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KDP and giving away books
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by
M.
(new)
Sep 07, 2013 07:36PM
So, this is NOT self-promotion. I want to put that out there. It is more like a general inquiry about giving away books with Amazon's KDP program. Just last night, I put my book NIGHT OWL on the Kindle Store via KDP. I am giving it away free for five days (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F02O1W6). As of last night, I've had 100+ free downloads. I've read about people getting a lot more (and a lot less) free downloads. Has anyone had success with getting actual readers and reviewers out of these free downloads, or is it mostly people grabbing free stuff that'll be collecting dust on their digital shelves?
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If I may speak of my own recent experience with a free Kindle promo for my novel, The Guilty: I think the free download promo can help you sell more books if you advertise it enough, and get enough people to pick up free downloads that their enthusiasm and interest for your book will drive others to pay for their own copies of it. I put out my novel, which is a legal thriller, for a free promo earlier this year, and mentioned the promo here on Goodreads and maybe one or two other writing sites. I managed to get over 500 downloads, which I felt pretty good about, at the time. From these free downloads I got exactly 1 review on Amazon, and my sales went from nearly zero to five or six in the following weeks. Not a rousing success, I think you'll agree. However, I had no idea at the time that there were so many sites out there where I could have advertised my promo, and gotten more people to know about it. So I decided to run another three-day promo the last weekend of August and advertised it like crazy (free listings only, although there are places you could pay to get more exposure). I was shocked to get over 10,000 downloads this time. I don't know about you, but I never dreamed I could get numbers like that. The idea that that many people would own my book still blows my mind.
The only question was what would these free downloads get me: well, it has only been a week so far but I've had over 50 paid downloads of my novel, which is almost the amount of sales I had over the previous 8 months. I've also started getting a few reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and everyone says that getting reviews is the best way to get potential readers to pay attention to your book.
Of course, lots of people do like to grab free stuff. They might not read my book for months, or ever at all. And they might not tell any of their friends about it (or they may tell their friends they hated it), and the great majority will certainly not post any on-line reviews or even a rating anywhere. The only hope I had was that enough people would grab a free download that if even a small percentage of them told a friend or posted a review this would boost my book's name recognition and, eventually, sales. I'd like to think that this time I got that critical mass of readers which will lead to regular sales for a longer time than one or two weeks, but that's still not guaranteed.
Certainly this week has been a great start toward that end. On the other hand, 80% of my sales this week were in the first two days after the promo. Since then the numbers have pretty much plummeted, although I've managed to sell at least one book each day. The final results will only be known over the next weeks and months, however, as hopefully more people will get around to reading the book, more comments will be posted (and hopefully they'll continue to be positive, although the more people who read a book, the more chance that there will be some who hate it), and the greater likelihood that sales will continue at some sort of steady level.
So, if I have any advice to give you, it's that if you don't get any significant number of free downloads this time, wait two or three months until you can do it again, then go online and look up the dozens of places you can advertise your promo, and take another shot. Good luck.
Gabriel,Thank you for your informative post. I hope you'll keep us up to date on how you're doing.
Good luck going forward!
Wow. That does sound amazing. I've been wondering where else I can promote and pitch the book. I should search again. It's hard for me to determine which sites would -work- and which would be a waste of time. It's day three of my promo and I have 500+ free downloads already, 1 review only. If even a fraction of downloaders READ the book, and a smaller fraction still deign to write a review, I will be hugely gratified!
Hi M. Getting 500 downloads with little advertising is great, and you should be happy. You might get only the one review, or maybe a bunch. There's no way to control that, so all you can do is get your book out there and let as many people as possible know about it.There are lots of people in the same boat as you, and many of them have already tried all the sites out there. If you're not sure about the usefulness f certain sites, or certain promotions you only have to ask. You'd be surprised at how many answers you might get. Bu the way, you might check out the "New Authors Need Marketing Ideas" group on Linkedin. They often have very useful posts about the dos and don'ts of book marketing.
Thanks so much for the advice. I found about 5 - 7 sites that list free ebooks (for free) and put my info in. I only have three days left in my promo/KDP Select giveaway, but I guess there's a chance those listings will help. I'll check out that Linkedin group too, ty.
You're wasting your free days. Stop your promotion and plan your next free run accordingly. Here's the link to quite a few sites that promote free. Schedule your free days and coincide with these sites for the promotion. http://authormarketingclub.com/member...kboards.com is a great forum for writers and there's a huge thread for those still doing free.
I just added Live Readings to my business plan. Libraries, coffee houses - a troupe of three or four reading (or acting out) the stories.Jon
Thanks for all the advice guys. I really appreciate it.
Briar wrote: "Jon wrote: "I just added Live Readings to my business plan. Libraries, coffee houses - a troupe of three or four reading (or acting out) the stories.Jon"
Live readings are a must. First time I ..."
All I need now are two or three bee-yootiful ladies to help with my one-man show.
Jon
I'm pleased to say that it's day 5 of my book giveaway and, though I was worried about reaching 1k free downloads, I just hit 1000. Also got three very nice reviews (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F02O1W6) from total strangers, which made my day. I guess after today it'll be a reality check when the book is 99 cents and I'm happy for a single sale a day. Again, I appreciate the feedback here. I will plan my next free giveaway in tandem with some of the sites and techniques you guys shared and hopefully maximize the giveaway even more.
Briar wrote: "••FIVE HARD TRUTHS ABOUT PUBLISHING••KDP Select serves Amazon's interests well in that it increases Amazon's presence in the book market, but the value to an author of offering universal free dow..."
Thanks so much for the great advice! I did a holiday bazaar last year and sold out my stock, so this year I'm doing that again. I sold less on Amazon the whole year than I sold at the bazaar.
Hi Briar,Just read the article. I'm sold. Think I'll hang out on the corner and busk a little book.
Seriously, though, part of me wants to give up, although I have a very big promotion coming up in October. Guess I'll hang tough until then.
Briar wrote: "••BOOK BUSKING••"Hi Briar. I just wanted to thank you for sharing your book busking story. I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to do that myself, but you definitely fired my imagination. Kudos to you for your ingenuity, bravery, and determination.
