A couple weeks ago, in my blog post Is Being a Chart Topper Enough for This Self Published Author, I discussed how I enrolled in the KDP select program.
KDP, which is Amazon’s uploader for ebooks, does not allow a book to be priced as free from the publisher, me in this case. The only way to get them to even think about price matching is making your book free on Smashwords, and then it’s not guaranteed. As a matter of fact, Amazon refused to make my short story, Bead Of Doubt free making my little Christmas promo/marketing plan to get a little hiccup. But I still went ahead and carried out my promo plan.
When you sign up for the KDP select program, you are agreeing that your novels will not be sold anywhere else. Since my Grandberry Falls series only sold a handful a day on Barnes and Noble (which we all know that DD is having GREAT success at Barnes and Noble since the select program took off), and only one or two a month at Smashwords, but hundreds on Amazon, it was a no-brainer for me. I even like the idea that KDP will let you put your books up for free for five days. They can be any days you want and non-consecutive.
My plan was to hit all the new Kindle owners. It’s true, I’m tired of being a chart topper and moved the price of all my novel-length books to $2.99. I do love my readers, but I have to make a living. I knew that if I put my 16k word novella to free, that I would grow in the charts and be seen by new Kindle readers. Does this contradict what I’m saying…no. This is a smart business move.
The novella is a short story to the series that is in the KDP program and with over ONE MILLION ebooks on Amazon, I wanted them to see my name. BUT more importantly and why I did the promo, I wanted them to see my other novels where they have to stop because of the $2.99 price, read the blurb, buy it, and then really read it. (Side note: I believe that any book priced at or above $2.99 is a price point where the reader has to make a decision on whether or not they are going to spend their money on you. It might not be breaking the bank, but it makes them think ‘am I going to really read this?’ Those are the readers that I think will keep coming back to buy my novels. I may be wrong, but it’s MY career and I’m doing what is best for me.)
With me putting my novella free for the full five days during Christmas, I was hoping to get more sales and lends for my novels in the Grandberry Falls series.
Here are the results that even surprised me:
December 22 Start #’s December 26 End #’s 12/27 Lends
A Superstitious Christmas (free novella) 49 17100 22
Bead of Doubt Novella $.99 30 293 $90.83
Carpe Bead ‘em Novel $2.51 425 501 $133
($2.51?? I have no idea how Amazon up with that!)
Splitsville.com Novel $2.51 821 863 $73.50
The Ladybug Jinx (KDP select) $2.99 372 412 13 $83.60
Happy New Life (KDP select) $2.99 426 476 18 $104.5
total five day profit = $485.43
Did it work for me? YES! That total only includes the five days that I put the book free. What amazed me most is that the lends went crazy the day after the promo was over. Plus I had my biggest sales day of the month the day after per book.
Look at the numbers! For fun, lets say the month was over on the day the free promo was over 12/26, and only the books priced over $2.
Carpe Bead e’m $876.75
Splitsville.com $1,510.25
Happy New Life $994.84
The Ladybug Jinx $861.08
Total: $4,242.92
This is the most money I have EVER made!!!
Now. . .if my books were at .99, I would have had to sale over 13,600 books in order to make that kind of money!
What did I learn with my promo experiment? I learned that I gained readers, made money, and kept everyone happy with my $2.99 price point. Below is an email I received ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT from a reader:
Dear Ms. Kappes,
I just finished reading “A Superstitious Christmas” in the above anthology. I absolutely loved it! What a wonderfully offbeat sense of humor you have. I’m definitely purchasing all the Grandberry Falls books for my Kindle, but I’m wondering when I’ll get to read the ending to Maggie’s story. Please tell me that story is already published, as I’m not certain what I’ll do if I have to wait. (I have so little patience that the family joke is that my parents should have named me Patience!) *huge sigh* But if I have to wait to read it, please tell me it won’t be a long wait…
Thank you SO much for such a wonderfully entertaining yet emotion-filled short story!
Sincerely,
Lynn Russell
Lynn found me through Madness Under The Mistletoe Anthology that is $2.99 and it sounds like she’s going to recommend me!
I also got an email from a reader (I emailed her back asking if I could use her email, but as of this post I haven’t heard back so I will not publish it), she said that she gets free books or .99 books for her husbands Kindle. If she likes the author, she will buy the rest of the author’s book on her Nook. She said that Amazon offers so many more books. She couldn’t find my Grandberry Falls series on Nook (because of the KDP select), so I gifted them to her on her husband’s email/Kindle.
How cool is that?
Fab results, Tonya! Soooo glad it’s working for you. It’s so exciting to get emails from readers who’ve enjoyed your work.
