UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

Does anyone know how to make a title permanently free on Kindle? It only lets me do it for 5 days every 90.

David replied: Pete wrote: "Does anyone know how to make a title permanently free on Kindle? It only lets me do it for 5 days every 90."

You need to make it free on other sites, Pete: Smashwords, Barnes and Noble etc., then get Amazon to price match the title. They are reluctant to do so, however.

Pete wrote: "David replied: Pete wrote: "Does anyone know how to make a title permanently free on Kindle? It only lets me do it for 5 days every 90."

You need to make it free on other sites, Pete: Smashwords, ..."

Thanks David - I'll have to look into those other sites.

When you make it free elsewhere, tell us in your author thread and we'll help you out by linking the urls on amazon.

Follow these steps:

1. Publish it on Smashwords or similar. If you’re entered into the Smashwords premium collection, they’ll supply it to Barnes & Noble and various others automatically.
2. Send Amazon support UK an assertive email, with links, telling them why they should make it free also. They’ll ignore you.
3. Send them an assertive reminder. They’ll say they’ve already done it. With luck, they will have (just now).
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for Amazon US, with the added thrill that, unless you have an American friend, you can’t tell whether they’ve done it or not because the price doesn’t show here.
5. Lose the will to live and don’t bother with the remaining Amazon stores.

Works a treat every time.

Patti (baconater) wrote: "When you make it free elsewhere, tell us in your author thread and we'll help you out by linking the urls on amazon."

Thanks - I think I'll have to spread my wings a bit. Haven't tried the other sites yet....

Richard wrote: "Follow these steps:

1. Publish it on Smashwords or similar. If you’re entered into the Smashwords premium collection, they’ll supply it to Barnes & Noble and various others automatically.
2. Send ...

5. Lose the will to live and don’t bother with the remaining Amazon stores."

The last is excellent advice. I wonder why bother with Amazon at all for promotions. (The last freebie I posted 'sold' in every country except Oz and Mexico - I was quite amazed.) The follow-up sales were amazing too, approximately zilch, although I did get some decent reviews. However US reviews don't show on .UK

Pete wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "When you make it free elsewhere, tell us in your author thread and we'll help you out by linking the urls on amazon."

Thanks - I think I'll have to spread my wings a bit...."

I didn't say sites.

I said your author thread. In our group.

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Pete wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "When you make it free elsewhere, tell us in your author thread and we'll help you out by linking the urls on amazon."

Thanks - I think I'll have to spread my..

I didn't say sites.

I said your author thread. In our group. ."

What I meant by sites was Smashwords, Barnes & Noble. When I've published to them, of course I'll tell the world, via my author thread, in our group of course! And twitter and facebook. And I really must get around to finishing my website! Oh, writing is so simple!

Writing certainly is the easy bit, Pete. Smashwords is no problem though, it's just a little fussy about formatting because of uploading to associated sites.

Pete wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Pete wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "When you make it free elsewhere, tell us in your author thread and we'll help you out by linking the urls on amazon."

Thanks - I th..."

D'oh.

Sorry Pete. I had thick moment there.

David wrote: "Writing certainly is the easy bit, Pete. Smashwords is no problem though, it's just a little fussy about formatting because of uploading to associated sites."

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you upload to smashwords it automatically puts your book on other sites, yes?

Think that was mentioned in the group in the past, anyway.

And no idea what the other sites are...

It does Patti, if the formatting is good enough to go premium listed. Barnes and Noble, Sony, Apple, Kobo...

So it's worth spending a lot of effort on proper formatting.

Patti (baconater) wrote:
"D'oh. Sorry Pete. I had thick moment there...."

You're lucky. Most of my moments are fleeting. If I had a thick one I'd put Marmite on it.

From a personal point of view it only makes sense to place a book free if it forms the first in a series. If readers like the first book enough then they are sure to buy the rest.
If it is just one work then all you are doing is giving it away after all the hard work put into it. If you are looking for reviews then generally you may get one out of every one hundred downloads.
I would suggest not putting it out there for free but plug it away in as many places as you can, word of mouth will then do the rest and you will earn from the book. People might just d/l the book just to have on the kindle and never get around to reading it if it's free. At least if they bought it, they will have to read it then (to justify buying it) and if it is good enough then the rest will follow :-)

Steven wrote: "From a personal point of view it only makes sense to place a book free if it forms the first in a series. If readers like the first book enough then they are sure to buy the rest.
If it is just one..."

One of the reasons I asked this question is that I have a couple of stories that are so short that even together I feel embarrased asking anything for them. They weren't originally written for publication, but people seem to like them, and I don't mind giving them away. They're out of genre, so not even typical of my work.
Red Jake

Well, at thirty pages asking money for just that could be seen as being cheeky. There are other authors out there who see no compunction in charging as much as they can for as little as they can get away with :-)
Richard's advice above is the way to go to make your book free.

My reasons for making the novelette free of charge were similar. Plus, I figured it would act as an advert for my longer works. So far, about 500 downloads have resulted in not one verifiable additional sale of a novel, so it looks like it's functioning more as a warning than an advert.

Giving the first of my series away is working out well for me, so far. With 1600 downloads to date, sales of the second book have increased from an average of four in six months to an average of four a week. Combining the giveaway with promotional listing gave a download spike of 380 in one day which pushed the book high in the charts and gave more exposure which led to a slight blip in increased sales of my other books. As always it's about exposure and allowing the readers who are interested in reading your books to become aware of them. Freebies aren't a certainty, just a marketing tool that may or may not work.