When should you promote your books?

Today I came across a post on twitter saying that you shouldn't promote your first book until you have three or four released. I always thought that you were supposed to promote before you released anything, which is part of the reason that I started this blog. I was told that a good way to promote was to give reviewers free copies of my book and let them review it early, but the post that I read today said that you can waste time and money if you don't have multiple titles out. Both options make sense, but I'm not sure which will work better. Free feel to let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Free Kindle Books

I recently downloaded a bunch of free kindle books. Kindle books are usually given away free when an author wants to expand their audience, or when they just want to get their work out there. I think giving away kindle books for free is a good way to get reviews and get more people to check out a book, but how do I feel about this as a reader as opposed to a writer? I haven't read a single one of the kindle books that I've downloaded yet. All of them are just sitting there on my kindle app, waiting to be read or at least cracked open. I guess I just feel more willing to read a book that I was willing to pay money for. Not saying that the free books aren't great, a lot of them are, but I feel like if I'm willing to spend money on something I better read it.

Writing for yoursef vs. writing for your audience

I recently read an article about a woman who was told she couldn't write a character the way she wanted because it wouldn't sell books. This is part of the reason I decided to self-published. I can't imagine being told to change a character that I feel strongly about just because people might not read it. I know you have to write for your audience, but unless your character is offensive you should be able to write the way you imagined them. There's a character in the book I'm about to release, his name is Miller and he talks differently than any of the other characters, but he adds to the story. He owns a bar for werewolves (and sometimes vampires) to hang out. He's a werewolf himself, and I can't imagine changing him. A lot of times I find myself writing about characters I can relate to, and I'm sure it's the same with many other authors. I have written about characters that are different than me, but to make them real you have to make your audience releate to them. Since I'm self-publishing I haven't thought about my audience too much. That's probably because I don't have an audience yet. I'm not out there selling books yet. I don't know how people are going to react to my characters yet. I haven't been thinking about the marketing part of publishing as much as I should. Will people still be interested in reading what I write if they know it was written my way and not a publisher's? I don't think publishers bad, they offer great things, like editors and simple suggestions that could make your story better. I just don't like the idea of someone being able to tell me that I have to change an entire character. I don't understand why anyone would have to change a character if it doesn't make the story any different.