How to Have a Successful KDP Select Campaign– A starting out author's experience with KDP select.

As a self-published author, when the KDP Select program came about on Amazon, I wondered. I wondered what it was all about and what it could do for me; a newbie to the world of self-publishing and promoting. I was selling books, but ever so slowly, this slow in fact… S—L—O—W. So how was KDP select going to propell me out there in the Amazon Kindle world? Would it be worth the trouble, the time and what else could I do in conjunction to it, to get myself even more noticed?

Well I did recieve some great answers and did give it a go. Did it work out like I thought it would? Yes and no. Again, for me being a hardly known, KDP select helped me out quite a bit, but in the broad spectrum of comparison, probably not so much. As this was my first attempt and I only promoted for 1 day.  I recieved 500  downloads in that time period, but more than I have ever sold on Amazon, tons more in the 8 months of my career as a self-publishe author.

I put out my Urban Fantasy novel- One of Them as my trial book  and in that day, watched it climb the charts up to to #688 on Amazon, #2 in Girls & women and #12 in People & Places, which for me that was amazing! Before this day, I was ranking in the 300,000′s. A week plus later, I am staying between 30,000 and 200,000. So an improvment and mind you recieving this with only promoting my book for free for 1 day. You get five days in the 90 day exclusive enrollment. You can also do it again for another 90 days afterward and again and again. If you do not mind being exclusive with Amazon. For me, I was hardly missed at B&N. :0)

Now your asking how many books did I sell after that day? I did sell, but still few in comparison to others of course.  January before KDP(I did this in FEb.) I sold 10 books on Amazon at together that month and my total sales for the month between B&N and Amazon was 23. So you can see how little I was selling.  AFter KDP select (for FEb) I have sold 34 on Amazon, that is a small jump, but a nice one for me…and the month is not quite over. A humble success for a first attempt. Could I have done better? Oh yes and the wonderful thing is, I have more opprotunities.

I still have quite a ways to go , but a fair chance in reaching the top #100, cause we all do!  But we must remember, not being in  the top #100 doen't mean we are not successful. Readers are coming back for my sequel and my books are selling ,isn't that the goal? The realistic one, at least. So for anyone starting out like me, I do recommend giving the KDP a go and here are some links giving really great advice and experience shares, I hope in sharing this with you, you will find success in KDP select as well.

How to Have a Successful KDP Select Campaign– A wondeful article by  The writing Bomb blog author- Jeff Bennington – http://thewritingbomb.blogspot.com/2012/02/are-you-planning-kdp-select-promo-soon.html

Here is an article by the wonderful Emyln chand (of Novel Publicity) http://www.novelpublicity.com/2012/02/kdp-select-free-days-targeted-advertising-is-the-key-to-success-heres-a-list-of-resources/    Telling about her experience with KDP and links on where to promote your free giveaway.

Here is an article by a wonderful author-Matt Patterson – on his experienece with KDP with his book My Emily- http://www.karenbaney.com/archives/1592

Here is another great article on the KDP select and how it helped author-David Kazzie  of The Jackpot get his book noticed and was very successful at it!http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-kdp-select-saved-my-book.html

And another to throw int -http://lindacassidylewis.com/2012/02/25/wow-the-kdp-select-giveaway-experience/

There are so many KDP select stories out there and I have only shared a few and so far have not seen a bad experience, so far… I have recieved alot of great advice,  learning  some days are better than others, such as Sundays do better than Saturdays and Thursdays and fridays do well. I have also heard doing it for more than one day is best, such as two, but then other authors do 3 days in a row as well.

I chose to start with one and have four more to play around with, I plan to do a two dayer on my next promotion and hope for even more success. I have heard of authors getting thousands of downloads  and some only (like myself) getting  a few hundred.  But overall, book sales have been reported to increase.  Some by leaps and bounds, others a really good jump. Genre is said to play a big role and book covers as well. All in all its a matter of 50/50 to me. Lucky chances and skilled tactfulness. The best advice I would think to give, is do what works best for you. Take advice always, but use it how it works best for you. A mother of six, my time on my books must be balanced with motherhood. Similar stories of day time jobs and so for as well from other authors. If you go into this assuming a realistic outcome  of slow and steady, dissapointment won't come so frequent.  So if you're still debating on KDP, come on and give it a try, I did and  am very happy!

Thankyou for stopping by ,

A.D.