I talked myself into it, I talked myself out of it. Then I talked myself into it again.
There’s a controversy among indies over whether promoting your book by giving it away for free is a good thing. The most persuasive argument I’ve heard mostly applies to authors who have more than one book–hook them with a freebie and upsell them on the sequel. That’s not an option for me, seeing as how I only have one book. So, no promotion. And besides, all my friends and family have already shelled out and dropping the price to $0.00 isn’t fair to them.
But Colleen Hoover’s example changed my mind. Rules 3 (Make your work available) and 4 (Generate buzz) are both served with a promotion, providing we also follow Rule 1 (Write good stuff).
So…I just did my first free KDP Select promo. One day, no advance notice. This was intended as much as an experiment as it was an actual attempt to get my book in some hands that would read it and review it. My Facebook ad campaign had expired so the only possible way for someone to find out about my free book was through Amazon.
Results: 445 downloads in a 24-hour period. One add on Goodreads by someone who already has 1370 books in her general library.
I’m still figuring out what to make of that. Clearly, there are a lot of people subscribing to the Kindle Deal of the Day and spend a whale of a lot of time downloading free books that likely will never get read. But I’ll be watching my key performance indicators for movement before I pass final judgement. One day later I’ve registered one more paid sale. Whether it’s related to the promotion or not, no man can say.
The next promo I do will have a bunch of advance notice. I predict that the number of downloads will be similar, perhaps maginally higher, on the theory that folks looking for freebies will find them whether they see the notice on a blog or not. But if there are even a few who see an announcement and make a conscious decision to download a free book with the intent of reading it, the promotion will be worthwhile. And I don’t think it’ll be hurting my own sales since the Kindlers with 1370 free books in their library probably aren’t in the mainstream of paying customers.
In any case, seeing that 445 download tally has a curiously satisfying effect, even if I didn’t made a dime on any of them.
How do you see how many downloads on Amazon? Smashwords makes it really easy, but Amazon does not appear to show this information
Andy, it was once possible to embed a link in the Amazon book description that would go to a site, like bit.ly, that counted clicks. This was hugely useful in tracking looks on my book page. Then Amazon cracked down on embedded HTML and this was no longer possible. So sad.
I still find all this confusing. Don't you make money if Kindle Prime readers borrow your book from KOLL?
Yes, I think that's still the case. Those are two separate things KDP Select means that Prime readers can borrow your books, and in return you get a share of some pot of money that Amazon allocates for that, among all KDP Select entrants. Or something like that. If you're lucky, it comes to almost as much as your royalty, but I think overall this is still peanuts. What Charles talked about here is the giveaway you can do when you're enrolled in KDP Select (up to 5 days, either consecutively or separately during the 90 days). those you give away for free in hopes of boosting your sales rank. But, as mentioned here, sadly that rank is only temporary, you just hope for some add-on sales in the aftermath.
With only a single book on offer I see little point in using Kindle Select to make your book free. Far better to have reduced the price to 99 cents for the day and heavily promote it.
There was a time – before April 2012 – when your promotion would have had a dramatic effect. Until mid-April Amazon transferred the 'free' sales rank to your 'Paid' sales rank and for several days you benefited. After the change the benefit lasted for only an hour or two. Now your sales rank is completely wiped for an hour.
Best advice – write that second book!