OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
If you want to sell books, you need to find readers. Although there are a lot of ebook vendors out there, Amazon is currently the dominant player and there are a lot of readers who own Amazon Kindles/Fires and who shop on the Amazon store. I am one of them.
There are a few things you can do to market direct to these people, and you don't need an existing platform to do it. You don't need a blog or a twitter presence and you can still get thousands of sales or downloads of your book.
Direct Advertising
I believe you need a budget for your business as an independent author.
You need to use some of this budget for professional editing and cover design, and some of it can be used for promotional activity. There are a number of sites that specialize in promoting books to avid Kindle readers. These sites have lists with tens of thousands of readers on them so they can be a powerful way to boost sales and get your book moving on the Amazon charts.
In 2010, I used Kindle Nation Daily to promote Pentecost and it shot me up the charts. Pentecost reached #1 on Movers & Shakers, #4 in Religious Fiction and #93 in Thrillers. This year I decided to use PixelofInk.com as KND had increased in price and also had little availability for the time period I wanted.
Direct Advertising Results
The promo is a 1 day event with lots of other books also promoted that day. I paid US$250 for the promo of Pentecost, again counting on the first in the series dragging Prophecy up with it.
Copies of Pentecost sold: 800 @35c = US$280
Copies of Prophecy sold: 57 @$2 = US$114
Total income: US$394.
Given the cost was US$250, financially, this was worth the promotion.
But the impact on the Rankings was also fantastic. Pentecost reached #5 in the Action Adventure charts and Prophecy reached #88, so both books were ranking together, and Prophecy debuted in the charts above Lee Child. Awesome! Pentecost also reached #82 in the entire Amazon.com Kindle store. We still don't know how the Amazon algorithm works but rankings, sales and reviews definitely play a part.
Will I do it again? Absolutely. (But remember, every book is different so don't assume that what works for me will also work for your book. It's all experimentation!)
My tips for getting the most out of the experience:
- Have a great cover and back blurb
- Have 10+ reviews of 4 stars or more on the sales page already – this social proof will help people to buy
- Use great pricing. 99c will get you into the bargain area which will elicit more sales, although clearly higher pricing will result in more revenue for less sales.
- You can find out more in the Author's Corner on PixelofInk
KDP Select
If you're not aware yet, KDP Select is an Amazon Kindle opportunity that allows you to put your book into the Amazon Prime lending program and receive a percentage of lending income from a fixed monthly pot. It also allows authors 5 days in a 3 month period where they can price the book for free. Previously, the only way to do this was to ‘game' Amazon by setting the price to zero on Smashwords and waiting for their algorithm to pick it up. But now there is control over the period of time so you can coordinate your promotional period.
Free is basically a marketing activity. The aim is to get eyeballs on your book and to pick up data from the Amazon algorithm that may help your book when it goes back to paid. Most authors have experimented with some form of free but it works best when you have multiple books. Here's NY Times bestselling author CJ Lyons on how free worked for her, and this was before KDP Select.
In order to be in the program, you have to put your book exclusively with Amazon for that 3 month period. You can then choose to renew or opt out again.
There have been some prominent indies in both the For and Against camps for KDP Select but I wanted to try it for myself in order to give a more informed opinion. Obviously the results will be different for every book so this is hardly the last word on the subject, but it is my experience.
How I used KDP Select
As part of the launch for Prophecy which is $2.99, I included Pentecost in KDP Select, hoping that people would get the first in the series for free and then buy the 2nd since the price is also pretty good for that. Given that Pentecost had already sold over 17,000 copies prior to this promotion, I figured I would get new readers.
I initially set the promo for 3 days but increased it to 5 once I got to the top of the Action Adventure charts in order to maximize the impact and downloads. I shared the fact it was free on Twitter and Facebook but that was about it. I know there are a number of sites that promote books as being free and also people who watch the lists, so no extra promo was really needed.
I did have to remove Pentecost from Smashwords in order to do this which meant the book wasn't available on the other ebook stores.
Results from KDP Select
I started the promo on Sat 5 Feb and very quickly I was on the top free listing for Action Adventure. On Mon 6th Feb Pentecost reached #1 on Free for Action Adventure on Amazon.com and #2 in the UK. It stayed there until the promo finished.
Total downloads of Pentecost over the 5 days: 10,836
Total sales of Prophecy over the 5 days: 294
Was it worth it?
For me, I don't think so. The uptick in Prophecy sales was quite small and I think a lot of people who get free books just get a lot of free books. They don't necessarily need to buy books anymore as so many are free. How many of those 10,000 new readers will convert to fans of my fiction? It will certainly be a small percentage but perhaps the same number who would have bought the book over that period anyway, as I have quite consistent sales every month.
