Has KDP Select Jumped the Shark?
Amazon’s KDP Select free days when resulting in large numbers of downloads used to greatly increase sales after the free days were over. This may no longer be true.
While authors should not have all their book marketing eggs in one basket, Kindle Direct Publishing’s Select option has been very beneficial for many authors. But what if this option has jumped the shark?
Recently I read Jeff Bennington’s ebook WINNING WITH KDP SELECT: 5 STEPS TO HIT #1 IN THE AMAZON FREE STORE and followed his steps for KDP Select free days for my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT.
I ended up having a bifurcated campaign because of the date that BookBub had available for a paid ad. I can affirm that this particular ad was very successful, resulting in thousands and thousands of downloads. And the free days the following week were decently successful.
And then almost nothing, which was surprising given the current general belief that each free download counts as 1/10 of a sale, thus attracting the attention of Amazon’s search algorithms.
In a Twitter DM exchange with another author I may have found the answer to why a massive number of downloads resulted in almost no new sales:
The author told me: “Amazon does not convert free to paid ranking in any way.”
When I asked where KDP Select says this (so I could include the link in a blog post), the author replied: I emailed support with this Q: “Can you explain to me how the Free to Paid ranking conversion works?” That was their answer.
Disclaimer: Because this is a reply from an individual KDP rep it may not accurately reflect company policy. Or it may mean something other than what it appears to mean.
On the other hand, this does seem to indicate that the major benefit of KDP Select with its free days may have jumped the shark.
Do other authors have opinions on this apparent change?
And what legitimate strategies can we use now to get our books in front of prospective readers?
P.S. I had to grit my teeth and follow the advice in Theo Rogers’ ebook HOW TO GET GOOD REVIEWS ON AMAZON: A GUIDE FOR INDEPENDENT AUTHORS & SELLERS to restrain from commenting on a negative review.
One reader of an apparent free download really objected to elements of MRS. LIEUTENANT and was brutal in her attack on the book in an Amazon review. I do wonder, though, whether she thought the book was nonfiction. (See my post “Help! Kindle Is Misrepresenting My Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT as Nonfiction.”)
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
Thanks Phyllis!
I hope this info helps other authors.
Glad to see you’re following my advice, Phyllis!
And thanks for the shout-out! ;-)
It took a lot of control not to respond, but I know you are right about this!
Thanks for the article Phyllis, obviously there are no guarantees or panaceas but I believe in KDP Select as part of an overall, dynamic marketing scheme. Just to share a little story, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925, apparently he and his wife Zelda were living a Gatsby-like lifestyle, riding on the top of Pierce Arrows, etc. Cut to twelve years later Zelda was sadly committed to a Sanatorium, and Fitzgerald, heavy drinking, temperamental and often hard to deal with arrives in Hollywood and has an affair with gossip columnist Sheila Graham. Besides being lovers their affair was sort of mentor/pupil, Fitzgerald wanted her to read his novels, they went to practically every bookstore in LA, and couldn’t find a copy of Gatsby which was pretty much out of print in 1937. Five years later in 1942 an organization the Council on Books in Wartime, an organization of publishing executives, purchased 155,000 copies and gave them out to our soldiers overseas, word-of-mouth began to spread and shortly thereafter it began selling like hotcakes, unfortunately too late for Fitzgerald who died two years previous, believing himself a failure. The KDP Select free giveaway program gives authors a chance to not necessarily get the same results but at least try a Gatsby-like marketing method at a reasonable cost.
Stephen — Thanks so much for sharing this story about THE GREAT GATSBY. It is truly inspiring — and encouraging for all of us authors who have free days for our books via KDP Select.
I agree with all of you. I’ve done FREE many times, the most successful of which resulted in a download of 40,000 over 5 days, last February, giving me a publisher paycheck of $2,000. for the sales that resulted in the next 6 weeks. When you end FREE DAYS, there is a lull, then sales begin around the second or third day. Not sure why. BUT, what I love about FREE is the crossover traffic from the free book to the paid ones. I have a perma free and the second in the series is my best seller right now because of this.
What I really dislike is KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEALS! This was the worst promo I ever did, keeping my book locked in at a certain price for two months and precluding me from doing a Xmas FREE promo. I got no extra sales from this, probably because I am not a famous author with Kindle downloads priced at $10.99 usually. Not recommended for new authors without a fierce following!
But I do like FREE, even if it’s just to see my book up there in #1 for a day or two!
Kim Hornsby
Author of THE DREAM JUMPER’S PROMISE
http://amzn.com/B00AA4FAJC
Kim — Thanks so much for leaving this insightful comment. I absolutely agree that the KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL program does not seem to be a good idea for non-famous authors. I was very disappointed when I tried it out.
I am wondering though, since your most successful free day promotion was in February, whether beneficial elements of this program have changed since then. I mention this because I have seen decreasing sales following my free days even when the downloads have been dramatically increased.
That could be true, Phyllis. I’ll know in a month, when I come off that darned Kindle Countdown Deal and do a KDP Select free promo. I do think that I get more good reviews from people who have downloaded my book for free, though. Their expectations are low and are pleasantly surprised. :)
Kim
Kim — Looking forward to hearing about your experience after your next KDP Select free days.
And I find that I sometimes get negative reviews from free downloads because people downloaded a free ebook not in the genre they like to read.
For example, spy thrillers are a specific genre often with red herrings as to who are the bad guys. Yet I have gotten a couple of negative reviews for CIA FALL GUY complaining that the readers couldn’t tell asap who the bad guys were. Well, yes, that’s what a spy thriller often does — disguise who the bad guys are.