The digital publishing landscape is a very emotional place right now. There are lots of predictions, advice, and anecdotal information available. But there isn’t a whole lot of concrete data to support all the assertions out there.

With that conundrum in mind, we conducted a number of free promotions with our digital distributors. The results were surprising and confirming at the same time. On the half-dozen titles we included in the free-promotion, the response was spectacular in terms of downloads generated. Exposure for the author to a whole new readership was exciting, and it appears the promotion dramatically increased the backlist sales of those authors. Overall, our digital revenues increased by 30% for that month. The most interesting fact we discovered is that the free promotion actually dramatically increased the sales units of the giveaway product in the weeks after the promotion ended! This would seem to prove O’Reilly’s contention that free promotions can increase sales of the same title.

We are deeply pleased with the results of our promotion and plan on being more strategic in the future. At first glance, it doesn’t seem sound that giving away a product can actually promote sales of that same title. Looking at the stats, we certainly would not have sold the amount of units that were downloaded for free, but neither would we have sold the amount of units post-promotion either. Also, we need to consider that this type of promotion may work well only with a certain genre of product.

The digital channel offers new possibilities for publishers. We must be willing to think outside the box and take advantage of these new opportunities.