# Free Kindle novels - worth it to the author?



## WriterJohnB (Feb 11, 2012)

For any of you familiar with Amazon Kindle, they've got a new program, KDP Select, which requires you to allow them exclusive rights to your digital novel, in exchange for promotion advantages. I've signed up with two of my novels to see how it works and have set up a 3-day promotion with free kindle copies available, this Sat., Sun., and Mon. I'll come back after the promo to tell you how it all works out. If you're interested, here's the deal.

NECESSARY EVIL, a historical coming-of-age story set in World War 2. Tadtaotao, an orphaned native boy lives on the tiny, Japanese-held island of Tinian. When Americans invade, Tad doesn't take sides, indeed he doesn't trust either. His island home is devastated and then rebuilt as the largest airport in history. When a secretive new squadron arrives on the island, Tad notices a few things that put him onto the biggest secret of WW2.

THE PRISONERS OF GENDER, a spicy bawdy novel that has fun with the romance genre. A spell gone awry causes the princess and her captain to switch bodies. The captain is charged with defending her virginity but the princess, in her hormone-surging new body, wants to try out her new "equipment."

They went on promo at midnight and there've already been a couple of hundred downloads. What I'm trying to learn is: if I get a lot of "sales" during this promotion and my Amazon ranking goes up, will it cause increased sales? Will enough people enjoy the books and generate "word-of-mouth" sales. Here's the covers:


----------



## KarlR (Feb 11, 2012)

A difficult marketing choice to make, John.  You're a brave man.  
For the most part, consumers will value an object at exactly what they paid for it (sword edge #1).  If however, nobody ever knows your name, how can you reasonably expect to ever sell a book (sword edge #2)?  
Best of luck with your experiment, and please do let us know how it turns out.


----------



## Ditch (Feb 11, 2012)

Please let us know how this works. It was recommended in a book that I read about marketing your work.


----------



## Olly Buckle (Feb 11, 2012)

I have reservations about Kindle, that you can only download onto it from Amazon for a start, it is creating a monopoly. On the other hand you can't share your files, so the punters are not going to rip off the authors, you can't lend someone a book without lending your whole library. Having looked at both I think I would rather read on an i-pad unless I did a lot of travelling. Although the weight is a bit more they are so cool and do so much more too. The exclusive aspect seems like more of what I am starting to expect from Amazon, cut throat commercialism, these thing cut both ways as Karl points out.


----------



## ppsage (Feb 11, 2012)

Olly Buckle said:


> I have reservations about Kindle, that you can only download onto it from Amazon for a start, it is creating a monopoly. On the other hand you can't share your files, so the punters are not going to rip off the authors, you can't lend someone a book without lending your whole library. Having looked at both I think I would rather read on an i-pad unless I did a lot of travelling. Although the weight is a bit more they are so cool and do so much more too. The exclusive aspect seems like more of what I am starting to expect from Amazon, cut throat commercialism, these thing cut both ways as Karl points out.



On the amazon page where you download the kindle file is a link to free reader apps for just about every platform, ipad included. It would really surprise me if the era of exclusive reader platforms lasts more than a couple minutes, it hasn't for any other medium. I sort of see the distribution of electronic book files going the way of music files, with the general run of creators franchising to something like a literary rhapsody for modest, steady income and the superstar generators gradually losing market share.


----------



## Rustgold (Feb 11, 2012)

Simple question.  Why do you have a 15th century style cover picture for a WW2 era book?

Well, I guess if it does well in spite of this obvious flaw, then there may be something to it.


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 12, 2012)

Rustgold said:


> Simple question. Why do you have a 15th century style cover picture for a WW2 era book?
> 
> Well, I guess if it does well in spite of this obvious flaw, then there may be something to it.



Um, they had B-29 Bombers in the 15th century? The bawdy romance is set in a fictional past, in a day of knights, princesses and warriors. It was originally published by Eternal Press, but I have the rights to it now. I'm not an artist and I can't afford an artist, so I get my covers from public domain, as the bomber, or by purchasing rights of existing photos, as I did for the romance.

As of this morning, 32 hours into the program, there have been 589 downloads of Prisoners and 136 downloads of Necessary Evil.

Since I figure I'm never going to get rich from writing, anyway (I'm much more realistic, I'm planning to win the lottery), it's sort of nice to know so many people are reading my novels. Let's face it, 10 years ago I didn't know if ANYONE would ever be reading my stuff.

