I hope that helps Lovecraft.

All the best

Carl

ps I am one person who knows how hard it is to give a book away, especially a good book. I was lucky though, because by the time Self-Publishing came along I already had quite a few stories written, they just needed to be tidied up a little.

 

[evanslily]

One phenomenon of this erotica business that still has my head scratching is that there is a market in e-book form for stories that are simultaneously floating around on the Internet for free. I don't try to figure it out. I just cash the checks.

Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the fact that reading an ebook affords more privacy. It can be kind of tricky to read Literotica knowing that people are apt to look over your shoulder and see what you're reading. And--standby for sweeping generalisation--many women aren't comfortable with the idea of people thinking they're looking at a porn site. Whereas no one knows what you're reading if you've downloaded an ebook. That in itself could be worth a couple of dollars.

I have my own idea's about pricing and they go as follows:

1. A story that has 4000 to 5000 words is always $0.99

2. A story that has 5000 to 10,000 words is always either $1.99 or $2.99 depending on how good the Author thinks it is. Let's face it if the Author doesn't know how good/bad it is, why should anyone buy it.

3. A story that has 10,000 to 50,000 words is anything from $2.99 and above, but never over $9.99.

Really? Wow. Think I'd better go and raise my prices...

 

[Carl East]

Really? Wow. Think I'd better go and raise my prices...

I'd sell "Soltice" for $1.99 and "Anything for you" would be $4.99 but that's just me. lol

Incidentally, I lived in Northampton for forty years. I lived at Camp Hill and Briar Hill for most of that time. It's a small world isn't it.

All the best

Carl

 

[sr71plt]

To go with Carl's "no greater than $9.99" advice, my biggest wordage book (Fetish Galore, at 260,000 words) retails for $8.99 and is my second highest top seller (on the top 50 list for gay/lesbian anthologies on Amazon.com).

Amanda Hocking, a teenage "Twilight"-type writer sold 640,000 e-books last year. Half of her e-books are at .99 and the other half at $2.99.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-09-ebooks09_ST_N.htm

 

[Carl East]

Amandy Hocking, a teenage "Twilight"-type writer sold 640,000 e-books last year. Half of her e-books are at .99 and the other half at $2.99.

With all this talk about pricing I've just started a little experiment with one of my books. Up until now I sold "Vampire Berserker 1 to 4 at $1.99 each, but they are not selling in any great numbers. I've now reduced them to $0.99 each and will see how it goes.

The complete book of "Vampire Berserker" was being sold at $4.99 I've now reduced that as well to $2.99, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm only guessing here but I wouldn't mind betting that I make more from the decrease of the complete book than I will from the others. We'll see and I'll let you know what happens.

Carl

 

[evanslily]

I'd sell "Solstice" for $1.99 and "Anything for you" would be $4.99 but that's just me. lol

Incidentally, I lived in Northampton for forty years. I lived at Camp Hill and Briar Hill for most of that time. It's a small world isn't it.

All the best

Carl

LOL. I have no idea why, but just about everyone I've corresponded with from Literotica has some connection with Northampton. What's going on? Do I live in the most sex-starved county (or should that be sexually-enlightened?) in Britain that everyone flocks to the pages of Literotica? Bizarre.

And okay, maybe I'll up my prices. I guess my thinking was along the lines of, 'if you can read it for free at Literotica, how can you charge more than a dollar or so?' - but having said that, the Smashwords versions are (IMHO) better than the free versions hosted here. Tidied up a fair bit, anyway. My early efforts here suffer terribly from ellipse-itis

Thanks for the advice. Off to read one of your freebies now.

 

[sr71plt]

I guess my thinking was along the lines of, 'if you can read it for free at Literotica, how can you charge more than a dollar or so?'

Shhhhh. Apparently these are two different sets of folks.

 

[Carl East]

Thanks for the advice. Off to read one of your freebies now.

May I suggest the second one in the list, it is a non-erotic story and quite popular. It's called "Forever Young" after that one go for the "Short Erotic Tales 1" that should keep you happy for at least a couple of days. lol

Carl

 

[Carl East]

Creating a TOC (Table of Contents) for your master piece, using MS Word 2010

Some people are just what they seem, nice people. Maybe he just wants to give something back.

Glad to see you around Carl.

Talking about giving back, I thought this might come in handy for some of you budding Authors.

Once your book is finished, the final thing you might need to do is place a TOC between the title/copyright page and the first chapter. Depending on whether or not you actually need a TOC.

If its an anthology of short stories, or the chapters have sub headings then you will need one. Below is a step by step guide of how to do it and how easy it really is once you know how.

1. Create the blank page between the title and first paragraph of the story.

2. At the top of the page write "Table of Contents" and under that, all the chapter names you are going to link to.

3. ***Very important next step*** Go down to the first chapter and highlight the name. When you've done that click on the "INSERT" Button and from that choose the "Bookmark" then type in the name of the chapter. If it is more than one word you need to place an underscore _ between each word. once that is done hit okay and the first part of the story is book marked.

4. Now go up to the table of contents and highlight the same name you've already set up and go back into "Insert" only this time enter the hyperlink area. ***Make sure you choose "place in this document, which can be found on the left of this area" then with the first chapter highlighted choose that name in the list of hyperlink and press ok.

5. To make sure you've done everything correctly go to the table and after holding down the "Control key and pressing the left mouse button over the title of the first chapter it should send you to that first page of the story.

6. Follow this example with every other chapter and before long you will have a TOC up and running for the whole book.

7. Now that you can link to each of the different chapters, it would be nice to be able to get back to the top whenever you want to. So now you're going to enter the words "Table_of_Contents" in the bookmark area. Once you've done that go down to each of the chapter headings and highlight them one at a time. Once highlighted you then go into the hyperlink folder again under "Insert" and choose the Table_of_Contents. after which you should now be able to click on the title at the beginning of that chapter and it will take you back to the TOC at the top of the document.

8. Say thank you Carl, I think you're brilliant and have a good day. lol

Carl East

 

[lovecraft68]

When I say self-publishing, I mean exactly what you are doing or what anyone can do on Smashwords and Amazon....which is publish their work themselves, without another party doing it for them. That's free, right? So where is the $1500 you're talking about? And with CreateSpace, I believe you can get something published in print for much less than $1500.

And what bells and whistles? What kinds of bells and whistles would you get with a print book or an e-book? If I can read it, turn the page (or push the button to turn the page if it's an e-book), what more do I need, as a reader?

That pricing was what I came across when I was looking into sites like "lulu" and the pricing is based on how many actual print copies, length of book, and of course format which is what I meant by bells and whistles. hardcover, paperback, prestige format etc... My wife also just self published a "Journal to Happiness" (yeah we couldn't be more different she is a motivational speaker/certified Life coach/ so friggin positive and happy that if she didn't give a hell of a BJ I'd have killed her by now) she did it through a publisher called Heyhouse (they specialize in happy happy joy joy) I think for a couple of dozen printed copies, them putting it in all the stores websites (borders, Barnes and Noble etc) and some other things it was about $1100