Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) offers authors the option of signing up for the KDP Select Program. One of the benefits is that authors are permitted to offer books for free for a limited number of days. I held a Select free promotion recently for my novel entitled Unauthorized Access. This promotion turned out to be more successful than I ever could have predicted. The book was downloaded 30,000 times in the first 24 hours and shot up to the #1 Amazon.com Best Seller for Free Kindle eBooks. Unauthorized Access held this #1 slot for the entire second day of the promotion and never fell out of the top 10. The final total was 52,000 downloads in three days.
The book went back to paid status following the promotion. In a little over 24 hours Unauthorized Access earned the #1 spot on the paid best seller lists for both the Technothriller and Men’s Adventure categories on each of the US, UK, and Canadian Amazon sites. The impact lasted for exactly a month, making the promotion well worth holding. Sales were wonderful for the first couple of days, then gradually diminished over the course of the month, finally settling back to pre-promotion levels.
I was fortunate to receive considerable support from my online friends during the promotion, including quite a number of people who are authors themselves. I am intensely thankful for the help I received. As a small token of my appreciation, I’ve tried to capture what I learned from the experience so others might benefit. My advice is available in the document below. I hope it proves useful for other authors who are considering whether to conduct a free promotion with Amazon Select, and would like some advice on how to do so successfully. If you're not an author, this will give you some insight into the issues faced by Indie authors today.
Congrats for the success on your free trial period.
ReplyDeleteThanks also for sharing such useful information. I guess the key is to keep marketing your book in any way possible.
Thanks! And you're right, we all have to keep up the effort to create awareness.
DeleteGood one, Andrew, boosted it out on G+ and Twitter.
ReplyDeleteThanks Toby!
Deletecongratulations on your success with the trial Period. I found this to be an engaging and interesting book, one that was hard to put down and kept me reading long into the night. Much success in your future publications.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly :) I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the book! (...and please forgive the impact on your sleep schedule) I'm working on the sequel now. If you'd like to be among the first to hear when it's coming out, I invite you to add your name to my New Release Mailing List. The link is on the right, just under my picture. Thanks again for reaching out.
DeleteI too enjoyed success with KDP a couple of years ago when it was first launched. I downloaded 40,000 copies of my novel, NORTH SLOPE and enjoyed a knock.on effect for some considerable time. Two years later and eight titles on Amazon, I am back to pre-KDP days. I have enjoyed short successes with paid promos since, but the follow on lasts barely a few days. In the end we have to accept that promotion and marketing are the only way. Good luck with your sequel, Andrew
ReplyDelete