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Best days of the week for "free" ?
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I've had better luck during the week. I think during the week maybe people are perhaps sitting at their desks browsing/shopping online. On the weekends I think they tend to be out and about, and when they are at home they're reading the stuff they bought during the week as opposed to looking for anything new.Anyway, just my two cents.
Thanks for your insight, Kevin. Have you done one day at a time or larger blocks? Do you, or anyone else, know of a place where the websites that announce "free" days have been aggregated? Anything to share about best sites for the purpose of putting the word out that a book is free for a day or two? (I happened to be sitting at my computer when this blipped in - hence the rapid response.)
Friday has been my best day so far, but I haven't done enough promotions to know if that's normal, or just random at this point.I've heard that blocks are better, and that's been my experience too. More time to climb the free ranks, and gain some extra exposure that way too. Make sure you plan far enough ahead to notify some of the free promotion sites, that really makes a difference. I've listed some other hints on my blog, from my recent free promotion.
Hi, recently I read a ebook that say that wednesday is the best day for a Free promotion. (The Kindle Publishing Bible: How To Sell More Kindle Ebooks on Amazon)I hope this help you
K. wrote: "Thanks for your insight, Kevin. Have you done one day at a time or larger blocks? Do you, or anyone else, know of a place where the websites that announce "free" days have been aggregated? Anyth..."Sorry for the tardy response. I think two days is about perfect; I don't think one day provides adequate time to build enough momentum, and three or more doesn't necessarily add much (if you're an indie).
I believe the Author Marketing Club has compiled a huge list of sites where you can list your free promotion: http://authormarketingclub.com/member...
However, be aware of the fact that entering your info over and over again for scores of sites will take time. If you're willing to shell out a little cash, I think ebookbooster (http://www.ebookbooster.com/) will do the drudge work for you and submit your promotion to 45 sites for $40. It's a good deal, in my opinion. (There are other sites you can use as well.)
Unfortunately, I don't know that I can make a recommendation for a "best" site in this arena, although I've heard good things about Pixel of Ink.
Hi Mayra and Kevin - Thanks for stopping in. I had settled on a two day promotion, beginning June 14 at 12 AM Pacific Standard Time (thanks west-coast Amazon) and ending June 15 at west-coast midnight. This will be my first attempt at a free Kindle promotion and I am pegging it to the Queen's official birthday, which is that weekend. (The book in question is a time travel adventure story: hero goes back to England in 1928). Kevin - that bookster link is really helpful. I had started listing things last night through the AMC website and realized it was going to take hours to list it every place. I will definitely check out bookster.I am laying out all this detail partly because I will report back at the end and let you all know how it worked out. I have the e-book priced at 2.99 and only a handful have sold or been borrowed since the end of April when I posted it, so this promotion will be telling. Thanks again. (And, of course, here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Up-Back-and-Awa...). I'm doing a giveaway of the paperback now as well, if anyone wants in with a chance.
Hi I definitely will use the ebookbooster for my next free promotion.
K, I read your ebook reviews and are pretty good, Congrats
Kevin Waoo! you rank #200 in Free Kindle. Felicidades
Hey All - Just a little more follow up. I did use Bookster to post to the free sites. Others should be aware that they require a lead time of at least a week. At this point I am taking it on faith that they will post as promised. I'll check as many of the places as I can over the free weekend to see if my book is there. I am wondering how they will handle the few places I had already registered (some of those offered extra good placement for a payment and I know I paid at least one of them for that). I am guessing that the $40 that goes to Bookster is NOT used to pay fees for advantageous placement that may be available on some of those sites, which may be one reason to post them by hand, as it were. Of course, I have incomplete information just now so take that for what it's worth.
Just an interim report re: posting notice of a giveaway on websites that feature such things. I got a call today from someplace called bookworld.com. They left a message for me wanting to ask "a couple questions about my book." After the first stab of excitement (no one calls to ask about my book) I got a sinking feeling that this was likely a sales job of some kind. I did return the call and left a message on a machine. It was promptly returned at a time when I was away from my phone and the woman left another message, a polite one, calling to say she was wanting to offer me a free consultation on book marketing. I am never interested in "free consultations" of any species so that's that. This is just FYI. Also wondering if others have experience to share. And, as if anyone who's been following along needs a reminder, the Kindle version of my book goes free at midnight (Pacific time) tonight! ;-)http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C...
