Free first edition → email → paid edition (permafree + reader magnet), for Cedwyn
Written 26 Oct 2026 for BIZDEV #2 17. Sources are practitioner testimony; dates given because most hard numbers are older than 2026.
What practitioners report
- Clare Flynn (historical novelist, ALLi case study, Feb 2016): made her debut permafree via Draft2Digital (Kobo, Apple, Nook) and Amazon price-match; 32,000 downloads in 2 months, mostly Amazon, with under $100 of promo-site ads; mailing list doubled; sales of her second book doubled in the first month; reviews rose from 27 to 140. selfpublishingadvice.org
- Same thread: Fenella J Miller reports about double the new subscribers in weeks when a book is free; Jane Steen reports signups, second-book sales and fan mail all up with a free first-in-series.
- 2026 guides (publishing.co.uk reader-magnet guide; ebookpbook.com, Mar 2026) still recommend the exchange: free content for an email address, delivered by a tool such as BookFunnel, with the free book carrying links to the next paid book.
- Tripwire assertions of '8–15% conversion vs 2–3%' circulate on marketing blogs (humanswith.ai) without primary data — not relied on here.
The mechanics that matter
- Free works where readers already browse (Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google Play). A free PDF on a site with no traffic gets no downloads.
- The free book must capture the reader: either an email exchange up front, or strong in-book links (first and last page) to the signup and the next paid book.
- The paid step should be the obvious 'next' (same subject, newer edition, more records), priced simply.
How we apply it to Cedwyn (checked 26 Oct 11:39Z)
- Today every v0.01 first edition downloads instantly as a PDF with no email asked (/ebooks/api/free → ebooks.bucklerfamily.estate, 200, application/pdf). Each free reader is anonymous, so the 'pool' stage of the funnel is skipped.
- Keep instant download (friction kills reads), and add: (a) an optional one-field 'Email me when the next edition is out' box on the free-read click (fires signup-submit); (b) page 1 and last page of each free PDF: one line + link to /subscribe/ and to the paid edition's /ebooks/ anchor (check the current PDFs have them).
- Distribution: list the Cedwyn free edition on Google Play Books and Kobo Writing Life directly as permafree (both free to list; publisher accounts in the owner's name). Correction 26 Oct 2026: Draft2Digital is no longer free (since 15 Apr 2026: $20 activation + $12/yr under $100 net), so go direct under the never-pay rule; see free-epub-storefronts-kobo-itch-books2read.md.
- Measure: ebook-read events vs signup-confirm per week; target 1 signup per 10 free reads.
- Rules: no private-person outreach; signup is opt-in only (double opt-in already live); no UTMs on internal links.
Raw Markdown: free-first-edition-funnel.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json