Genre Specific Review Groups discussion
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Amazon Free Books and KDP program
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I've done a couple of free promotions but again, it hasn't led to an increase in sales or reviews. I think part of it is that people tend to hoard free books.
A lot of people have told me they see spikes in sales after free promotions, but that it doesn't last. I myself had most of my sales right after my first free promotion, but it was also right after release and my first attempt at marketing. My guess is that offering it free didn't help my sales. It did, however, get some aquaintances to read the book who probably wouldn't have paid for it. Now, I'm pretty sure they'll buy book number 2 because they liked number 1 so much. I may offer book 1 for free for a day to celebrate the release of book 2, or at least drop the price on it to encourage new readers to try me out. We'll see. I know I'm reluctant to pay more than a dollar for a book by someone I've never read and hasn't been recommended to me by someone I trust.
I went with KDP Select for books I published under a different name, and the free promos didn't help much. There was a small spike and one review, that's it. For the books I'm publishing under this name, I decided to change strategies. I have a collection of short stories and novelettes, which I published individually and as a full collection. I'm trying to make the first in the series permanently free, which hasn't happened last time I checked Amazon, but it's free everywhere else. I'll do the same for all other series I'll be publishing. I hope that if I can introduce readers to the first story, they might want to read the rest of them. The free download will be the cheese in my book addiction trap.
R.A. wrote: "I know I'm reluctant to pay more than a dollar for a book by someone I've never read..."On the other hand, I was told not to make my books too cheap because people would think they're rubbish, on the you get what you pay for principle. So I priced mine (500+ pages) at the cost of a dog-eared paperback from a charity shop. That's around £2 UK, $3 US. Is this asking too much for a new indie author? Hardly any sales after first month, so what would happen if I increased price? Would people think it must be more worth reading?
I think the only way to increase sales is PROMOTION and give-aways won't induce that 'buyer' to buy the same book again, so there doesn't seem much point other than raising your Amazon profile for a few days.
When I do a promotional giveaway, I know it will not increase sales or reviews right away. I think of it as investing in the future. I feel being a successful author is a long journey, and it takes patience. A LOT OF PATIENCE. Readers may hoard free copies to read at a later date, but when they do, and IF the story is good, they will come back to read more from the author and be willing to pay for future stories. I Think of it as slowly building a following over a period of years, not months.
James wrote: "When I do a promotional giveaway, I know it will not increase sales or reviews right away. I think of it as investing in the future. I feel being a successful author is a long journey, and it takes..."Good point, James.
'It takes ten years to become an overnight success.'
On a promotion last year on Amazon I gave away 650 copies of 'View'. That's 650! Not a single review or additional sale. That book has been favorably reviewed many times so I don't think it's the book itself.
I mean after a year I would think enough time has passed that a few people would have read it?
Perhaps people just like to 'collect' free ebooks without ever intending to actually read them???
Not a believer in free book giveaways.
I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts as a reader only, not writer.I do collect amazon freebies, and while there are a few I read immediately, most are put into my kindle library for later usage. Regarding the number of titles I have already amassed I must admit a lot of them probably will remain unread, but I like to have the possibility to fetch a title on impulse, and have found several surprising good stories that way. However, I do write reviews for each and every book I read, but the question is when will I read that book.
I also like to read books I get for free for reviewing, there are several discussions here on GR offering such exchanges. My guess is that this is a much more efficient way for authors to get a number of honest reviews by interested readers, as the review is required. Also, there is a fixed time frame for posting the reviews, so no uncertain waiting. Naturally, I am much more selective with those titles and think twice whether that book fits my taste before applying, and in most cases, this benefits both sides.
I've already noticed some titles becoming very popular - also at amazon - after receiving good reviews via such a GR exchange.
Elke wrote: "I hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts as a reader only, not writer.I don't mind giving my books away for reviews and have done it many times here on Goodreads. In fact if the 650 people that downloaded View then in turn reviewed it, I'd be as happy as can be.
I used the KDP program when I first published. I gave away about 2000 copies of my book and got 1 review on the UK Amazon page and 2 on the Amazon.com site. Was it worth it? Well as it's not exactly setting the world on fire I was happy to have people read it- I didn't write it for financial gain. It's now free again - you can make it free on Amazon if you make it free elsewhere through Amazon's price match program - in reality all you do is change the price to free on Smashwords and it's associated parties (a very quick thing to do) and Amazon eventually catches up. Truth be told I put it free on Smashwords without thinking about Amazon then changed it, it's now free on Amazon and not on Smashwords as I changed it back (confused yet? I was).
Anyway due to my very poor marketing skills (twitter - "hey my book's free," with lots of hashtags is the level of my talents) it's only been picked up by about 40 people in 2 and a 1/2 days. I'm wondering if a year ago (I made it free on new years day) free books were more appealing than now. I'm sure the timing had an impact too, is it worth it now? Well that's a matter of opinion - I can say I don't expect to bump up the number of reviews from it being free this time but at least some people might read it.
The most effective form of reviewing that I've experienced was through goodreads groups.
Hope that's some use to you!
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When I first published my books I did the KDP program and saw no results in sales. I offered my first book for free and got 1500 takers, no reviews. Later when I published the third book in my series I again offered my first book for free, 2500 takers, no reviews. The only reviews I have received are from readers who purchased my books. You may ask how I know, it's because I contact those who review my work, good and bad and keep in touch with them regarding new releases. The only way to offer your book for free is through the KDP program. Once my 90 days expired I did not renew it. My other issue with Amazon is that I recently hired a professional editor and we are in the process of editing the five books I published before I continue on with my two series. I notified Amazon regarding the changes after submitting the changes to my first book. Several emails passed between us regarding the changes, I had to give specific examples, page numbers, etc. All I was asking was for them to make the revised copy available to those who had already downloaded my book. I did not request an email be sent out. If a customer has that application turned on then they will see a revised notification next to the book in their library allowing them to download the book. While they have agreed I made enough changes to warrant this the book will be under review for another four weeks before they make a decision.
