Indie Book Collective discussion

I love what the KDP select program has done for me.

I published my first book, the YA novel Loving Emily, in October 2011. By late December, I'd gotten some good reviews, but was only selling about one book a day. Then I did two separate 24 hour free promotions on KDP Select. I gave away 3,500 books approximately.

Each time after the promotions ended I had a big burst of sales which tailed off after 4 or 5 days. As of today (Jan 21), I've sold 657 books in the month of January, due to the combined effect of the KDP select promo and good reviews. My sales right now are about a half dozen books a day.

I never sold anything through Smashwords or B&N and don't miss them at all. As for giving away books, 3,500 is a tiny number compared to the number of kindles and readers out there. There are plenty of people left to buy your book after a free promotion! If you're an unknown author with an unknown book, you've got to do something to get attention, and for me, this has worked well.

I joined KDP SELECT in December and have run some promo days for two of my books. As a new author, with relatively low sales numbers, it wasn't a tough decision to pull my books from other retailers. I've been more than thrilled with the results. One book is not very popular, but one is taking off. (I put equal effort into both, so it just goes to show luck is a factor.) It's been so encouraging, that I have my next title ready ahead of schedule.

I just came across a tweet that led to a posting about an author who gave away 25,000 thousand copies, which led to over 1100 sales at $6.99 each. Read here: http://selfpublishingteam.com/how-one...

My own award-winning novel THE BRIGHTEST MOON OF THE CENTURY will be free for 3 days starting Friday. I can't expect these numbers, though. Most people are getting far less, 400 or 500 downloads. I'm aiming big: 1100 downloads, which should be reasonable considering the great reviews. Please mark your calendar. (Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Moon-...)

Another positive way to look at giveaways came in an email yesterday from Dave at Pixel of Ink. I'll quote it at length below.

See you Friday, Chris

FROM PIXEL OF INK:

In the end, making a book free can be a great promotional tool. Especially if authors view it for what it is: another form of Marketing/Advertising. I think many authors focus a little too heavily on the short term gain/loss of sales (which is understandable), but when it comes to free book promotions, I think they are more akin to Television commercials or paid ads painted on race cars: They serve primarily to spread the word about a product, and to promote brand/name recognition.

The cost of a "free" promotion really comes down to Opportunity Cost: what is the value of lost potential sales during the free promotion? If you normally earn $100/day from book sales, then a 2 day free promotion of that would book carry a cost of $200 in lost potential income.

Which all leads to the questions: Is it worth making a book free? If so, how long should it be free?

I don't have a succinct explanation for the first question, but it boils down to: Is the exposure gained through a free promotion worth more than the opportunity cost? Putting dollar values on exposure is hard to do, but looking at the extremes can at least make it easier to frame: If a free promotion will lead to 20 more downloads than normal, we can safely say that is NOT worth it ($200 in our hypothetical example). However, if a free exposure will lead to 30,000 more downloads, and a spot on the first page of the Top 100 Free Kindle Books, then we can safely assume that is well worth the $200 opportunity cost. For most books, things work out somewhere in the middle, and as such, it behooves the author to do everything they can to weight the odds in their favor before making a book free.

As to how long books should be free, I tell everyone: make them last at least 2 days in a row. Beyond that, I think it depends a wide variety of factors. But single day freebies are very much like starting a fire with only kindling: it's very easy to get them to catch a spark and flare up, but without any more fuel to sustain it, they die out just as fast. Without poor metaphors: Single day freebies don't carry much weight and occasionally cause lots of headaches (e.g., our email list has over 75,000 subscribers but less than half of them open the email on the same it is sent).

Overall, for authors that plan ahead and strive to maximize their exposure gain from a free promotion, it can be a huge benefit in building momentum for a book and in carrying that momentum over to paid sales later on. But it's not a magic bullet either, without some planning and some sweat equity, a free promotion might not accomplish anything at all.

