It's a great time to be a reader - but an author? Not so much. Amazon's Kindle boasts a selection of over 2.5 million eBooks, and as supply continues to exceed demand, reading is ever-increasingly becoming a buyer's market - "a market in which goods are plentiful, buyers have a wide range of choice, and prices tend to be low". 

Whereas rarity breeds value, abundance propagates the notion that a product in some way lacks worth - and writers are struggling as a result. Thought Catalog's Porter Robinson puts it perfectly - "Over time, we’re all starting to think of various forms of entertainment and artistic content as being worth less money than they were. And from a consumer’s standpoint, that might be dandy. From the standpoint of somebody who needs to make a living creating these things we enjoy, not so dandy". 

Such harshly competitive waters have seen a growing number of authors pricing their eBooks at rock-bottom (or often free) prices in an effort to lure in an audience, sparking an industry-wide debate as we begin to pose the question - does a lower price tag infer lower quality? Does making a book free devalue its worth as a work? 

Whether or not this is the case, authors have to adapt to survive. In order to succeed in the current climate, you need to remove the emotion from pricing. As an author you undoubtedly have a fiercely strong connection to your work, and rightly so - it's the product of months, often years of toil. However you should consider what is more valuable - building an audience, or short-term financial gain? 

It's worth bearing in mind that the majority of readers don't care about your ego. They just want access to quality content, and in their eyes, the cheaper the better. Providing your eBook has a professional cover and a polished blurb, it is unlikely they will equate your work as being of lesser value than its pricier counterparts. 

"Free" can also be a powerful marketing tool if utilised correctly. In 2012, author Michael Hicks gave away a whopping 250,000 free eBooks. He claims: "in addition to those 250,000 freebies, I will have sold around 90,000 copies in exchange for the hard-earned cash of my beloved readers. And I very strongly believe that I wouldn't have sold nearly as many copies had I not been so generous with the freebies."

For those who have penned multiple titles, a permanently free first book can serve as a "loss-leader", driving readers to your other works. Enrolling in Amazon's KDP Select offers a more temporary solution, enabling you to give your eBook away for five days over the course of a three month period. This, known as "price pulsing", can give you an all important leg up in Amazon's sales rankings. 

In the next instalment of "The Power of Free" we will be discussing the various ways in which you can use free eBooks to your advantage, including how to maximise publicity and post-promotional sales. Watch this space!