I don’t know how universal this trait is, but I have a tendency to buy books after I’ve already read them.

For a bit of background, I am a pretty avid user of digital rental services like Hoopla and Libby, and my tastes tend towards the classics which are typically public domain and therefore pretty readily available as eBooks via Project Gutenberg or Internet Archive.

That means I have lots of opportunities to read books for free.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t spend money on books.

Instead, what often happens is: I will read or listen to a book for free via one of the sources above and either enjoy it so much, or find myself thinking about it long after I’ve finished, so that I will have a desire to have the physical copy. At that point I’ll either order it right away or keep an eye out for it the next time I’m out perusing bookstores.

Okay . . . so what?

Giving away expertise for free doesn’t necessarily mean you’re robbing yourself of sales. It just means you have a chance to prove the value you have to offer before asking for a financial commitment.

And, sometimes all it takes to turn that free value into a sale is a change of format.

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P.S. Here’s an interesting commentary by Neil Gaiman (pre-scandal) regarding how digital piracy and free editions actually increased book sales.