I have dived into the Amazon KDP pool too and have got my first free promo this weekend. My book is FREE on 28th and 29th January worldwide.

I will be very excited to see what happens as it is a poetry collection and as all poets know, poems just do not sell - lets see if I can give them away!

The novelty factor with this Kindle book is that it comes with a download link to a FREE 45 minute audiobook - with all the poems read by me and an original musical composition accompaniment for the title poem. You can copy the file onto the Kindle Music Folder via the lead and listen to the poems on your Kindle whilst you read - now is that cool?


I threw a stone

My second KDP Select free promo is running today and tomorrow. It's for Big Chills, my collection of short horror stories. Oscar, just to give you a word of encouragement: my first free promo was for "Facebook Ate My Life," a collection of humorous poetry, and I got so many downloads the ebook made it to #13 on the Amazon list of free poetry books. Not bad, I thought! I hope yours does even better!

John

Big Chills

John wrote: "My second KDP Select free promo is running today and tomorrow. It's for Big Chills, my collection of short horror stories. Oscar, just to give you a word of encouragement: my first free promo was f..."

Wow that is fantastic! Thanks for the encouragement - I just don't expect too much as my poems are quite serious. Did you get a boost to money sales after the promo?

PS will download your Big Chills - every little helps!

Thanks Oscar! Yes, I did get some sales for "Facebook Ate My Life" after the free promo. I also got some borrows on KDP Select, which is good because Amazon says they're paying $1.70 per borrow. Since I have "Facebook" listed at only 99 cents to buy, I'm making more when people borrow it. I'll take a look at your book also!

John

Christopher wrote: "I just came across a tweet that led to a posting about an author who gave away 25,000 thousand copies, which led to over 1100 sales at $6.99 each. Read here: http://selfpublishingteam.com/how-one-i..."

As a new author just stepping into the scene, I have a few questions and thoughts on th matter.

If you only have one book to your name, would it make sense to launch yourself into the KDP program and pull from B&N and Smashwords? So far between those two other spots I've only sold 7 copies, whereas on Amazon I've done almost 20. I'm thinking Amazon is sort of my small spotlight shot or not. To me, worst case scenario is, well, nothing. I'm not exactly hoping on B&N, and Smashwords keeps sending my book back citing one little thing after the next for distribution on Apple, Kobo, Sony, etc. I highly doubt I'm going to make anything substantial on there, anyway. It was more for knowledge of where I was.

I understand it means giving away copies, but what about the whole 'borrowing' thing?

Darlene wrote: "What's the book about your mom called? I'd like to check it out."

Darlene, so sorry for such a late reply! I am in the thick of teaching and outside commitments and just haven't been able to catch up. (I am trying to figure out how to get someone to handle my to-do list for free. HAAAA~!)

And, my novel is [book: River in the Sea}. Thanks for asking!!!

Dennis wrote: "Enjoying the discussion.

I have my one and only novel on KDP and trying a one-day freebie today to see what happens. I have to admit that I didn't write the book to make money, and have been plea..."

How did it go? I would love for those doing this to post results. I plan on doing this soon and would be happy to share pre-, during-, and post-promotion numbers.

Tina:

Here are my results so far. My ebook "Big Chills" has had 207 downloads today between Amazon and Amazon UK. It's up to #27 in the Kindle Store for short stories. Since I made this a two-day promotion, I'm hoping to get 500 downloads by tomorrow night. I've had a small bump in sales of my other horror short story books. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow. I'll keep the group posted.

John

I just ran both of my books as freebies via the KDP Select program. My original plan was to have one eBook go free for 1 day, then do the same with my other one on Day 2. Well, the first eBook got so many downloads the first day I decided to extend it one more day, just to see. Meanwhile, I also ran the second eBook as well, so both were free on Day 2.

