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My no freebies experiment for March.
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George,I haven't done any free promotions yet so I can't speak from my own personal experience. I have heard others authors in some of my facebook groups talking about this and they seem to think that it helps their sales.
George,I can only comment on my slight experience. Five days of free kindle produced 380 downloads resulting in no reviews and I think possibly 1 sale. The book sells for £0.77 in the UK and £0.99 or so (depending on exchange rates)in the US.
I have to admit that my other marketing has been almost zero since I'm working on a new book.
Make what you will of that. (I still hate marketing)
Mike
http://www.antonygloster.com/
Hey, my personal viewpoint is that the freebies on Amazon aren't necessarily generating the right kind of reader base. But... it's a great stat skewing method, which results in some easy (high traffic) promotion. (http://indieebooks.wordpress.com/2012... )
I'm curious - did you see more of an uptake outside of the US? There's no dedicated indie store on Amazon UK - so most readers can't really distinguish between authors and might actually assume the higher priced books are professionally done.
Indie e-books wrote: "Hey, my personal viewpoint is that the freebies on Amazon aren't necessarily generating the right kind of reader base. But... it's a great stat skewing method, which results in some easy (high traf..."I just read your article entitled "How indie publishing reminds me of ‘The Wire’" on wordpress and it was very informative. Thanks.
I haven't given away freebies of my books yet, but I have been considering it. Your article will help me make an informed decision, instead of assuming that giving it away will actually improve my sales.
Thanks :) Sure there's pros and cons for freebies, and the biggest disadvantage at the moment is that (and I'm speaking here as a reader) the freebie market is overwhelming. :/*Disclaimer: You should check out Rachel Abbott's blog (there's a link in my post) - she's speaking more from personal experience of 'the process', I'm more of an interested reader.
I did the Week of the Ebook thing on Smashwords and gave away my first book free during that week. My second book was half off.During that week, my free book got downloaded maybe 20 times or so. My half-price book did not sell a single copy. I haven't gotten any reviews from those downloads, either.
HOWEVER, since that ended, sales for my first book have also picked up on Amazon, even though I didn't do a freebie on that site. It may just be that March was a busier month on Amazon. My Amazon ranking is still pretty low, despite having the best month I've had all year, which I'm assuming means that sales across the board were up for March.
I, too, have given away a lot of freebies but gotten little or nothing in return. My sales didn't change enough to make a difference, and the freebies didn't even win me any reviews. Still, there's something to be said for "getting it out there", so I'll keep experimenting and see what happens.
Indie e-books wrote: "Thanks :) Sure there's pros and cons for freebies, and the biggest disadvantage at the moment is that (and I'm speaking here as a reader) the freebie market is overwhelming. :/*Disclaimer: You sh..."
Thanks for the link! I've been reading away and the advice seems very sound. I need all the help I can get--sales are flat :(
For the month of March I decided not to do any free giveaways on Amazon and actually raise the price of my book just to see what would happen.
Surprise, surprise. I had my best sales month ever for the book which came out in January and it equaled January and February sales combined. Actually it's close to becoming my best selling book ever. Both of those months I did free promotions and I'm starting to think that free promotions may be hurting my sales.
Does anyone think that may be the case?
George Cook author of The Dead War Series:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YEKJXO