There are a lot of different opinions on the subject of free promotion of e-books and I thought I would share my experiences on this topic. The short answer is ‘yes’. Free promotions can work and generate sales and interest in your book. This can vary due to a lot of different factors, the most important being how well you manage to publicize your promotions. For a starting point, my promotions have been through the KDP Select program. All of my books are in the program and my experience is based on that. I have tried various approaches and found some surprising results. The most constant thing I have found is what I call the “1% Rule” this is the basic amount of return you can expect to get in sales from a promotion. If you give away 100 books, you will sell 1. If you give away 1000, you sell 10. The number of giveaways and performance of them will also depend on how well you publicize the promo. Using book site notifications can pay off. (Like book goodies.) as a way of getting people to know about your promotion. Twitter, surprisingly, is also a very effective way to push your promo. A simple #freebook hashtag along with a retweet request can generate quite a few downloads. Repeating it during peak downloading hours can also increase your numbers. So why do it? One good reason is to increase your visibility on Amazon and the search engines and increase the cross purchase reference for you book.(Customers who bought this also bought.) You want this to get as big as you can get it and free promotions can make them grow. It’s all about increasing your presence on those search engines so that your book comes up at the top. Once you run a promotion, expect 3-5 days before you see a purchase turnaround in sales. Also, there is a seasonal component to all of this. Summer is a very bad time for e-books in general, don’t expect great results between June and August. Fall and Spring are the best times for promotion results. People just don’t take their Kindles to the beach. Take advantage of every opportunity to get reviews, these really do pump up you promos.
About the Author:
Author, screenwriter and film maker, Paul Howard’s screen credits include the cult classic “Night Terror” (1990) and the soon to be released “Hunt For the Desert Apeman” in collaboration with M.L. Behrman. Noted author of numerous articles, essays and screenplays, he has recently published his first novel: “The Galley”(2012) and its’ short story extract: “The Unthinkable (The Great Fire of Rome)”(2012). His newest books are “The Beethoven Incident”(2013) and the first installment of “The Palindrome Chronicles”: the short story “We Were Here!(2013)”
After spending his early years in the Midwest, he migrated to Southern California where he received most of his education.
Your Social Media Links
https://twitter.com/PaulHowardAuth
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17616093-the-beethoven-incident
Very useful tips for authors, going for self-publishing and free promotion. The more presence on the web you are building and the more interactive you are on the social media, forums and blogs, the better results you will have.