One of the strategies I want to try for building a readership is to give away as much content as possible for free. In addition to publishing short stories on this website, I also plan to release stories on Amazon — either at the lowest possible price or completely free.

If you’re not familiar with how Amazon works: there’s a limit on how many days you can offer a book for free. However, I can run a free promotion for up to five days per book.

My idea is to write a new short story each month, between 2,000 and 10,000 words, and use these free campaigns to attract readers. Giving away books is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to get people interested in what I write.

The first test of this approach is now live and available for free on Amazon:

• Black Market Dreams (US – English version)
• Dunkle Träume (DE – German version)

It’s a quick read — about 5,000 words (19 Kindle pages) — but I think it’s a strong story and a good example of what you can expect from my future work.

So if you’re curious, feel free to check it out!

(Keep in mind, though, that the free campaign will only last for 5 days. So the book is going to be 99 Cents after June 25th.)