Here are the results (numbers are approximate):

The Five Elements, Day 1: 1,000 downloads
The Five Elements, Day 2: 2,000 downloads

The Hall of the Wood, Day 2: around 300 downloads

Something interesting happened to The Five Elements on Day 2 around noon: it made its way onto the Top 100 in Free Epic Fantasy (eventually climbing as high as #2) and also made its way onto the Top 100 Free Fantasy (overall) list (think it made it as high as #36 or so). From that point on, I was getting about 100 downloads/hour.

TFE climbed as high as #136 in the overall Top 100 Free category for all Kindle titles! A 3rd day free and maybe it would have broken the Top 100.

The Hall of the Wood was previously free for almost the entire month of December (I had it listed at $0.00 on Smashwords and Amazon noticed). During that time, it was getting 200 downloads/day until it finally went back to > $0.00. The Hall of the Wood also has 5 borrows.

I've had both eBooks in KDP Select for about a week.

In terms of actual sales, today was Day 3, so I'm just coming off the freebie wagon. TFE sold 20 copies today and HOTW, just 1.

TFE has found its way onto the "Magic and Wizards" Top 100 Fantasy category, so at least it will continue to get some visibility.

John and Scott--

I'm excited by your figures and on the edge of anticipation because my award-winning novel, "The Brightest Moon of the Century," goes free tonight starting at midnight. After seeing several stories like yours, I sense that things work the best where a book enters the Top 100 of a list--or best, the Top 10. I'm not clear how those lists are selected, but I suspect it's both how you classify the book originally (a comic novel vs. a literary novel, for instance) and what kinds of tags your book gets.

While I can hope the freebie will do well, there's nothing more I can do. The book got great reviews, the Amazon page is populated and has customer reviews and tags, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next three days.

--Chris

P.S. to Alivia. Your book sounds so new, I wouldn't necessarily go KDP Select yet. It's important to get reviews, take your book on a blog tour, and maybe advertise it on Frugal eReader and maybe other places. My friend E. Van Lowe has been getting more Nook sales than Kindle sales, and he thinks it's because he's on Goodreads a lot.

I should add that one of the nice side-effects of "selling" all those eBooks is that The Five Elements, which previously had about 20 titles listed in its "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section, now has 100 titles listed there. Presumably, I'm getting at least some reciprocation on the other side of that.

End result is that I (hopefully) continue to gain visibility. I know Michael Sullivan (his wife, actually) has claimed that having his book appear on others' "Customers Who Bought..." lists was a turning point in his sales.

I think I am going to put one of my books into KDP. It sounds like it is working pretty well for many authors. I am a nervous nelly so I will just dip my toe into KDP and see how it feels. Great info, guys! Keep it coming and I'll let you know if my toe gets bitten off by the big and bad shark called Amazon. I'm repeating what has been said by others. I'm not sure if they are bad or really quite wonderful. I'll find out, I guess. Wish me luck.

My award-winning novel, "The Brightest Moon of the Century," went free this morning, and it's already ranked #20 in Literary Fiction. I have no idea where this will go and what will happen over the next three days, but I'm instantly happy.

If you want to grab it, go to http://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Moon-...

BEYOND THE U.S.

I just discovered on the sales report page for Kindle that the sales you see are in the U.S. There's a window where you can see other countries such as Amazon.uk. While I have 328 downloads for my first morning in the U.S., I see there ae 68 in the UK. I'm not sure how to reach more in the UK, but I'll try that this hour.

My horror short story collection, "Big Chills" has 400 downloads now, in the second day of the free promo. It reached #15 in Short Stories on Kindle. This is better than my previous promotion of a poetry book. I also noticed, however, that the first day of the free promo gets the most downloads. We'll see how it all turns out.

John
Big Chills: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005D2M72Y

Christopher wrote: "My award-winning novel, "The Brightest Moon of the Century," went free this morning, and it's already ranked #20 in Literary Fiction. I have no idea where this will go and what will happen over the..."

