Would You Like Free Audio?

I confess, I've been dragging my fingers on editing my work into audio format. Sure, I do such things in the evenings, when the few hours must be spread across family, remaining day job work, draft editing, project planning, and (at the end of the list) audiobook editing. So I could blame lack of time on my dearth of audio titles, but deep down I know that's not it.

I haven't produced any more audio because I know that no one in their right mind would buy what I have to sell yet.

My short story, The Sound of Autumn Night, went up for sale on ACX/Amazon one year ago today. It has yet to sell a single copy. Why? Well, one reason could be that Amazon priced it at $6.08. That's absurd. In an age when you can get a Redbox movie for a buck or stream all the video entertainment you want from Netflix for even less, why would anyone pay SIX bucks to listen to my 20-minute story?

I wouldn't pay that.

And did you know that you can download it for free from this website under the Audio tab above? I have no idea how many people have downloaded it because I've never taken the time to learn this hosting service's reports and whatnot. All I know is that I would feel bad if someone paid $6.08 for this story, and I love the idea of them enjoying it for free, just to get more acquainted with my work and/or laugh at my poor acting skills.

So I'm pondering just putting all of my short stories up for free. When that's done, I would bundle them all into their respective volumes, such as Specula One, and people could pay whatever insane fee Amazon or Apple decides to slap on it. For novels, yeah, I would put those out for regular rates through the regular channels.

But shorts? No, I'm thinking free would be good. Pass them around. Enjoy with no barriers. That seems fair, and it feels right to me.

What do you think?