I got a call from bookworld too!! I get it. My blood pressure spiked. I called them back and felt really uneasy during the visit. Then, with a few keystrokes found out they were a scam. I got took once before by a slick "book publisher" so I'm probably a lot more skeptical than most people and very leery of the "for a fee I'll help" pitch!!
PS, I got sidetracked! I haven't offered my book for free but am trying to figure out how to let people download for free on Amazon - I think you have to give the person a code?
Amazon doesn't allow you to give your book away for free, unfortunately. You can purchase a copy and gift it to someone, but I usually just send them a copy of the file from my computer.
Lena wrote: "PS, I got sidetracked! I haven't offered my book for free but am trying to figure out how to let people download for free on Amazon - I think you have to give the person a code?"Lena, it's easy, but they have to be Premier members to download free.People have downloaded mine free, LAKE CHARM, and I have downloaded others without any problem.
Back with an update, now that the big two free days are over. (I'm not sure bout Rinelle's comment - you are allowed 5 promotion days on Kindle where you can tell people it's free - I guess that's different from sending it to people free). Anyway, my fantasy of some huge celebrity endorsement didn't materialize and I may have pushed the patience of my facebook and twitter friends (I don't have huge numbers of those - around 100 ini each category) but, all in all, I think it went well. I gave away 359 books in the two days. It was enough to boost me to #6 in the Free Kindle books in one of my categories and #16 in the other category. I think the highest I got overall was about #800 (of all books that were free on Kindle yesterday). So, I am calling it a win, if a modest one. I don't know, of course, how many downloads came as a result of getting the book listed on the "free" websites that we have been discussing here. It would be interesting to have that information. The best part of the experience was that a book blogger of spotless integrity wrote a very kind blog post extolling the book and telling her followers it was free. (I had asked, shyly, if she would be willing to post a link, assuring her that I would have no hard feelings if she said no - she has no monetary anything in her blog, doesn't ask for books or promote things - only gives her opinions, which, lucky for me, tend to be kind). Not only did she post links to the US and UK versions but she said - oh, I'll stop. It was over the top praise.
The book has been up on Kindle since late April and just sitting there, so a few hundred downloads is a huge boost it my small corner.
I have three free days left, but I sense that I may have used the goodwill available to me from friends and family to tell their friends etc. I think people are happy to help - once, or at least once every great while. I am going to wait awhile - months at least - before doing another promotion. (Frankly, there is nothing more boring than a FB post or a tweet from a writer flogging a book. I tried to be creative but I know that is the reality so I am leaving off).
I'd be interested to know how others followed up with their free days.
Gosh - I hope the people who grabbed it will like it! In the end that's going to be the most important thing.
Yes, sorry, I was referring to the post directly above, that there are no codes for giving copies to reviewers etc on Amazon.Sounds like a pretty good first free run. I think you do want to leave it at least a month between free promotions, or people tend to ignore it. I had nearly two months between mine. I also find that you want to give it time for some of the people who've downloaded it to read it and mention it etc, and then next time you have a free promo, people tend to recognise the title, and are more likely to download it. Well, that's me guessing what might happen, LOL, not based on anything concrete.
Hi,I just scheduled my next free ebook promotion for 9-12 of July. What I will do is
- register in http://www.ebookbooster.com/ (done)
- make my promotion on facebook (English and Spanish)
- send tweets to the people I saw retweets free stuff.
- promoting on my web page and in youtube
When my promotion ends I will be back and give you my experience.
What I can tell you is that my second ebook for kids has been selling since the last time I launch my free pro for my first ebook. In my opinion, free promotion help promote the book you give for free and your others books. My past download has been like 500, but I have read tha we need like 10,000 downloads to get realy boosted.
Hi all - I posed a very similar question in another thread. I received differing responses such as a Fri/Sat; followed by 1 day the following Sat., then wait two weeks for the remaining 2 days (again Fri/Sat) - for Amazon's 5-day KDP.Well, it was a disappointing Friday - and it could be many factors! Here's two off the top of my head:
1) my politically-based fiction book is NOT desirable enough?
2) Friday's are spent "going out" at night?
Today is the 2nd day/last day of the "first step."
My book is also currently in a GR giveaway, plus I have self-serve ads running while its in the giveaway period too.
I don't want to throw good money after bad... so I'll have to be patient.
It's VERY HARD to "do it all," isn't it? It seems that "writing" is the easy part! (JUST kidding!) But marketing is tough. Very tough. I seem to spend more than half a day "keeping up the marketing end etc." which I'd rather spend writing. Oh well.
I've had the phone call too from Book World... (not for my current book though).
