This video was a response to the following comment:
You are missing the opportunity cost. As an economist I have to tell you you might need to rethink your business model. A problem in all businesses with giving free samples or discounts is that you drown the market. There is a finite number of people in the world willing to buy an indi medieval fantasy, or japanese shogun historical fantasy. If you give out free copies of your product the first people to take those are the ones that have the highest demand for it. Its like a restaurant giving a wednesday discount because its the low day. But what happens is that all the fans of your restaurant that come saturday night and pay full price, come Wednesday to get the same food cheaper, and since they already ate once this week they wont come at your place on the weekend. I just published yesterday my first paper back yesterday, and ebook, and second publication are on the pipeline. Thank you David your videos helped a lot and kept me motivated to finish. all that said $500 is not cool. What I think is realistic is to get $500 from my first book in one year assuming i keep publishing all year long. How much did you pay for ISBN, Copy right, printing essentials, and all other small expenses? From a purely accounting point of view you might be at a loss, from an economical point of view you are down the equivalent of minimum wage hours dedicated into writing, editing, and everything else.