I recently did a KDP Select Free Book Promotion for my novel THREADS. Readers downloaded nearly 900 Kindle copies! What an exciting five days. At one point THREADS reached #1 in free books for time travel. I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome of this promotion.
I’ve read much on the debate to give away or to not give away. The typical argument seems to focus on “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.” I don’t agree. Am I afraid I gave away all my work? Not in the least. If I thought that, I’d be suggesting that the audience for THREADS is just over 900 readers. No way. Being my first novel, I wanted a way to introduce my writing to readers. And I think I made a good start with the KDP Select Promotion.
Prior to becoming an online bookseller and starting my own publishing company, I worked many years for an educational publishing. We followed the traditional model of publishing. And we gave away a LOT of books. Granted, in the educational publishing world, you give away copies to educators in the hopes that they decide your book provides the framework and information needed for introducing a particular set of concepts, resulting in lots of sales per educator when they adopt the book for their classroom. In the world of self-publishing and promoting a novel, things are slightly different, but generally speaking the goal is still to find an audience for your book. Although novel readers don’t adopt a book for their classroom, they do rate and recommend the books they read. I’ve written a novel that I hope resonates and captivates a large and diverse audience because I’ve written the novel that resonated with me and captivated me to the point that I could think of nothing else. I am confident that THREADS has a great reading experience to offer.
It’s been a month since the big giveaway. Sales are elevated and coming in at a steady pace. There haven’t been any additional reviews, but those too will come with time. Success comes, in my humble opinion, with patience and persistence. Now I will persist and get back to patiently writing my next novel….
Belleyre Books 