I will pick it up (if it's still available)! Keep us updated, please. I'm in literary fiction too. Thanks!

I've been wondering about this question of reciprocation. Does anyone know what/how much the appearance of books in one's "Customers Who Bought..." area indicates about whether/how often one's own book appears in someone else's parallel list?

Scott wrote: "I should add that one of the nice side-effects of "selling" all those eBooks is that The Five Elements, which previously had about 20 titles listed in its "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bough..."

Karen:

I'd like to know that also. I think that when your number of downloads increases through these free promotions your book shows up more in the "Customers Who Bought. . ." listing. That's my theory, anyway, because there is usually a boost in sales after one of these promotions. On Friday I finished my second free promo, for "Big Chills", my horror collection, and so far I've sold about 30 books since the promo ended. I think it may be because "Big Chills" is showing up more in the "Customers Who Bought. . ." listing. I have no way to prove this, though.

John

Does anyone know what/how much the appearance of books in one's "Customers Who Bought..." area indicates about whether/how often one's own book appears in someone else's parallel list?

I don't think anyone but Amazon knows the specifics of how the linking occurs. I did some completely unscientific tests, clicking through to see if my book showed up in the other book's listings. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't.

From my own observations and experience, it seems the two biggest contributors to sales are:

1.) Getting listed on other people's "Customer who bought..." lists

2.) Showing up on 1 or more "Top 100" listings. I think this one does more, but I don't really know for sure.

My eBook, which ran for 2 days as free, made it onto 3 different Top 100 lists once it came off promotion and has been selling/getting borrowed 50-100 times/day since. I'm now experimenting with pricing to see if it causes a drop in sales. It's kind of tricky, cause I don't want to fall off those lists.

Scott wrote: "Does anyone know what/how much the appearance of books in one's "Customers Who Bought..." area indicates about whether/how often one's own book appears in someone else's parallel list?

I don't th..."

If you don't mind saying, what prices have you tried and which have been successful?

Here's a nice KDP Select success story for y'all.

How Amazon's KDP Select Saved My Book
http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com/2012/...

Lee wrote: "If you don't mind saying, what prices have you tried and which have been successful? "

Hi Lee,

No, I don't mind. I should preface this with the fact that I've only been recording information for 4 days now. Hardly a lot of data. Assuming I continue to get sales, I'm going to continue to record my daily sales figures along with price so I can see what trends there are. Right now, when I increase a price and see diminished volume, I'm left wondering if it's because of the price or just b/c as we get into the middle of the week sales just naturally slow. I'm an engineer, not a marketing person. ;-) This is something I hope to figure out if I can get enough weeks of data.

Anyway, to answer your question, I came off the free promotion priced at $0.99. That was selling well, and I almost wished I'd just left it there. However, the next day, I increased the price to $1.49. Volume went down a little, but I actually made more money overall. Just this morning, I went to $1.99. Volume is very light, but then my # of borrows is 0 for today, also. So, again, is it price or is Tuesday morning/afternoon just slow in general?

I started recording data on Saturday ($0.99), which was my best day. Sunday was good ($1.49), but tapered off a bit. Monday was good as well (still $1.49), but, again, sales went down a little. Today I'm at $1.99, and I've seen increased slowness.

I'm watching my Top 100 rankings like a hawk. Any significant movement back down the ladder and I don't mind putting the price back down to $0.99. At this point, I'd much rather continue the sales momentum than fall off those lists.

Good story. I noted how he said Twitter and blogging had almost no impact on sales. I've found that also.

Scott wrote: "Lee wrote: "If you don't mind saying, what prices have you tried and which have been successful? "

Hi Lee,

No, I don't mind. I should preface this with the fact that I've only been recording info..."

Thanks, Scott, this is valuable information. Follow up would be appreciated.

John wrote: "Good story. I noted how he said Twitter and blogging had almost no impact on sales. I've found that also."

