tl,dr: my spy thriller Steep Dangerhill: Spy for Hire is free with a coupon code in the shop. If you’re curious about why, read on:
My conscience is a mean drunk that spends most of his time in the weight room, and is not to be crossed lightly.
Now, bear with me for a moment.
Did you bear with me? Good.
I need to backtrack a little; you see, when I was a young’un, I would be at the library every three weeks like clockwork, and it would be a rare three weeks indeed where I didn’t walk out of that grand institution without at least five books. In a variety of genres, on a variety of topics, but now I’m just tooting my own horn.
Somebody has to…
The point is, libraries are a fantastic place for bookworms with chronic cashflow problems, as if you didn’t know.
Which brings me back to my conscience.
In case you were not aware, I am now not just a reader, but a writer. My novel is available on a variety of platforms, and in a variety of media. And despite my open desires for financial security through book sales, it is very important to me that there should be a free option.
Not only because I remember being that little po’bucker with an armload of books that cost nothing but a word of honor that they would be returned in good shape. Because the book itself didn’t cost me a dime.
I wrote it on free software. I designed the cover on free software. I wasn’t charged one red cent to make it available across the globe, just an agreement to share the generated revenue. Hell, my O/S is Linux, for cryin’ out loud.
And, I am self-aware enough to realize: I’m an unknown author, of unknown skill. I understand that you might not want to gamble even a couple bucks U.S. to read my work, especially in These Troubled Times™. Believe me, I know exactly how you feel.
So when it turned out that my aggregator of choice made ebooks available to library systems, I rejoiced; some other po’bucker could read my book, as I had read the books of Iain M. Banks, Melissa Scott, and Tanith Lee.
All I had to do was get my local library to purchase the library version, in order to make it available for borrowing with a library card. I went, I requested, I provided the necessary information,
and then it turned out that my local library refuses any interaction with independent authors. I had to learn this unpleasant truth from a third-party who had seen it posted by an actual librarian in an online group. If you aren’t published through a house, my library won’t even respond to your emails. They never responded to mine. I even had a physical copy all ready to be donated, and heard not a peep.
Since a happy, or at least comatose, conscience is important to a pleasant life (and who wants any other kind?) I had to come up with another option. Fast.
I could, of course, make the ebook version free across the board, but this option had little appeal, because then the people who ran the websites where it was hosted would also get squat whenever someone downloaded it. And that’s not fair. (I try to be fair at least once a year.) Those people do deserve something for providing the marketplace; yes, even Jeff Bezos.
However, I happen to have a marketplace right here. Since Steep Dangerhill: Spy For Hire is available on Amazon, I can’t make the book cheaper here than it is there (which would violate their Terms of Service)… but I can make a coupon for a 100% discount. You’re free to use that or not as you like.
And that is exactly what I’ve done.
From now on, if you would like to download a free ebook copy of my novel/s (I am busily at work on my next two), and you know how to install it, just use the coupon code FREESPEECH at checkout and the price will be discounted in full. No hidden upsells, no “free for a dollar” bullshit, no other purchase necessary. Have it on me, because I know what it’s like to have to count pocket change in a bookstore.
All that being said, if you read it, and like it, I humbly suggest (but do not require) that you come back and buy a copy, or a coffee mug, or leave a buck or three in the tip jar. I swear, I’ll understand if you don’t.