Thanks for the info on "Bookster".
Cheers,
Sara B.
Hey guys!I'm getting a group together for an author swap. You have to have your book at .99 for it to be affordable though. We're doing it next week. You buy their book and they buy yours. You make money as you drive up your Amazon sales rank. If your book can be at .99 on Monday, please email me directly and I'll put ya on the list- Natalie;) natroers@gmail.com
Hello! my book is free on Wed. 27th Aug to Thurs. 28th Aug 2014. Let's see if the weekday promotion bit works or not. The aim is to get feedback of readers and authors! So let me know what you made of it! Thanks.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MF8BJQE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Theboo...
I tend to run all 5 days at once. Usually Thursday-Monday, however after reading the above posts I may switch my strategy to Wednesday-Sunday. I found that the longer runs are best because the more downloads you get in the first few days of the promo the more visibility the book has on Amazon (People who bought this also bought...) So by days 3,4,5 Amazon is promoting your book and that's when you really see the spike in downloads. I've had varying success ranging from several hundred to several thousand downloads in a 5 day period. My ultimate best promo weekend saw over 20,000 downloads!!!! However I have not been able to duplicate that phenomenon. In my category (romance) even 20,000 downloads did not get me into the top 100 :( but I saw a huge increase in sales after the promo ended. 75 books sold on the first paid day following the sale weekend. Again this is from the increased visibility on Amazon. I have 5 published books, the sixth coming out this December. I make sure to promote my other books at the end of the free book in the hopes that if a reader liked my book that they downloaded for free they would be inspired enough to purchase one or more of my other books.
I do use the websites that offer to list your free days. As mentioned above Author Marketing Club has a fantastic list of sites. It is worth the time to go through them and enter your info. I do not pay for the "guaranteed placement" I just plan ahead and list my free days with them with enough advanced notice that I hope to get listed.
I hope this helps anyone who is just dipping their toe in the water of Kindle free days.
For those of you with more experience in this venue I have a question: How can I get my book perma-free on Amazon? I have a romantic series and I would like the first book to be permanently free. There are plenty of free books on kindle so I know it can be done.
I've heard that you must list your books free with other sites and then continuously click on the "found a better price" link on your amazon page. Has this worked for anyone? Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Hi, I have listed my first three books as freebies on Amazon and tend to get 500 to 1,000 downloads. I did look at sales before and after free days,but did not see any great evidence that tree books generate sales. Countdown promos, however really work in terms of increasing revenue. I am currently planning not to launch my next book with a freebie, but run a Countdown.
I am currently running a Free promo for one of my books. It is the third book in a series. I have book one priced permanently at 99 cents, book two and three are usually $2.99. But for the next five days book 3 is free. I planned ahead and contacted as many bloggers and websites that I could find. I didn't pay for any special placement or advertising. Just filled out the forms for the free advertisement of a free book. Yesterday was day one of my sale. I had 3,375 downloads, which led to 55 paid sales of the other books in the series. I did receive email confirmation from several of the sites that I'd contacted that they had in fact ran my book promo yesterday. I think it definitely paid off! Today I have had 1,090 downloads along with 9 paid sales, but it's only 4:00pm central time so I'm hoping for a spike once people are off work. Currently my book has moved up to #12 on Amazon's top 100 list for Free books in the contemporary romance category. My sale will run through Monday and I'm really hoping to reach #1 by then!!!Moral of the story. I paid for nothing, but did put in the time to fill out as many submission forms as I could find to advertise my free book and it's working!
Outstanding. Thank you fr shariing your experince. Which site was the most product e in terms of advertising you free giveaway?Normally my free giveaways genrate about 1,000 downloads, you have obviously taken things t the next level.
One of the sites that responded via email to let me know that they had chosen to run my book promo was ebook habits I think many of the downloads were generated from that site. If you google "places to advertise free books" one of the results is a blog that lists 75+ places to advertise your book. I'd post the link but I'm on my phone. Anyhow, the blog has a tool to quickly fill out submission forms and I used that with great success. Definitely worth checking out! But the key is to plan ahead most require at least 2 weeks advanced notice of sale. I believe I planned about 3 weeks ahead.
You can also find places to advertise 99 cent books on that site, which would help with kindle countdown deals.
Weekends seem the obvious choice, but one writer I know (and respect and admire) just launched his mid week and had great success. (Seth Kaufman with his "If You Give an Architect a Contract.")
What say you?
By the by, here's a link to my book on the off chance that you're looking for something to read. Thanks for your time and attention.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C...