I've heard the same thing elsewhere, John. Thanks for sharing.

So, if twitter and bloggin have no impact on sales, what does? Besides KDP Select, that is.

Darlene:

That's the $64,000 question. I think Scott's post said it has to do with getting into the top 100 for a category, and getting in the "Customers Who Bought. . ." list. I know I've had blog posts about my books that have gotten hundreds of page views, but not a single sale. Same with Twitter. I did see a bump in sales when I got on Google Plus, however, you can't just constantly send out advertising messages on these social networks. I've had authors bombard me with messages and I just unfriend them or block them.

Man, it's so hard!

There's a delicate line between spamming on social networks and letting your friends and followers know when there is a development in your writing career they might value knowing. It's a hard one to walk. Still, I think social networks are important because you may just connect with the one person who can cause you to go viral.

Quick update: I'm not sure what to make of these numbers at this point, but I did increase prices to as "high" as $1.99 and saw an immediate drop-off in sales. However, I was also watching rankings of my own eBook and one other which is similarly ranked, and the decrease in rankings was very, very slow, as if sales were depressed across the board. Possibly just a mid-week slowdown, which is what I was thinking earlier, or something to do with me raising prices. Don't know yet.

I've dropped prices back down to $0.99 (and subsequently got 14 sales/4 borrows overnight). I'm going to leave prices there for over the weekend to see if last weekend was just an effect of coming off a free promotion or if it's more a sustainable norm.

How does one find all this info on sales, ranking in various lists, etc. (once one signs up for KDP Select, which I haven't done yet)?

On the page for your book, under "Average Customer Review", you should see the overall ranking along with any individual Top 100 lists you're on.

Though right now the rankings are not displaying. Amazon's having some issues, I guess.

I've given KDP Select as good test drive and profited greatly. Here are my thoughts:

Advantages:
- 5 promotional days
- After the free days, if you've done well the exposure continues
- The earnings from borrows have been respectable so far (I'm told)
- Restricting sales to one store concentrates them, making you appear further up the charts

Disadvantages:
- Helps Amazon become a monopoly (very un-indie)
- Takes business away from Smashwords, which has served us well
- We can only price books as free for 5 days
- The KDP Select counter broke on Wednesday and many people still haven't been credited with the sales.
- I am currently a slave to my Amazon position. Once the exposure drops, I'll probably fade back into obscurity.
- The amazing advantage that some authors have reported, is likely to be a function of the small number of people who've signed up so far. Benefits will become less, as more people sign up.

I just scheduled my free promotion on KDP for March,1-March,5. I have my share of Twitter followers who check out my blog from time to time, but I by no means have a huge online presence just yet. My main goal right now is to have my work read. Yes, it's hard to give your work away for free, but I try to look at the big picture. I'm in this for the long haul, so I'll concentrate on making big sales later. I'll never sell anything if I don't get my name out there and connect with the reader.

I thought I would edit this comment and do an update. In the last three days, my novelette, Chasing Dolphins, has had several hundred downloads due to the free promotion. If sales continue after March 5 remains to be seen, but I definately got some exposure. On the down side, I do understand what people are saying about excluding those who don't have kindles. My best friend wanted to buy my story to support me, but she has a nook.

I'll take advantage of your promo offer September for sure.
Another good free KDP promotion 2-6 March is Melodie H. Connall's 'Appearances' available for download at both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
Not entirely sure giving away free is a good idea in the long run, but better to be read than by-passed.
And 'free' is a price us scribblers in the garret can afford.

Mike wrote: "I'll take advantage of your promo offer September for sure.
Another good free KDP promotion 2-6 March is Melodie H. Connall's 'Appearances' available for download at both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.co..."

Thanks, Mike. I'll check out Appearances as well.

Just wanted to update you and let you know that I did download Appearances. Looks interesting.

The Abomination Assignment

is free for kindle on amazon today Saturday March 3 and tomorrow Saturday March 4.

