This is a very good question and one that has no definite answer.  In fact, the answer is probably different for every author.

But let’s look at some things to consider:

 

Goodreads giveaway: 

At the moment you must give away physical books, which is a reason in itself to use Amazon’s CreateSpace to produce a paperback of your Kindle ebook.

The important metric here for purposes of getting exposure for your book’s title is how many people have added the book to their “to read” shelf.

While I cannot measure if any person who signed up to get my books for free then went out and bought the books, I can tell that those books for which I have had giveaways have many more readers putting the books on their “to read” shelf than those books that have not had giveaways. 

If you have had a decent number of downloads (and that number is dependent on your type of book, the number of free days, etc.), have you seen a bounce in your book’s sales a few days after the book went off the free list?

And if you have other books, especially ones in the same series, have you seen a bounce in the sales of those books?

Did you sell more books at the lower price?  Then when the book returned to its higher price, did you continue to sell more books than you had originally sold at that price?

This option seems considerably harder to evaluate.  At the moment I am trying out two different services, but there is really no way to tell whether they are having any effect.  As the investment is not huge, I feel it is worth trying.    

In conclusion, it is not just about the financial investment.  These evaluations are also about the time constraints on your writing time.  While you want people to know about and buy your books, you also want time to write them.

And did I mention the time for blogging, social media participation, Facebook groups, etc.?

Previously I had posted excerpts from two published works on Wattpad.  But now I am using the site as a way to motivate myself to write new chapters of my work-in-progress dystopian thriller THE MOTHER SIEGE.

Of course, I am also hoping to pick up fans who will be interested in reading the entire book when I finish.  And it is way too early to tell if this strategy will work.

Click here to read chapter 1 of THE MOTHER SIEGE on Wattpad– and take a look around the site.

(And if you wonder why I decided to write such a story – read the explanation at http://www.phylliszimblermiller.com/the-mother-siege/)

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON.  You can see all her books at www.ZimblerMillerbooks.comand find her on Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/pzmiller

She also writes about book-related topics at her author website at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.comand is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com