On the lending aspect, only 20 copies of my books have been lent in the last month. That's not significant data at all but it does show that lending doesn't work for all books as an income or promotional activity.
I also had to remove my books from the other platforms. I now have to republish them so I may have missed out on sales during that period as well. As much as I personally love Amazon as a reader and an author, I actually don't like being exclusive to their store. Even though I buy there exclusively, it doesn't mean other people do and I want to be available everywhere.
Will I do it again? Probably not, for fiction anyway. I might experiment with non-fiction. That doesn't mean it's not good for your book/s, but it's my own experience. I have a guest post coming soon from an author who totally loves KDP Select, so we all have different experiences.
Have you tried direct advertising or KDP Select? How has it worked for you?
Want more tips on how to sell more fiction?
I have now been selling my fiction for over a year and I've experimented with a lot of different strategies and tactics. I have also changed my mind on a lot of things and believe that selling fiction is quite different to selling non-fiction.
I share my findings in this recent webinar recording: How to promote your novel: 21 ways to sell more books online. It's just US$21 and has some rave reviews. Click here to read more about it.
Grant McDuling says
I’m interested to hear your experiences, Joanna. Mine mirror yours although my numbers are much smaller. I am running another 5 day promo at present to double check and await the results with interest.
Joanna Penn says
It’s always good to double check the numbers Grant. Of course, I’m married to a statistician and he would say that all of this is anecdotal! The numbers we discuss are not statistically significant. Amazon has this data but we just can’t get big enough samples.
Eva Hudson says
Hi Joanna – great post as usual – thanks for being so transparent with your numbers. I’m planning on doing a KDP Select experiment of my own in the future, though with only one novel for sale at the moment, I should probably wait. Did you experience any problems unpublishing via Smashwords? It’s simple enough to click the appropriate link in the dashboard, but 3 weeks later, I’m still waiting for the book to be removed from the Kobo/WHSmith’s catalogue. Feels like things are moving at trad publishing speed!
Good luck with your continuing experiments – I’ll be tuning in.
Joanna Penn says
Removing books is indeed a nightmare. It takes ages for things to disappear. I am struggling with my name change as well which still hasn’t come through on my Kindle book. So yes, trad pub speeds for the removal at least. So make sure it’s worth it for you! Take screen-prints of numbers and rankings and track the data.
Scott Marlowe says
Eva,
I had to contact Kobo and Diesel individually and ask them to remove my titles. This was after having unpub’ed from Smashwords over a month earlier. They were courtesy and timely to the requests.
I also “opted out” in the Channel Manager on Smashwords, just to be sure.
Scott
Eva Hudson says
Thanks Joanna and Scott
I’ve been in touch with Kobo and their support team are ‘looking into it’. Might have to give them another poke if nothing happens soon.
Stella Deleuze says
Thank you for sharing.
I’m about to write a blog post on it, too, because I had similar experiences. Total downloads in 3 days free promotion on kindle: about 4k (two books). Sales increased to 30 in the US, 281 in the UK. I had about 160 sales in the UK anyway for the shorts. Now they almost dried up again.
I would have expected to have the book continuously back in the top 20 humour charts like it was in the beginning, when I first published it.
The books which were in the top 20 when free will be replaced by the next free books and rapidly fall off their high position. That’s what happend to a few books I’ve watched. They’ll peak a few days after the promotion and then sink again. I will use my remaining days and will not continue with the programme.
Turndog Millionaire says
An interesting insight Joanna
I’m still not sold on the KDP Select programme. It certainly has it’s positives, and the exposure generated is great. But is it worth the exclusivity, and will it create longevity? I’m not convinced at all. I must say i’m surprised you didn’t see an uptake in sales of Prophecy though. Knowing how Pentecost ends, buying the next in the series is a must.
Maybe this will increase over time, as those stock piling the free book actually get around to reading it?
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Matt – I’m glad you enjoyed Pentecost! I think there will be a trickle over time but how can I differentiate it from sales that would have happened anyway? or sales I am missing out on by not being on other platforms?
I think the longevity issue is definitely something to think about. It keeps coming back to more books, over time = more sales 🙂 The rest is perhaps just a flicker along the way…
Iain Broome says
Fascinating stuff and hugely valuable for other writers looking to do the same thing.
10,000 downloads is a huge amount, even if they are just in the business of ‘buying’ free books for the sake of it. Apologies for the ignorance, but do you have any way of knowing how many of those people went on to read or even start your book?
Stella Deleuze says
I hope you don’t mind me answering, Iain.
