Do Free eBooks Work

Free ebook downloads convert to paid sales at a low rate, typically ranging from 0.5% to 5%. While free access attracts many readers, only a small fraction purchase the book, with some authors reporting that free downloads make overall paid sales percentages plummet to around 1%. [
Key Findings on Free vs. Paid Reading:

• Low Conversion Rates: Free ebook promotions (like Kindle Free Days) are generally used for visibility, not immediate sales, with conversion rates often falling under 5%.
• Library Impact: Data suggests that library access is different from free digital giveaways; one report found that 50% of e-books read in a library were later purchased.
• Reader Behavior: About 25% of readers prefer to download free books, while 26% use subscription services like Kindle Unlimited.
• “Free-Only” Readers: Approximately one-third of readers (based on a Canadian study) limit themselves to only reading or listening to books that are free.

Note: The effectiveness of free books depends heavily on the genre, author’s popularity, and whether the book is part of a series.

Take Away:

I am taking all of my eBooks out of Kindle Unlimited / Select. My main reason for doing this is Kindle Unlimited has not been working for me. And with the free promotions I have done, it has not been good. I wanted to put a large part of my content on my websites but that is not going to work either. It will not drive sales. Free doesn’t drive sales. And the part that we can’t control is that we are not just competing against our free eBooks we are competing against everyone’s free eBooks.

Why have I been failing?

I have stayed away from paperback and hardback books. Even when Amazon saw the limitation of eBooks, I have been reluctant to do paperback versions of my books. Does this fully explain my failure. No. But the 2nd cliff that hit me was in 2019 and that was year after Amazon folded create space into kdp for print versions of books. Amazon saw the writing on the wall but I refused to see it.

While exact, universal figures on how many ebook readers purchase physical copies of those same books are hard to pinpoint, data suggests a strong overlap in consumption. Physical books remain dominant, with 65% of U.S. adults reading them, and in some datasets, they outsell ebooks 4-to-1. Many readers frequently blend formats,, as 33% of U.S. adults read both digital and print.

Preference for Print: Despite the popularity of ebooks, 70% of Canadian book buyers preferred print in a 2024 survey.
Physical Dominance: Physical books accounted for 75% of purchases in one study, while ebooks made up 15%.
Dual Consumption: Many users in a Reddit discussion and other studies show that many readers use both formats, often reading ebooks for convenience and buying print for favorites.
Why Buy Both: Print is often preferred for, and therefore bought to supplement, books already read electronically due to the desire for a “tactile experience,” better retention, or to own a physical copy.

Although exact numbers are hard to know, around 3 million of eBook readers belong to Kindle Unlimited. Although Kindle Unlimited is not exactly free, it does cannibalize part of the eBook paid sales market. Yes writers get some from eBook sales but KU was a game changer.

I have been failing miserably and I am still trying to figure out what I should do.