JohnB


----------



## Rustgold (Feb 12, 2012)

Sorry, didn't realise it was two separate books,  my bad


----------



## Ditch (Feb 12, 2012)

That's the idea John, to get your name out there. If they like your work, they will buy more. I want to offer my first novel free so perhaps people will want to read the next three. I also have two more in the works so if people start following the series, they will buy the next ones. I called amazon and was told I couldn't offer it for free unless I did something in particular, just have been too busy to get around to it. John Locke offered his first book for 99 cents and sold something like $126,000.00 in a month and is now a millionaire.


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 12, 2012)

Rustgold said:


> Sorry, didn't realise it was two separate books, my bad



That's okay, I don't have a sanity certificate either. Maybe I should write a book like Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - B-29 Drops Atomic Bomb on Camelot. You might just have given me a bestseller.

Take care,

JohnB


----------



## Baron (Feb 12, 2012)

I've looked at KDP Select and decided against it.  I'm not happy about giving sole rights to my work, in any format, to Amazon.  I also prefer to know that, as well as Amazon, my books are  available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble and most other major online retailers.  Even if my work wasn't selling I'd think twice about something like this because of the limitation placed by KDP's terms.  The only way I might consider such an action is to follow Mark Preston's example and give work away from my own website, thereby keeping all publishing options open.  As it stands, I've been able to generate sufficient interest, without a great deal of promotion.

All that said, I'm interested to see what results you get from this.  In particular I'd be interested to see how it impacts your future sales.


----------



## Daesu (Feb 12, 2012)

Baron said:


> I've looked at KDP Select and decided against it.  I'm not happy about giving sole rights to my work, in any format, to Amazon.  I also prefer to know that, as well as Amazon, my books are  available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble and most other major online retailers.  Even if my work wasn't selling I'd think twice about something like this because of the limitation placed by KDP's terms.  The only way I might consider such an action is to follow Mark Preston's example and give work away from my own website, thereby keeping all publishing options open.  As it stands, I've been able to generate sufficient interest, without a great deal of promotion.
> 
> All that said, I'm interested to see what results you get from this.  In particular I'd be interested to see how it impacts your future sales.


It does seem like if you can promote your book, then selling it from your own website would be the best idea. this is actually what i had in mind. But a question about the amazon thing, so once your three day promotion is up you can set the price at something besides free? Also, once you give amazon your rights, that means you can NEVER post it on any ebook website, or is it for a certain period of time?


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 13, 2012)

Daesu said:


> It does seem like if you can promote your book, then selling it from your own website would be the best idea. this is actually what i had in mind. But a question about the amazon thing, so once your three day promotion is up you can set the price at something besides free? Also, once you give amazon your rights, that means you can NEVER post it on any ebook website, or is it for a certain period of time?



Okay, but how do you draw enough visitors to your website to give away a sufficient quantity to start a buzz? I don't get much traffic because no one has ever heard of me. But, now that they've heard about me, I'm getting many more hits on my site. The deal on KDP select is that they have exclusive e-rights for 90 days. You can set your price (minimum 99 cents, which is where I set my prices, with 35% royalty) and you can put it up free for any 5 of those days, if you so choose. I tried the other option with other books, 70% royalty, minimum price 2.99 and have had few sales. So now I've got all my books at .99, except one at 1.49.

I read about a young lady who went this promotional route and sold 400,000 copies. She also sent her book to major reviewers, which I've done but no reviews done yet. It's my feeling that I'd rather have 35% of $400K than 70% of nearly nothing. So far, after 2 days, about 1,000 books have been downloaded. I got an email this morning from a reader (my address is in the books) saying he'd recommended the book to a friend, so that made me feel good.

Take care,

JohnB


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 14, 2012)

Total downloads:

The Prisoners of Gender - 850
Necessary Evil - 218

Now I sit back and wait to see if it affects sales. I'll let you know when I've got more data.

JohnB


----------



## Ditch (Feb 14, 2012)

Please let us know.


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 28, 2012)

First results are in. In the week before the give-away, no copies of Necessary Evil were bought, 2 copies of Prisoners of Gender. In the week following, 2 copies of Necessary Evil and 16 copies of Prisoners of Gender were sold. Still too early to make definite conclusions, but encouraging. And there's also the satisfaction that over a thousand people have now "heard" of me.

John


----------



## Ditch (Feb 28, 2012)

Please keep us updated, I was looking for this.


