So I started an experiment a couple weeks ago on the “free stuff” section of craisglist. I posted the following:
Free Book: Economics > Poetry & Essays
Reply to: dan_x_oneil@yahoo.com
Date: 2005-01-24, 10:10AM CST
Free book. Published in 2003. Relevant today. I wrote it.
Here’s info: http://www.juggernautco.com/offline/books/economics/index.html
Just email me & I’ll mail it or you can pick it up.
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I ended up sending out 15 free books. Everyone was very positive & thankful for the freeness. Some people were curious why I would do such a thing. One person said, “May I ask why you’re just giving it away?” Here was my response:
hi & thanks for asking. here’s why:
— i have been at this (writing + publishing books)
for a long time
— i have been mildly successful at it
— i used to do lots of poetry performances + sell
lots of books out & about
— i also had a large-scale marketing plan which
included sending out a couple hundred unsolicited
review copies to publications
— due to the current configuration of my life
(fatherhood, day job, running websites, side jobs,
etc.) my previous methodologies are not feasible (i.e.
i don’t perform very much anymore & don’t have time to
research/ send/ follow up on review copies
— result: my other 2 books sold out 1,000 copies in a
year and are collected/ actively sold in the secondary
used book market. on the other hand, there are many
hundreds of copies of my current book in my living
room
— enter craigslist + free access to postage @ work
and you get my offer of todaywant one?
Next up: posting to the NYC free stuff section.