I haven’t enrolled anything in Select yet – I hate the vague wording in the terms and conditions. But it’s interesting to see what results authors are getting.
Thanks, Sibel. I’m really strange about sharing my numbers. I don’t really like to do that, but I know that some people are skeptical about the KDP select and I wanted to show them that it is working for me so far.
I’m not sure by what you mean with vague wording, or if it has to do with how the pay out works. My numbers in regular sales are still good, and not too worried about Nook. I will be packaging the set and will go live on Nook after my 90 days with KDP. I think having a good plan afterwards is key too.
That’s a great point, Super T…it’s all about having strategies and marketing plans all year long, letting each plan work off of the previous one then feed the next!
Well done!!!
That’s fantastic, Tonya! Wow – great results! I’m still getting my figures together after my novella Kindle Select freebie experiment, but initially I have definitely seen a rise in sales of Build A Man (I inserted the first three chapters of it in the back of the novella I did the giveaway with). I don’t know if it will last, but I’m pleased with the results so far.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiment!
Thanks, Talli. AGAIN…I’m NOT bragging by any means, it’s just not in my character, but I did want to share the before and after results. This is a one time numbers post for me:)
Like you, I’m pleased with the numbers so far, but the most shocking was the after lends!
Inspiring results, Tonya. And an inspiring amount of $$$, too! Thanks for posting about this. I’m still undecided about Select so your post really helped!
Thanks, Ruth. I’m still looking forward to your report that you are going to be doing here in the spring!
Actually, Super T, Ruth’s first Ruth Harris Report will be in just a little over a week…January 7th, I think!
WooHooo!!!
I too did an experiment over Christmas, though Amazon had what they called a glitch, my three day free experiment turned into a one day one. My Phantom Lives saw huge down loads and my sales over the holiday were amazing. Since I am releasing book two in the Phantom Lives series I want to hook readers on the first one. I also put a novelette in the select program that includes chapters of the first books of each series to attract new readers and it seems to be working. Things change daily, weekly and monthly don’t they? I am really looking forward to this year. Happy New Year everyone!
Oh, Elizabeth! That sorta stinks, but I hope it didn’t eat up your promo days!
Good luck with the experiment and let me know how it goes!
This is interesting. I am now thinking of putting on the Select programme a short story (need to do cover for) I have written which is a magical romance, and could be part of a series. We shall see.
The results did surprise me, Julie. But mainly the sales and lends the day after the promo. Good luck!
Great news, Super T!
So it sounds like Select may not be about the “Pool Money” from the Lends, but rather the extra visibility from the FREE offerings you get, which boosts your backlist sales.
I wonder, like you’re reporting, if it’s going to be increasingly difficult to “Go Free” on Amazon unless you’re part of Select?
Tonya, Thanks for sharing. That was very interesting. I just took the plunge this morning and put my The Adventures of a Love Investigator, 527 Naked Men & One Woman into Select. Although it’s not a part of my Fractured Fairy Tale series, I’m hoping people who get my sense of humor will jump on my criminally funny fables. It has 3 free days in January.
Fingers crossed as I leap from the plane. Oops… can’t pull the cord with my fingers crossed!
(Always tandum jump. that way you can keep your fingers crossed as your partner pulls the cord. *giggles*)
:} Cathryn
Keep me informed on how it’s going for you, Barbara. I’m interested to see how it’s doing for different genres. My genre is women’s fiction.
I am the oddbird
(I usually am around here, lol).
I raised my price to $4.99 then came down to $3.99. I did ZERO marketing for December. I wanted to just see. Overall, and I am that small potatoes, just published author, I have sold 7 books at the higher price, for total royalties on Amazon and B&N of $20.90 (I also sold 2 print books raising my price there, but that’s separate). I would have had to sell 63 books at $.99 to make that same amount of money.
CANCELLED is still working on earning out. I love my readers, but at the same time, I need capital to get my next book out there. I did try the $.99 price point with promoting, and I didn’t sell any more copies than I did at $2.99. I had one author ASSURE me that at first, only my friends and family bought my book, which made me chuckle. My family hasn’t read my book, yet. Not even my own mother, and I gave her a free copy! But they still support me, and are super proud of what I’m doing.
But like Tonya, I had to make a strategy for me. I have a 15 stop virtual ebook signing tour next month (3 DAYS and counting)! I’m giving away a free signed ebook version to every single comment leaver. I’m hoping with my book being $3.99, there will be more incentive for readers to WANT a free copy (and hopefully one they will read) than if it was $.99.
But the bottom line is at $3.99, if I can sell 15 books per month, CANCELLED will earn out before the sequel comes out next September. And that’s being smart with my business.
Good luck, Elizabeth!