----------



## KevinB (Mar 6, 2012)

If I may add to the thread with my experience at this. I had two novels that sold 1 or 2 copies a month. I did the "free" promotion for 5 days, and had more than 20,000 copies download for free. Since the free promo has ended, both books have sold more than 200 copies each during the first 6 days this month. I don't know if this will last, but in my case, it has worked for now.


----------



## qwertyman (Mar 7, 2012)

Thanks for sharing this with us. How long ago did you write the books in question? 

I ak this because having finished a novel after many months of toil and angst I couldn't counternace giving it away - However, I note the further I get from completion, the more 'detatched' I get and, all I really want is for people to read it.


----------



## KevinB (Mar 7, 2012)

qwertyman said:


> Thanks for sharing this with us. How long ago did you write the books in question?



2001 and 2003, they aren't new novels.


----------



## WriterJohnB (Mar 12, 2012)

3 weeks later, it doesn't seem to have done much good. I've only sold a couple of Necessary Evil and a couple dozen of the other at .99. A lot of threads are warning that pricing books that low carries a stigma, so I've put them back at 2.99 and will do my promoting on review sites, blogs, etc. I just got a great review of one of my other books, I'll see if I can post that here without breaking any advertising rules.

John


----------



## WriterJohnB (Mar 12, 2012)

qwertyman said:


> Thanks for sharing this with us. How long ago did you write the books in question?
> 
> I ak this because having finished a novel after many months of toil and angst I couldn't counternace giving it away - However, I note the further I get from completion, the more 'detatched' I get and, all I really want is for people to read it.



I wrote The Prisoners of Gender 4 years ago, maybe, and it was published by Eternal Press without making a ripple. It's doing better now that I'm controlling it myself. Necessary Evil was just finished, so it has no track record.

I met Robert J. Sawyer, the top Canadian SF novelist in 2006 at a convention where I was promoting my first book, Friends in Dark Places. He told how he was getting nowhere as an author until he took a couple of dozen books (all he could afford) to a sci-fi convention and threw them into the crowd. Somebody thought it was good enough to pass on to Orson Scott Card, who gave it a stellar review on his website. Sawyer's career took off and he's now won multiple awards, Hugo, Nebula, etc. But you don't get considered for awards until your book makes enough of a stir to get noticed and that wouldn't have happened without the free novels.

JohnB


----------



## Baron (Mar 12, 2012)

WriterJohnB said:


> 3 weeks later, it doesn't seem to have done much good. I've only sold a couple of Necessary Evil and a couple dozen of the other at .99. A lot of threads are warning that pricing books that low carries a stigma, so I've put them back at 2.99 and will do my promoting on review sites, blogs, etc. I just got a great review of one of my other books, I'll see if I can post that here without breaking any advertising rules.
> 
> John



The rules against advertising are primarily to stop those who just "flypost" on the forums.  Regular and active members are a different story.  I've promoted the review to an article in the review section of the home page and am happy to include any more you get.


----------



## LaughinJim (Mar 13, 2012)

Almost old classics are available online for free in many different languages, Moby Dick is available online for free from Amazon, but Project Gutenberg has just about everything. It's a pretty simple process to do the download. Just Google it Don't type or paste the web address into your computer. I did that and found that some nefarious character had inserted a virus into my computer. That didn't allow me access to that site through the direct web address but rather sent me to a similacrum that charged for these same books. But I could always get through with Google. I eventually got it cleared by a friend and was told that there were footprints...


----------



## Rustgold (Apr 6, 2012)

So any further progress reports or final analysis on how it all went?


----------



## BookReader (Apr 8, 2012)

KevinB said:


> If I may add to the thread with my experience at this. I had two novels that sold 1 or 2 copies a month. I did the "free" promotion for 5 days, and had more than 20,000 copies download for free. Since the free promo has ended, *both books have sold more than 200 copies each during the first 6 days this month.* I don't know if this will last, but in my case, it has worked for now.



that's great.

did you price it at $2.99?

if so, that's $2.04 royalties per book sold.  It won't get you rich but at least it's something (400 books sold x $2.04 = ~$800)


----------



## WriterJohnB (Apr 25, 2012)

Rustgold said:


> So any further progress reports or final analysis on how it all went?



It didn't do anything for sales, that I can tell. I think I'm a decent writer, but I must suck at promotion.


----------



## Baron (May 3, 2012)

I think you should take another look at your cover designs and think about some modification.  Presentation is all important and it might be worth spending some money to get a pro to look at it.  I can testify that the writing deserves to sell.  