After sitting on the fence for a while about this, I decided to give KDP a try. My sales this month on BN and smashwords were zero. I enrolled the first book in my current series in KDP. We'll see how it goes. 90 days is not that long.

Good luck.

I recommend using your promotional days in a block, as sales tend to rise exponentially with time.

The Brenda Diaries will be a free download tomorrow (Wednesday, 3/14) at Amazon. Here's the direct link: http://amzn.com/B005S0UKK2 and please feel free to share it!

Does anyone know if the KDP Select reporting system is fouled up? My SF novel Twin-Bred is free today (3rd promotion day -- the 1st two were consecutive, last month), and I know of several downloads -- but not a single download is showing up in the KDP Report. . . .

Not that I've noticed but it does happen. Don't worry, last time it happened to me, I was credited (eventually.)

I appreciate that it's annoying when trying to run a promotion. Keep on eye on your rank instead - these don't necessarily break when reports are jammed.

Darlene wrote: "Tina, that's exactly my concern. I do not believe that books should ever be free and I won't help promote free books. I even think 99 cents isn't right. I also don't like the exclusivity of only on..."

Darlene, while I understand your point, I have a question. Do you believe it's ok or that an author SHOULD pay several hundred dollars for ads to promote their book?

I know your answer is a couple of months old, so I'm not sure that you'll even see this response from me. Having said that, I'll try go present another viewpoint.

If you do believe it's ok or that an author should buy ads rather than give away free books, I'd like to ask you what the difference is? If an author can't afford to spend several hundred dollars up front for advertising, why is it bad for them to give away a couple of bucks at a time?

I understand the "value" of the work, but if no one reads your work....is it still valuable? If no one takes a chance on an author...is their work just as valuable as, say, Stephen King? The value of your writing tends to be determined by the reader, does it not? If that's so, and if you have no brand, you have no value. The bigger the brand of the author, the more their relative value.

After all, isn't value always relative? One person may be willing to spend $250,000 on a particular house while another wouldn't give more than $10,000 for the same house.

One person may be willing to spend $20 on a particular book if it meets their needs while another person won't drop more than $2. So, while both readers would read and buy that same book, they don't both see the same value in the book. Although, I guarantee that author believes they are worth the same value to both readers.

Free books or .99 cent books are nothing more than each of us attempting to build a brand and therefore build value in the readers' eyes.

Stepping off soapbox now, sorry.

You commented that "if you have no brand, you have no value." I'm not sure "brand" is the same as value of a book. It's all relative, as you say. An author may be a "big name," but that doesn't mean you or I will automatically like his or her books.
The question really is how to get people to give your book a try. Some believe giving away free books or selling them for 99 cents is they way to attract readership. My worry is that no one will ever want to pay a fair price for a book if they can get another for free. And if all books are free, how do authors support themselves?
The other concern is that people may download many books for free and never read them. How does that help an author garner readership and reviews?
This whole select program is a huge question in my mind. I don't think Amazon came up with the idea to help authors. I think they believe they will sell more Kindles with the free book offer.

Darlene, I think you're right that Amazon thinks they will sell more Kindles, but I think they think selling more Kindles (which are now very cheap) will sell more books. We'll see.

I have to admit that the availability of so many free and cheap eBooks has changed my reading habits. I don't read nearly as many big name authors' books as I used to. I baulk at the prices, particular the prices of newly published big name books. They go on the long, long TR list in the hope the prices will go down eventually. Meanwhile, I'm reading very good books by little known and Indie authors.

I'm reading more indie now too. Check out EMBATTLED. And my second one will be out soon too. Watch for EMPOWERED.

Darlene wrote: "I'm reading more indie now too. Check out EMBATTLED. And my second one will be out soon too. Watch for EMPOWERED."

I've put Embattled on my TR list. I had to go to amazon to find a description and that there was a kindle edition. I suggest you put both on GR.