Monday, January 13, 2014

KDP Free Days - Do They Really Matter Anymore?

KDP Free Days are the old stand by for launching your Kindle book, and for reinvigorating a book with sluggish sales.

There’s a lot of talk among authors that free has lost its allure, and books are no longer enjoying the sales bump they used to enjoy after a great free run. Part of that is true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that running a free promo can’t help your book.

It just means you need to better understand what results you can expect to receive from your free run.

If you’re launching a new book free is still one of the best ways to get the word out there and to get people reading and talking about your book.

If you’ve already run through two or three KPD Free Promos free may no longer be the best option for you. One, because with so many new books being added to the Amazon catalog every day it’s getting harder and harder to get noticed; and two, with recent changes to how free books are counted towards sales numbers a free promo (even a wildly successful one) isn’t going to give your book the sales bump you were hoping for.



So what’s an author to do?

Remember that KDP is only one option you have available in your toolbox.

Steve Scott published a great book about six months ago, Is 99 Cents the New Free? For several months after it was published just about every Kindle author was knocking the idea around and sampling their catalog at 99 cents.

Jordan Malik made a hell of a run using 99 cent promos in the eBay category twice in the last six months. Each time he brought his books up to number one, two, and three in the eBay category and held the top position for nearly a week. When he ended the promo, he returned his books to $6.99 and still ranked high in his category.



A lot of other authors have done the same thing.

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