Another issue with promotion is how you do it.  It seems that most self published writers think that spreading the news wherever they can push the book for free will generate sales.  The traditional houses spend a lot of money on advertising and self  published writers may not have the same financial resources but they still need to think about where they can get a decent return on what outlay they can afford.  Facebook ads is a good choice.  Google Adwords can work out expensive. Project Wonderful is another choice but you need to beware of targeting writers, it's readers you want.  My own experience is that most of the sales where I can track the promotion source have been made through the viral effect of Facebook.


----------



## Caragula (Nov 9, 2012)

Robert Sawyer is probably a great author.  While the Card connection helped a lot, you ve still got to be great and from the research I've done it's hard to know what works because you don't know if it's not taking off because you,re not good enough or just unlucky.  I won't be going free with mine when it's done.  Free works in other markets but research suggests otherwise where I've read about it in relation to self publishing.

Btw, of the hundreds who have bought it, have you been able to connect with them, find out what they thought?  I wonder if those who download for free are the kind of readers you could build a relationship with.


----------



## benluby (Dec 8, 2012)

WriterJohnB said:


> Okay, but how do you draw enough visitors to your website to give away a sufficient quantity to start a buzz? I don't get much traffic because no one has ever heard of me. But, now that they've heard about me, I'm getting many more hits on my site. The deal on KDP select is that they have exclusive e-rights for 90 days. You can set your price (minimum 99 cents, which is where I set my prices, with 35% royalty) and you can put it up free for any 5 of those days, if you so choose. I tried the other option with other books, 70% royalty, minimum price 2.99 and have had few sales. So now I've got all my books at .99, except one at 1.49.
> 
> I read about a young lady who went this promotional route and sold 400,000 copies. She also sent her book to major reviewers, which I've done but no reviews done yet. It's my feeling that I'd rather have 35% of $400K than 70% of nearly nothing. So far, after 2 days, about 1,000 books have been downloaded. I got an email this morning from a reader (my address is in the books) saying he'd recommended the book to a friend, so that made me feel good.
> 
> ...



John, I am a new member here, working to get my first story done, but I would like to offer my opinion, if you don't mind.  Please don't take offense.  Your covers, really, don't pop to me.  Using Amazon to browse book covers, truthfully, with how many of them there are, we kind of scroll through them pretty rapidly until a cover catches our eye, and we stop to give it a longer glance.
   When I look at a cover, I want it, at a glance, to convey to me WHAT is the story about?  Your covers, while accurate when referring to the timeline, really don't tell me a lot about WHAT the story is.  Truth be told, until I read your definition, it didn't click, as it looked almost like a 'Joan of Arc' type storyline, where she wanted to be a warrior, but the  look she's giving him is pretty indicative of wanting a different type of sheathing.
   If you made your own cover, and can't afford a professional one, I'd take my digital camera, go to a RennFest, find me a nice looking young lady and a young man dressed as a knight, pay them fifty bucks each, and arrange the pose so that, at a glance, one can tell what, exactly, the story  is about.
   Necessary Evil, I'd probably go with a black and white photo of Little Boy or Fat Man, or possibly even of one of the planes with it loaded, maybe even of the  blast itself, so that, at a glance, it really screams to the person viewing exactly WHAT it is.
   Please note none of this is on the quality of the writing.  I haven't read the books at this time.  It is, however, based on marketing experience, and the three second rule.  That's how long you typically have in a book store to grab a readers eye and get them to actually pick up your book instead of the fifty thousand others.
   Don't take offense.  Simply offering constructive criticism.


----------



## Brotherlobo (Jan 29, 2013)

Baron said:


> I think you should take another look at your cover designs and think about some modification.  Presentation is all important and it might be worth spending some money to get a pro to look at it.



Okay, time for my 2 cents. I agree with the above statement about your covers. They wouldn't catch my eye to make me even stop and look at your the description/blurb about the novel. Sorry if that sounds rude but it is only the truth or at least my opinion. However, the wonderful thing about being self-published is the ability to 'tweak' your work on the go. Amazon will let you upload changes, including cover changes to your work.

I have been a self-published author since June of 2011 - solely with Amazon for my eBooks and Createspace for my print format. I now have four titles available, again only with Amazon. Why? As a reader, I don't ever think about Smashwords or B&N or Lulu or any number of other markets when I am looking for a book. Amazon is the largest bookseller in the world for a reason. Now, I realize that I'm limiting my stuff to one segment but I chose the largest segment. BTW -- yes, you can lend books with a kindle. But the author has to choose that option to be availble when publishing. 

