KDP Select Free (or 5000 copies)
“Consider gain and loss, but never be greedy and everything will be all right.”
It’s been an amazing journey self-publishing my Winston Wong cozy mystery. A truism of self-publishing is that e-books sell better than print copies. With that being said, let’s delve into digital sales…
KDP Select: Yes or No?
Being a part of KDP Select means that you will sell your e-books only through them for a select period of time (90 days at a time, with an option for renewal after). The pros are: 1) Amazon is a big e-seller, 2) Amazon rankings and reviews really influence potential customers, and 3) Amazon has special promotional tools for KDP Select (Free and Countdown). The giant con is: You get locked into Amazon for all digital sales.
So I decided yes and implemented their…
Free Promotional Tool
You get five “free” days where your books can be given out gratis. This time can be split up in any number of ways across each 90-day window when you’re enrolled in KDP Select (e.g. 1 day, 2 days…5 days in a row).
What I Did
I went for the two-day special. I advertised in bargain e-newsletters to highlight the deal that ran on May 26th and May 27th. (I decided on two days because I heard that one day didn’t give enough of a boost, and five was too long.) Special thanks goes out to C.M. Skiera who provided great book promotion links!
Results
I found my freebie book featured on sites, like Ask David, Awesomegang, Book-circle, ebookasaurus.com, ebooklister, itswritenow, theereadercafe, and Readcheaply. I received about 5000 downloads, which resulted in a definite spike in sales (~70) and borrows. It’s also netted a few new reviews on my Amazon page.
Conclusion
There is an ongoing debate on whether authors should give away their work. Is it helpful to boost sales? Or does it devalue the profession?
For me, I thought it was beneficial just to get my name out there and increase visibility.
What do you think about free books?
