Free Book Madness: The Results of My Amazon Select Experiment

The decision to give away my bookwas not an easy one. My fears were divided into two contradictory concerns: 1)that no one would download it and 2) that so many people would download it, therewould be no one left to buy it when the promotion was over. I needn't have worried on eithercount. If you want the short version of myKDP Select (or Amazon Select, if you prefer) experiment, and whether you shouldjump in yourself if you are an indie author, I will say this: Run, don't walk,to join this program and try it for yourself. I gave away more books than Icould have possibly imagined, and still sold more in the following week than Idid in the entire month of December. For me, this program has already been aphenomenal success. If you want to know the longversion, read on:
Day 1 – The Free Give AwayI gave away the book for free onTuesday, Jan. 17. I picked it because it was the beginning of the week (givenMLK day on Monday), and weekends and holidays had never been particularly kindto me in terms of book sales. As I mentioned, I was nervous about how manydownloads I would get. I was hoping for 1,000 or maybe, if I was really lucky,1,500. I figured this was a big enough haul that it would give me some momentumfor the rest of the week. I was unprepared for the delugethat resulted. By the time I woke up at 6 a.m. E.S.T., I already had given away75 books. It was an auspicious start, considering that the give away hadn'tbegun until 3 a.m. my time and the data I received was delayed by roughly anhour and a half.Throughout the morning, the numbersteadily rose, often enough that I could check it every two minutes or so andsee it increase by 20 books. For a guy whose best sales day was 34 books, thiswas amazing. Around lunchtime, I noticed the rate had started to slow. I had alreadygiven away 600 books and I felt certain I would now reach my 1000 goal.I wrote my wife a note telling heras much—already viewing the day as a success—and stopped watching theblow-by-blow sales figures. About an hour later, I checked the number, hopingit had reached 700 books. Instead, the book had exploded while I wasn'twatching. I had now given away 1300 books, or "sold" more than 700 in a singlehour. I got up to fix myself tea. When I came back, that number had jumped 200more.By this time, I was giddy. I couldkeep refreshing the sales figures every second and watch them jump by two dozenevery time. By dinnertime, I had given away 2500 books, far outside my wildestdreams. By the time I went to bed, I was past 4500 books and seemed likely toget to 5,000. When I got up the nextmorning, I had given away a total of 6,486 books (estimated). I reached #40 inthe entire Kindle free store. I'll admit it—I tried to sleep, buthad trouble. I was excited. It took me four months to sell 1,100 books. I hadjust "sold" almost six times as many in a single day. Secretly, I felt surethat the next day was going to be just as amazing. I had dropped the book's priceto $0.99 and hoped to build enough momentum to shoot up the bestseller charts.
Day 2 – Reality Pays a VisitI sold—for actual money—73 books on Wednesday, Jan. 18. It was mybest single sales day ever and pushed "A Soul to Steal" into the Top 100 Horrorbooks on the Kindle charts, and near the top of two subcategories: Ghost andOccult. You might think I felt pretty goodabout all this. But to be honest, I felt like someone coming off a great high,which I suppose I was. It's tough to watch your book "sales" jump by 100 or 200in a five minute period one day and then slowly watch them increase the next.Also, I had hoped that my 99 cent approach would goose the figures even more. I couldn't help but wonder if I hadmade a massive mistake. Sure, my book was now in the hands of 6,500 morepeople, but would they even read it? And what if I had just saturated mymarket? Still, I was happy that the bookwas in the Horror bestseller chart, which was totally new for me. I had evenbeaten "The Shining" on that day. Even if only for a moment, that was afantastic feeling.
Day 3 – Reality Kicks My ButtIf I was wary on Wednesday, I waseven more concerned by Thursday that I had made a big mistake. Instead ofrising at a slow but steady rate, I had sold only seven books by 7 p.m. This wasat 99 cents. My novel had fallen off the Horror bestseller list and dropped downthe subcategories to boot.With the numbers so low and feelingI was back to where I had started before my free give away, I raised the priceback to its original $2.99. Strangely, this seemed to boost sales a bit. In all, I sold 24 books on Thursday.
Day 4 – I Wake UpAt some point on Friday I realizedI was thinking about this all wrong. I used Facebook ads—and spent a lot ofmoney—to sell those initial 1100 books. The book had turned a profit, butbarely. On average, I spent $15 to get $16 or $18 worth of sales, almostbreaking even.In a matter of days, however, KDPSelect had changed all that. I had sold nearly 100 books in two days. Yes, muchof that was at 99 cents, but still… It took me four weeks to sell my first 100books. So no, I wasn't in the Horror bestseller list anymore, but people werefinding my book on their own. I wasn't advertising anywhere or even posting onvarious Facebook pages. I decided to stop focusing on thesales figures, except for the purposes of this blog post. Ironically, this newattitude seemed to produce good kharma for the novel. It sold 31 copies (at the regular $2.99 price) on Friday.
Days 5 and 6 – When You Least Expect It…On Saturday, I had my secondbiggest sales day of all time. I sold 57books and the novel rocketed back into the Top 100 Horror bestseller list. OnSunday, I sold 41 books. This time I didn't take it forgranted. I knew from other blogs that my sales figures were likely to dropafter a few days. Instead, I focused on the fact that I had just sold another100 books in two days. Even if sales dropped to zero, KDP Select had been asuccessful experiment.
Days 7 and 8 – Back to NormalI sold 9 books on Monday and 11 on Tuesday. In total, in my weeksince making the book free, I had sold 246 books. Considering I had sold only211 in the entire month of December—and spent $345 on Facebook ads at the time—thiswas a remarkable feat.No, my novel isn't in the Horrorbestseller category (honestly, it's more mystery than horror, but never mindthat for right now). No, it's not selling dozens of copies a day.But importantly, it's still sellingevery day, with no help from me. As I said, I've spent a lot of money and timedesigning and redesigning Facebook ads. If you want to know how to sell yourbook using FB ads, I can give you advice (and will in a later post). But it'san exhausting process trying to micromanage your marketing. For me to be ableto sit back and sell 10 books a day without lifting a finger is exhilarating. I don't know how long it will last.It may be that sales drop off to zero again soon. But I will tell you this: I'mdamn happy I tried Amazon Select. In the past week, the book has earned threemore 5-star reviews, two of them clearly from people who picked up the book forfree. I've significantly expanded the number of people who have heard about mybook—and might buy the eventual sequel. My total (paid) sales have jumped to morethan 1350 books. All in all, not bad for a week's work. Even better, I have four morepromotional days to use before April. Will they be as successful? I have noidea. It may be that with so many authors using KDP Select now, the impact willbe less. Or it could be that so many people have already downloaded my book forfree that fewer will be interested this time around. But you know what? That sounds alot like my initial fears (no one will download it and no one will buy itlater). They proved unfounded the last time. The only way to see what happensis to take another shot—and see what happens. What about you? Have you tried KDPSelect? What was your experience? Please let me and others know in the commentsbelow.