Writing and Publishing: Using KDP Select’s Free Book Promotion

On April 17th I changed the status of my Nook digital book in order to be able to enroll in KDP Select. My book hadn’t moved at all on the Nook, after all. It hadn’t really moved on the Kindle either, after all my friends and relatives – or the ones who wanted – bought my book online, I had only had one sale (a nice man and author who replied to my post on the KPD forum.

Apart from that, my book was dead.

I confess my plan is not (nor has it ever been) to live off my books. It’s a nice dream, that’s for sure, but realistically, all I wanted was for people to read it and hopefully like it.

The fact that my fanbase is non-existent was not going to stop me from publishing more books. The fact that I get bad reviews, though discouraging, is not going to stop me from publishing more books. I love writing and I love my stories and there may be people out there that enjoy them just like I do.

My best friend, who obviously loves me, wanted me to keep my book available for sale for $2.99 until July (a total of 6 months), and then reduce the price to 99 cents, and then… free. I usually follow my best friend’s advice because I know she wants what’s best for me, but I came to realize that no one will spend $2.99 on an unknown author. I don’t even have an author page yet! (I should get on that).

This is how, from April 26th to April 30th, my book was free on Kindle Select. Only five days… that’s as much as they give you. My book now is 99 cents, but having it for free brought more people to click the download button. I’m sure than from those people only 10% will actually read the book, eventually, and I can only hope one of those readers will leave a review. What I wouldn’t give for a review, even if it’s a bad one – and I hope it’s not.

I believe the free book must be on top of the list when it first become available for free. I can tell by the number of readers who downloaded it the first day versus the rest of the days.

Sure, it still isn’t a lot of people, but once I start the next enrollment period in July, my book will become free once again for five days. At some point, someone will have to read it. Right?