Hi Angela,

A person who owns a membership website asked me to donate 25 e-books for the first 25 paid members they receive. Then, if they like it, they would consider paying a discounted fee for it. Before I say yes, I told her that I wanted to check with my publisher first. They say that they would promote it in a few ways on their website, but they don’t have a lot of members at this point.

If that company wants to use free products to promote their own website, they should first buy those products and then give them away for free. I think you are getting a raw deal here.

I get frequent requests from companies to “donate” our books. My opinion about this is…if you must get free stuff from third parties to try to attract business, you’re lousy at marketing and your site isn’t going to succeed.

The only freebies I’ve ever given away were books I wrote myself – that were short and designed to be given away for free. I would never stoop to asking another professional to give me their products for free in an attempt to further my own agenda.

A better idea would be for them to give away an excerpt of your book. That would at least encourage the visitors to buy the entire book if they’re truly interested. Offer them that instead.