My 1st SciFi novel has been my best seller since it was published in March 2012. It typically sells 100-150 copies a month. It actually spiked to 500 (okay, 497 to be technical) in July. I have it (and all my novels) priced at $2.99 to get the most bang for my novels. It has also gone thru 3 different cover designs to in that time. As I made some money, I invested in a professional artist and that has helped sales. 

But back to the original question on this thread -- giving away FREE downloads...does it help? Yes! But only if the covers catche the eye of the reader. There is a formula out there that Amazon uses -- the more downloads, free or otherwise, the more often you will get your novel in the suggested works column. I have even recieved an e-mail from Amazon with suggestions of titles I might like...and both of my sci fi novels were included. You can guess that seeing that made me feel wonderful. I typically do a free download day every six weeks or so, whenever I feel my sales have dropped. I hate giving away my novels in some aspects but I have found that in the long run...its worth it.


----------



## Brotherlobo (Jan 29, 2013)

Actually, to help prove my own theory (and to boost my sales) I have just scheduled all four of my novels for FREE downloads on Groundhog Day. 

Typically, Friday is better for a free giveaway but I tend to try and schedule my FREE giveaways around holidays or something special. Since Groundhog day is the 2nd, it should help my numbers for the rest of the month. I realize that February is shorter than Jan but I'm betting my sales for the month will be greater (or at least that's the plan). 

I will keep everyone posted on my numbers for this month (Jan) and how the Free promotion goes.


----------



## Akoya (Jan 29, 2013)

My 2c, I almost always buy the free book of a new author first on the Kindle if I can.  For a few different reasons.  

First and foremost, They let anybody, _anybody_, publish.  This is a really cool thing but those, now authors, don't always have the greatest spelling, punctuation, ect.  My pet peeves.  

Reason 2: they are new to me.  They deserve the chance to be read and if they are willing to sell Free they are humble enough to understand they need their name to spread first.  Amazon is a crap-shoot, there are no guarantees but I have noticed that most of the authors who are willing to give me their first for Free and let me decide if they are worth buying, I usually do end up buying.  This is how I fell in love with "Hero, second class", "The Book of Deacon" series, and a few others.  I even ended up buying them in hard copy, so I don't have to rely on technology for a good read.

My reasons may be silly but I'm the type of reader that only reads authors recommended to me.  When I go to publish, it will start with a free giveaway.


----------



## WriterJohnB (Feb 7, 2013)

BenLuby and Brotherbobo,

I know my covers aren't that good. I've been in a financial bind recently and couldn't afford to get them professionally done. I used the createcover feature of createspace, so my basic designs were limited. I'm coming out of the cash problem, though, and can probably do better in the future.

Basically, I queried the hell out of my first four novels (beginning in 2002) and the only responses I got were "Your writing is good, but this isn't the type of work I want to represent." One of the top agents in the country LAVISHED praise on my writing, but still didn't want to represent me. I finally got an agent (who was brand new) and ended up firing  her because she never updated me at all. So I subbed the genre novels to small-time publishers and every one was snapped up immediately. They had the covers designed, assigned editors (who could find only typos and such), and published them. Hardly any sales at all. When I got the rights back, I put my own covers on them and put them on Amazon.

I kept querying my historical slavery novel and got absolutely no interest. I even submitted it to small publishing houses that specialize in history, but they weren't interested, either. So I put it on Amazon.

When I finished the latest, Necessary Evil, I had pretty much given up and published it on Amazon. Mostly because it was written as a tribute to my father and my father-in-law and I wanted to give them a copy before it was too late, since they were elderly. Sadly, they both passed away just as the book came out.

Since the book is set in the Mariana Islands, I contacted a Micronesian historian who advised me about any mistakes I made about native culture (I was stationed there in the '60s, so had a basic knowledge) got a good review in the local newspaper and sent hard copies to most of the libraries on the island. To my knowledge, I've not had a single sale from there.

The main thing I was hoping for with the giveaway was to get reviews from the people who downloaded it. None.
I've about decided most people aren't interested in my subjects and I'm going to have to be content with writing as a hobby. I'm not about to start writing werewolf/vampire romances. I'm freelance editing now, and have made a lot more money at that.


----------



## stevetaylor67 (Apr 9, 2013)

I've just had a five day free promotion on my kindle book and 470 people took the offer up. As far as I'm concerned that's 470 more readers (well hopefully they'll read it!) than I would have had otherwise!!


----------

