Imagine spending five years on a piece of work, and then giving it away for free.
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That's what Canberra novelist Jenny Bond has done with one of her own books.
As a lockdown treat for Canberrans - or anyone, really - doing it tough, the first instalment in her historical fiction series The Dawnland Chronicles is now available for download free from her website, as well as several online retailers.
Despite spending five years on the book, she has decided to give people a taste of the series - with the next two instalments already for sale - after realising how many people are suffering in this lockdown.
"I do have a handful of friends who live alone, they're single, and they really are struggling because there's just nothing, they can't see anybody, they can't exercise with anybody," she said.
"I was just chatting with [my husband] Chris about it, and saying I just really feel for these people, but I can't do anything apart from talk to them on the telephone.
"And then I was thinking, when I'm feeling a bit down, I always take a book and read and it just transports me to somewhere else."
The Hummingbird and the Sea is the first in the series set in 1717, and based on real-life pirate 'Black Sam' Bellamy, who arrives in the Puritan enclave of Eastham, Massachusetts, upsetting the town and overturning lives.
Writing it has been a labour of love; as an independent author, Bond has spent a considerable amount of money having it edited and ready for publication.
But it has already had almost 2000 downloads, and Bond said the work had been worth it.
"It's 120,000 words, it's independently published, I paid for two different editors, the cover design and all that," she said.
"So it's been an extremely time-consuming and expensive process, and to give it away for free, I initially thought, no, I just can't do it. But the lockdown has been my kind of impetus to get it out there and make it free, and it hasn't hurt me at all. I'm actually quite thrilled that I've done it. So what I might be losing in monetary sales, I'm actually making up in feel-good feelings."
She has noticed, too, that sales through Amazon are coming from Australia, which shows an appetite for fantasy and historical fiction during lockdown.
She has also seen multiple sales of the next book in the series, The Falconer, so her marketing plan - albeit one that has benefited many others - has worked.
"I'm over this fear of having something for free, I might even keep it free for longer," she said.
She lives in Tuggeranong with her husband and two sons, aged 15 and 9, and aside from teaching, she has been writing consistently for the past eight years, completing five books, four of which are released this year.
She has also had books released by traditional publishers Hachette and Random House.
"I'm just always writing - it's my passion, it's my hobby, it's everything," she says.
- The Hummingbird and the Sea, by Jenny Bond, is available for download as an ebook on her website, jennybondbooks.com, plus Amazon, Apple Books and Kobo.
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