So yesterday my friend David Winchester, of Caffeine Forge (go read that post!), sent me a link to a service called Pay With a Tweet. The concept is simple- you make something, say, a book, available for download and instead of a paywall, you share it on social media, and then are able to download it. Not mentioned on that homepage, for whatever reason, is that you can set a download and/or time limit on it (they should really talk this up). The benefits are obvious- word gets spread, more people hear about it (it’s worth pointing out that they hear about it before the person obtaining is able to form an opinion of it, as with a review or them sharing it after they’ve read it).

At first I wasn’t interested in it- the lifespan of a tweet is what, twenty seconds? And what’s to stop every person who hears of it from downloading it too? People hearing about it is great, but if I don’t make any money off it, I’m hardly making a career of it, am I (this was before I found out about the time limit). But the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. 3024AD isn’t flying off the digital shelves, but the people who have read it love it. Yet I hesitate to do the ‘free day’ because I’ve never heard of anyone who saw any significant increase in sales after. Also, I wrote a damn good book- it has value, and I’m not particularly interested in just giving it away. So I like this idea for that reason- ‘hey, my book is worth something- a few moments of your time’. I also hate the thought of it just sitting unread on someones Kindle, which is what I think happens with most free day books anyway- it has no value, so the person has no urgency to read it. This way you have something on the line- instead of five bucks, you just told everyone you got it, so you should probably check it out. Hope you like it!

Anyway, I chatted with David for a bit about it and decided to give it a try. So, now through August 31, 3024AD: Short Stories Series One is yours for the price of a share on Twitter and/or Facebook. Enjoy!

–DESR