Okay, I have explained this before, but some people don't read blogs, so I'll try again and just hope that they read it this time.
I write because I enjoy it. One side effect is that some people think I write well enough that they're willing to buy my books. That is a direct result of the education I got from SOL readers since 2005, as they coached me on how to be a better author.
For that reason, it is my policy to let all of my SOL family read everything I write for free. The caveat is, you have to download it as I post it, and save it on your computer. That is because, in some cases, the story will go behind the SOL pay wall.
Why?
Because I have learned the hard way that, that when I publish a book at Amazon or Smashwords.com, people (who are not members of the SOL family) Google the title and try to find it free somewhere. SOL is high up on the search algorithm, and if the story is posted for free at SOL, then people read it there, instead of buying it.
A lot of people think that all e-books should be free, just as they feel all music should be free.
Imagine you own a small business. Let's say you sell hot dogs. How would you respond if everybody approached you and said, "Give me a free hot dog." Would you be able to stay in business? Of course not.
I give free hotdogs to my SOL family, but not to the whole world. The only catch is, you need to grab that hotdog as soon as it comes off the grill.
I'm writing this because I've gotten numerous complaints that people were halfway through The Seventh Sense and then it went behind the pay wall. They were upset about this. They said it wasn't fair.
I started posting the story on the 13th of April and finished posting the story on the 25th of April. I left it in front of the pay wall until the 2nd of May. So, for roughly three weeks (during which the whole country was chafing under stay-at-home orders, with 'nothing to do' all that time) the story was sitting there, free to download.
Yes, you had to come back day after day, but I had to write it and post it every day, so we both had choices to make. If you had better things to do than download the story, then that's fine. You know what's important to you and what isn't. But if you just decided to wait and read it after if was completely posted, and then didn't download it for a week, I don't feel sorry for you. Especially since I posted blog entries about the length of the book and the posting schedule.
I offer it for free to a select group of people. I don't know of a lot of other authors who publish for sale who do that. I put blog entries out there giving you the information you need to know when to grab that hot dog off the grill.
So when you say I'm not fair for putting something behind the pay wall, it ticks me off, and I just don't feel like a horrible person.
I hope you and yours are safe from Covid 19
Thanks for reading.
Bob