As for giving it away for free on Goodreads to get reviews. I did that too. However, I found that while several hundred received a copy, only a handful have actually read and reviewed. I take ARC seriously when I am offered them, but it is easy to be overloaded when so many books are offered for free.
Much the same experience as myself L.A. though I will say there are other ways to make it free on Amazon, my first is currently free on amazon.co.uk and I'm not on KDP select.I've done revisions of my book and uploaded a new version to Amazon. I've checked the sample and that was updated - my understanding was that it was done mathematically by the number of changes -if that isn't the case there's a lot of people out there who'll be unhappy their changes haven't been made - unless I'm misreading what you've said and Amazon aren't notifying previous purchasers of the book?
Ross wrote: "Much the same experience as myself L.A. though I will say there are other ways to make it free on Amazon, my first is currently free on amazon.co.uk and I'm not on KDP select.I've done revisions ..."
As of this point, that is correct. They did send me a copy to my kindle file and the sample on Amazon does reflect the changes. Amazons excuse was that, when we read a book we often notate or highlight certain passages. If a reader downloads the newer copy all that is lost. Also if the reader is in the middle of the book, they lose their place. I guess they have had too many readers complain so they are hesitant when it comes to notifying previous customers. I would love to have you advise how I can offer my book for free without going through KDP.
Leslie
Ah, that does make more sense though as you said notifying readers doesn't mean they have to redownload the revised versions does it?I've tried this twice, this time it worked, last time it didn't. As I said above though- if you make a book free elsewhere (I made mine free on smashwords and all of the companies they distribute to) then Amazon is supposed to price match the book, there's even a notify of a price elsewhere button on the book page. First time I tried this nothing happened. Second time (months later) and it has worked. I don't know what the difference is between the two times, I've also got to wonder why the book is free on .co.uk but not .com, but it's free now.
On the free book point though, I had a couple thousand downloads last time, this time I haven't hit 100 yet and I'm trying a lot harder to market it. I realise now that most my "sales", if you can call them that, last time were to the US market. As for reviews, well it seems people are less inclined to review a free book than a paid book. I wonder at the perspective on reviews, to us authors we want reviews and feel they help us, the average kindle user will write reviews to help other readers- by that logic if a book is free not reviewing it doesn't matter so much to a reader, other readers can download it for free and find out for themselves. Not reviewing hurts nobody, except the author who is overlooked by many readers who don't, and shouldn't have to consider rankings and ratings etc.
Ross wrote: "Ah, that does make more sense though as you said notifying readers doesn't mean they have to redownload the revised versions does it?I've tried this twice, this time it worked, last time it didn'..."
Every month the UK site changes my book from free to paid. This lasts for about a week before it goes back to free. This does not happen on the US site.
Strange, well I'm still on free in the UK it's been over a week, US never went free. Maybe there's no rhyme or reason!
It started via price match with smashwords and the stores they publish to, nook etc. but those prices all returned to normal around the 14th and it remains free, despite it being priced through my author book details on KDP. All a bit strange but I'm not too worried at least some people are downloading it, maybe one or two will read it. Be interesting to see if anyone has had a similar experience. I have heard of books being made "permafree" no idea how that is done but probably good for series.
Is anyone using the KDP Select Countdown Deals promotion? I'm new to all this, just released my first book in March. I had only a dozen sales during the countdown week (and no reviews), but my promotion was limited to Facebook. Like many, I thought Amazon would do a little more for me. I know better now and will promote the heck of out it if I do it again. Swapping reviews here on GR has resulted in some excellent feedback and reviews, but it's so time consuming. I've recently learned about book blogs, where bloggers read and review books, and have started perusing those and submitting my book (also time consuming), but I've only just gotten started so I don't know yet how that will work out. I'm going to work this for a couple more weeks then just focus on my next book for awhile.
I have done several promotions with amazon and seen very few reviews. I was told once by a successful author that she's lucky to get one review for every 500 books she sells. Most people just download the freebies but don't bother to follow through with reviews. Best of luck on your endeavors and don't be discouraged.
L.A. wrote: "I have done several promotions with amazon and seen very few reviews. I was told once by a successful author that she's lucky to get one review for every 500 books she sells. Most people just downl..."My free book doesn't quite match that. At one time reviews were new and cool. Now they've become a chore that a lot of people ignore.
The first book I ever released had 1500 takers during the first promotion and over 1800 the second time. I generated only 23 reviews. I've actually generated more reviews from people who purchased my books. Not a big fan of promotions
I've done it twice, once with an NA book and once with a picture book. It was worthless both times. I will never do it again.
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My book got over 1000 downloads and 10 reviews from free promotion. There was not a huge bump in sales after though.
I did the giveaway promotion for my first two stories and had lots of takers, but I wasn't worried about sales or reviews. I just wanted people to discover my brand of stories, and it helped. There is a lot of competition for new Indie authors, so you need to get noticed among a throng of thousands. Even now I keep my first story at .99 cents for that very reason.
Yep. That has been my experience with my book. I am part of the KDP program and conducted a free book giveaway event (for 2 days) back over twomonths ago. 894 books were downloaded and I may have secured two reviews(total). As far as I can judge, zero impact on subsequent sales.
In addition, I conducted two different Goodreads giveaways(each for a month duration offering 10 signed copies of the book in one and 3 signed books in the other). In each case I had well over 700 people sign up and I have seen no increase in sales and, maybe, one review and a couple of ratings without reviews.
Not sure what it means, but that's been my experience. I guess I expected better results.