As I’m reading through all your superfab comments, the ongoing theme is that it’s the “Ridin’ The Free-Way” angle of Select that’s workin’.
And it may very well be that now the only way you can do that – get your books Free for a bit on Amazon – is by enrolling in Select for 90 days at a time.
This is another wonderful example of why The WG2E is working for all of us sooo well…we can only learn all this stuff by goin’ for the gusto and trying different things then sharing our results!!!
Tonya, when you said “Amazon refused to make your book Free” using the price-matching approach, did they actually tell you that they weren’t going to or is it just taking longer for them to do it because of all the Free Select books? Or…did you get their standard reply that it’s up to them which books they match and which they don’t?
***This really matters…because if the only way to use the Free strategy now on Amazon is via Select, that’s a huge change we all must adapt to.***
No, it’s not the free. I was doing great with lending before I took advantage of the free promo five days. I had 13 lends during the free period of Superstitious Christmas, today I have over 100.
I think that KDP is offering the free because they don’t do free. And it is like hanging a dog bone in front of a dog. . .It’s nice to have.
Yes, they emailed me saying that were not going to match it. I even had a group of fifty authors email them about the price match and they still refused. Good for me, though. Because it takes Sony a MILLION years to put it back to a price.
That’s waaay interesting…this is the first time I’ve heard them actually say “no, they won’t price match”…maybe KDP Select is the only way to go Free on Amazon now.
That said, I wonder how long they’ll leave my Bootscootin’ Blahniks Free (it’s been Free since September), and I did not enroll it in Select…
Oh wow! I thought they were giving their standard messaging of “It’s up to us on which books to price match…” But the fact that they refused to price match changes the game. When my next book comes out, I’ll have to enroll in select then if I want to have it up for free. Good food for thought.
As always I’ve learned a ton from a simple blog post. My book Reluctant Protector is only a bestseller on Amazon because of the advice I got here.
Thank you so much!
This might not be standard for them, but they wouldn’t price match. That said, it turned out to be a good thing! Amazon will always listen to their customers. I’m sure free books will always be available through them.
BUT this post isn’t about that, it’s about finding out what works for you in the promo arena. Free isn’t for me long term, only for the short term to find new readers who will think twice before buying a 2.99 book.
Tonya, I love to hear about your marketing experiments (as well as D.D. and all the other contributors here). It really helps the rest of us to make decisions about our own marketing plans. I have SHE HAD NO CHOICE at .99, but I will be raising it to 2.99 after the first of the year when my next book comes out.
I’ve been on the fence, like others, about going with KDP Select, but it sounds like it’s doing well for you. This post is helping me to make a decision. Thanks, Tonya.
I’m not saying it’s for every author, but I had to try it. I believe in doing it all and if you don’t…..you will never know! Plus it’s not going to end my life or anything;)
Congratulations on your superfab results, Tonya! You sooo deserve it! Thanks for sharing.
I do have a question that still confuses me — if an author puts one book into KDP Select, does that mean NONE of her other books can be sold on Smashwords, Nook, etc? Or is it just the one book that cannot be sold elsewhere?
I don’t have any dog in this fight, but it is my understanding that only the book that is enrolled in the program can’t be offered anywhere else in digital form. I hope that’s right.
Right you are, Joseph!
Yes indeed, Alicia…any book that is in KDP Select cannot be sold in digital format elsewhere, including on your own website.
But just the books that are enrolled in Select. So for example, only Tonya’s Grandberry Falls books are in Select, so you can still get her other books on other sites.
Thanks, D.D. and Joseph!
Wow, doing well! Can’t wait ’till I start getting numbers like that :0)
Perhaps a drop in price to 99p for a couple of weeks would help (I’m currently at $2.99).
May I ask, how did you promote the ‘free’ books on the days they went on offer? I presume you didn’t just let them go free without telling anyone…
I’d be struggling to think how I could get the message out further than the circle of people who’ve already bought a copy!
Fascinating post – I love it when the really juicy bits – the numbers – get shared.
Exciting!
Tony
Right!Tony. My Grandberry Falls series is only available on Amazon. My other novels, Carpe Bead ‘em and Splitsville.com is available everywhere b/c they aren’t in the select program.
I believe that free will be only allowed in Amazon Prime. It seems to be moving in that direction.
I don’t agree with that. I think Amazon will listen to their customers. The retail industry is already mad at Amazon because customers take their nifty smart phones in a store, scan the price, and Amazon matches it or lowers their price. The customer orders it right there through Amazon and then leaves the store. Simple.
Amazing results, Tonya. thanks for sharing those. It’s because of you, D.D. and others sharing their results it allows us indies to plan our pricing and strategize with more knowledge.
Knowledge is power, Alison. And paying it forward helps my soul!