Indie Book Collective discussion
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Does anyone know how to get Amazon to offer a book for free?
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I didn't realise Amazon wouldn't let you publish work for free! Annoying, because I had been planning to offer a free book there myself. You could publish it on Smashwords instead, though that means having to work harder at promoting it as the site obviously gets much less traffic - hmm, will follow this discussion with interest! Sorry I can't be more help.
What you have to do is sign it up for Amazon and Smashwords, list it for free on Smashwords then report it back to Amazon, and they will price match. If you already signed it up for KDP Select, you have to wait until the 90-day exclusive period with Amazon is over.
I'm in the same boat as both of you. I had also intended to offer one of my novelettes for free permanently, but I impetuously signed it up for Select before I asked others how to do this. All I can say, George, is if you've already passed the three day waiting period wherein you can still opt out of the program, the only thing you can do is promote like crazy on your free days!
Ginger wrote: "What you have to do is sign it up for Amazon and Smashwords, list it for free on Smashwords then report it back to Amazon, and they will price match. If you already signed it up for KDP Select, you..."Aha! Thanks - good to know.
If I can help anyone, I am glad to pass it on. I know how confusing everything can be when you first start out. I only wish I'd had a little more guidance when I began this venture! Gotta take care of each other!
I also assumed, naively, that with all the books listed "free" on Amazon that "free" was an option. Wrong! I, too, wrote a short story to serve as a prequel and teaser for my already published novel only to realize that Amazon's lowest price is 99 cents. No one should pay anything for a story that's less than 3000 words!
I put it on Amazon last night anyway at 99 cents and uploaded it to Smashwords this morning with a price of "free", but will do nothing to promote it until it goes through the long Smashwords review and is listed on Barnes and Noble as free. THEN, Amazon may (or may not, I'm told), quickly price match. It's somewhat of a crapshoot and shouldn't be so difficult and iffy. I assume they do this to get more authors to sign up for Select, but with only 5 "free" days it made no sense to me.
If anyone has discovered a better strategy, please share!
I don't know that I agree that anything less than 3000 words should be free. Let's face it, $0.99 is nothing to most people with an e-reader. I see the point about generating interest with a teaser product, but is there evidence that free shorts lead to sales later on? Ginger - I too wish I'd thought to ask for advice along the way like George is doing.
This is what happened yesterday with my short story free on Smashwords and 99cents on Amazon: No Amazon sales. More than 70 downloads of the "free" one. Some of those downloads resulted in sales of the paid novel, so it appears that "free" is more appealing to readers than something at 99cents. Opinions?Patricia wrote: "I don't know that I agree that anything less than 3000 words should be free. Let's face it, $0.99 is nothing to most people with an e-reader. I see the point about generating interest with a teaser..."
Harriet,How do you track kindle sales with Amazon? I have not been able to figure that out. Can you explain that to me. Thanks!
Hi, Patti!Your reports at Amazon track your sales for 'week ending...', and if you do an Author Central account, there is a scan that shows your day-to-day rankings on a chart. They do it for each individual edition of your books (paperback & Kindle.) But I don't know how to get the daily totals (if they even offer that!)
How are things going with you, by the way. Did you get Legend of the Dead up and running?
My books are published through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and they have a "reports" tab that tracks sales for each of my books. This is great when that number's going up, but when it's stagnant for a few days, not so good. Patricia wrote: "Harriet,
How do you track kindle sales with Amazon? I have not been able to figure that out. Can you explain that to me. Thanks!"
Thanks, Ginger and Harriet. I'd seen the rankings information before, but never the actual # of books sold. I like how KDP lets you see that. It was always so frustrating to rely on the publisher to tell me how many kindle copies sold.Legend of the Dead is just about read to publish. That's why I uploaded Hope of Israel for $0.99. I have a proofer reading it now and then I have to format it for kindle. I'm hopeful I can have it available by the first week of July.
Patricia wrote: "I don't know that I agree that anything less than 3000 words should be free. Let's face it, $0.99 is nothing to most people with an e-reader. I see the point about generating interest with a teaser..."Hi! We've been doing the Amazon/Kindle thing for a while and have found that, if you publish a short story or novella that is contained in a larger anthology, then do the free days (BTW, no more than 2 days at a time and try for Tues-Wed for best response) it has increased our sales of anthologies or short story collections. We will put only the short story/novella on KDP Select but not the entire book so it can go up everywhere else at once. Hope that helps.
Also, FYI, Amazon is making noises that it may up the lowest price available from $.99 to $1.49 because they are getting so much traffic for the 99cent offerings. If your short or snippet is really small, I would try the suggestion of Harriet's if you really just want to offer it free as a teaser.
Thanks for the update, Sarah. Every little bit of info is helpful ESPECIALLY from someone with experience!
I have published a short story as a teaser for my book. I want it to remain free but as I'm sure you know after the 5 day promotion I can't. Does anyone here know how to get Amazon to let me offer the book for free on a permanent basis. Is that even possible.
George Cook
Author of The Dead War Series
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YEKJXO