Did you buy e-books on Black Friday?

Every year since I published my first book, I've participated in Black Friday, without much success. I don't know if it's just that people don't buy e-books on Black Friday (see the title: do you?), or my books just aren't very appealing, but that seems to be the way it is for me.

This year, I had actually decided to not take part. It just didn't seem like it was worth the effort. But then the admins of The Secret Book Club group on Facebook sent out a message to all resident authors, inviting them to post their Black Friday deals in the group.

If you're not a member of that group, you really should consider joining. There are over 4 000 members, all of whom love reading, and love talking about books. People post funny book memes, ask for recommendations, and review books they've read. It's very well maintained and administered, and the membership is well represented between young and old, men and women, e-book lovers and print book lovers, and lots of different countries.

Although there are many authors, publishers, and book PR people in the group, self-promotion is generally not allowed. Except for occasional, special "Admin Approved" posts. Of which the Black Friday deal was one.

When I got this message, I decided to give it a try. I went over to Smashwords and generated coupon codes, offering 100% discount off all my books there. Then I made a post to the group, where I listed out all the links and coupon codes. I made my deal exclusive to The Secret Book Club members and did not mention any Black Friday deals anywhere else.

If you're a member of the group, click here to see my Black Friday post, and let me know what you think.

It worked out pretty well, I think. People like exclusive deals, so I think the members really appreciated the fact that the deals I was offering weren't available anywhere else.

I "sold" seven copies.

If you're a reader, did you buy any e-books on Black Friday? Why or why not?

If you're an author or otherwise involved in the book industry, did you offer any special deals on e-books? How did you do?