Kindle free marketing tactics
When I published my book as an eBook, I chose to have it be available for Kindle only. That means I cannot sell or distribute my eBook anywhere else- not for iPad, not for Kobo, not on my own website, etc. Why would I choose to do this? One reason:
It's short for Kindle Direct Publishing. This is in addition to selling your eBook on Amazon. For example, my eBook is for sale on Amazon for Kindle for $0.99. It is also part of KDP Select and available for free as part of the Kindle Lending Library.
If you enroll your eBook in this program, you get two distinct advantages.
1. Your book will be part of the Kindle Lending Library. This means that any Amazon Prime member with a Kindle can borrow your eBook for free.
2. You are paid when people borrow your eBook. Amazon has this thing called the "Global Fund." In late 2012 it was $400,000. In January it was $500,000. For May of 2013, it's $1 million. Amazon divides this fund up monthly between the millions of books in the KDP program. Whatever fractional percentage of total borrows your book makes up, you get that fractional percentage of the Global Fund. It's not going to make you rich, but it's also not nothing. I feel like it's a win for everyone. And you also get:
Kindle Free Days:
When you enroll your eBook in the KDP Select program, you enroll for 90 days. For those 90 days you need to be exclusively listed on Amazon and Kindle. During those 90 days, you are able to offer your eBook for free to everyone for five select days out of the 90. Like I said earlier, my eBook is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon. In a week, I'll be offering it for free for three days. I see it as a big marketing opportunity. Why would I ever just give my book away for free to the world?
"The Amazon Effect:"
This is the term for when Amazon helps you out and amplifies your small successes. There are many ways it can happen. Amazon keeps lists of the top 100 books in different categories. If your book is in that list, they will start to promote you. You'll be in promo emails, you'll get mentioned more in the "People who liked this also liked this" section at the bottom of the page, etc. This will help you get more readers, which will snowball and get you higher on the list, getting you more readers, etc.
The trick is, of course, getting on the list in the first place.
So, bringing this all together, the idea is:
1. Be part of KDP Select.
2. Offer the eBook for free for a few days. I'm doing mine next week at the same time as an event that I use in my novel. It's a real life tie in.
3. Promote the heck out of the free days. I've got guest blog posts lined up, free services that will promote my link for me, emails all ready to send to my reader list, etc.
4. The goal is to get to the top 100 in eBooks for literary fiction. If that works, the idea is that it will spill over into sales because of its success and subsequent "Amazon effect" promotion.
5. Ideally, people who read my free book will be interested and see what else I've written, then buy that book. You can see how this would be good for someone with a trilogy.
Have any of you taken this kind of approach? Or know someone who has?
Image courtesy of Brad Stabler via flickr
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