Old hack - You have written a lot of very valuable information. It's very hard to reply to that considering how many thoughts your words invoked. Thoughts regrading marketing, public image, press, and goals. I will say I am very ready for some harsh criticism. I actually expect the books to get railed down to 3 stars. (I expect this from past 'free' experiments)
My suggestion was only that. And in your place I'd be very reluctant to proceed in that direction without giving it a lot of careful thought, and without knowing I had support from those around me. You're young: have you spoken to your parents or close family about this? You should, if you have a relationship with them which would make that possible.
You could look for other ways in which you can turn this into a story the media would support. "Author trying to find readers" is a story so common that few media outlets will pick up on it; "author trying to warn people about something terrible that might happen to them" is a bit more newsworthy; "author in dreadful situation trying to realise his dream" has the potential to get lots of attention. So find something about you and your book which has the potential to catch a news editor's eye AND which won't leave you feeling like you're prostituting yourself, and work on that. Think how you can use it to sell your book. Then write a press release which does all the right things (explain the situation concisely and emotively, talk about the book, provide a few direct quotes--preferably from you and from someone who is well-known or an expert in the field), and send it out to the news editors, culture editors, local interest editors of all the publications you can think of.
Think laterally: consider where your readers might congregate and look for them there. Consider who might buy books for your readers, and speak to those people. Look at national, local and specialist press; look at radio, which has a huge need for speakers to fill all those hours a week; look at support groups, conferences and festivals.
Marketing is most effective when you consider the people you want to reach instead of following what everyone else has always done.
However.
I'm not convinced that this is the best way for you to proceed at this moment.
You're very young, in writing terms; and you're unlikely to have much of a body of work available.
My opinion--which I hold very strongly--is that you're going to be better off in the long run if you focus for now on working on your craft rather than on maximising your readership.
Read widely and read often. Write every day, if your school- or college-work allows (my eldest son has just started university: he's studying mathematics and has a lot of work to do). Observe how people behave and react. Tighten up your grammar and your punctuation skills. Learn about stuff, any sort of stuff, because a broad and varied general knowledge is amazingly useful to the writer.
Focus on you and your skills, in other words. Those take effort and once they're developed and honed, your readers will find you.
Other note: Why give my work away free? Literature is essential and I think it is very important. I don't really need to make money right now. I'm just clearing this notion up– I just want to share literature and writing because I am learning to love it. I also later dream of writing a memoir about my heart conditions.
The problem with publishing when you're young is that you might not yet have the skills you need to write convincing books. I'm not saying this is the case with you: I've not read your book. But from my experience it is unlikely that you're already working at a solid commercial level; and if you're not, the people who read your first book will remember you for the wrong reasons if they see your second and third available. If you give away a heap of books now, and your writing isn't yet up to scratch, you're at risk of jeopardising your future no matter how great a writer you become.
Think carefully before you proceed.
I would rather sell them, but that's me.