You don’t know who is reading, starting, or deleting your book unless they leave a review or get in touch with you. I had someone one Twitter telling me she enjoyed No Wings Attached and her review on Goodreads said she’ll start reading Candlelight Sinner soon. (Had NWA free for one day on Smashworsds.)
I think, though, that those who downloaded the free version of Candlelight Sinner in the US are now buying the shorts. Still I only noticed an increase in sales of the short stories, not the novels. 6 sales in total compared to about 1500 downloads. But those novels were very slow from the start and I wrote them off already. I doubt they’ll suddenly take off.
Iain Broome says
Don’t mind at all! Thanks for the info.
Joanna Penn says
Hi Iain, no, we don’t know that. Kobo apparently has very good analytics to this level but Amazon doesn’t right now. However, it must be said that Amazon have daily sales & lending info as well as income reporting. The vast majority of traditional publishers don’t even have this and wouldn’t be able to do an article like this on the effect of a marketing campaign. So I am grateful for the transparency we have in terms of sales figures.
Iain Broome says
Sorry for the delay.
Yep, definitely many traditional publishers won’t have access to those kinds of analytics. I guess I was pondering on whether that might be the next step in the technology. A way for authors (traditional/indepenedent/whatevs) to know, when people download their book, if they went on to read it all, stopped at page 67 or never bothered starting.
We have that kind of information for websites, so why not ebooks? Would be very handy.
Damian Trasler says
Hi Joanna,
This seems to be the prevailing wisdom regarding KDP Select – a lot of downloads only tells you people like free books. They don’t go on to review or make further purchases. I think this is a shame, because I downloaded a free book and loved it, then made a further purchase, but that was from an author I already knew I enjoyed. I’d probably have bought the next book ANYWAY…
I think you’ve proved that making a book a success still relies on a: A good book(!) and b:Legwork by the author. The free book offer will have ’em flying off the shelves, but doesn’t put anything in your bank account.
Dave says
Great article Jo! Hopefully a lot of that group of 10,000 will become return customers.
Quick question- how many books were you selling and how much money were you bringing in per day prior to the Pixel of Ink promotion? You need to subtract that out in order to measure the increase Pixel of Ink brought you. Presumably, you’d have made your average number of sales that day regardless of the advertising.
Joanna Penn says
hmm, I didn’t think of that … but I sell around 200-300 per week, average 30-40 per day I guess. That still makes it just about financially worth it, but the rankings were very important to me, so breaking even or even costing a little is fine for a promo period.
Mark LaFlamme says
I love these lists of advertising opportunities. I used Kindle Nation Daily with a previous novel and had great results. Unfortunately, the wait for ad space there is now close to a year down the road. And Pixel of Ink isn’t accepting advertising requests at all. Pretty good indication of how many authors are going that route to spread the word about their books.
Joanna Penn says
Pixel of Ink have a newsletter for authors that you can sign up to be notified when they open new spots. As soon as I got the email, I paid for a spot. I booked 3 months in advance basically which isn’t too bad. But yes, you can see how many people are doing this now – which means there’s room for someone else in this market 🙂 OR/ they will put their prices up, which is what KND have done. I think I balked at $500 for a one-spot promotion.
Brittany Highland says
This post is a fantastic resource, Joanna. Thank you so much for honestly sharing your numbers and experiences.
Jeffrey N. Baker says
I have similar thoughts on KDP Select. I haven’t found it to be a as great of an advertisement boost as some others have said. Personally I feel as if you’re limiting your audience by being exclusive to Amazon. I can control much better free promotions through Smashwords–as well as reaching users of different eReaders. I’m even able to make some works free indefinitely if I choose.
I’m not sure why KDP Select limits you to 5 days over a 90 day period. Seems arbitrary.
Dan says
Not so sure about Select or free ebooks in general. I know I have downloaded a lot of free books, but I only have so much time to read. Will I get around to them? Maybe, but I tend to be a picky reader. But when the books are free, I am not a picky downloader! I think many people feel the same. I think the .99 price for a first book in a series works better to attract readers. Even at just .99, you made a conscious decision to spend money to buy it so chances are you will read it. I don’t buy a lot of books just because they are .99, but I do find I browse at that price point more often.
Sam says
Gotta agree with you, Dan. If the item is worth nothing to the one marketing it, it will be worth nothing to the one getting it. We have hard experience to back that observation.
Our 2nd Little Kicker Book will be available in late April. Does anybody have experience with Pixel of Pink’s marketing prowess for a Christian children’s picture book? Is there a market in the UK and Australia for an Ozark farm animal based picture book?
Thanks Joanna. The marketing opportunities are so different than 30, 40 or 50 years ago.
Belinda Pollard says
I’m particularly interested to see the impact the advertising had on your rankings. Thanks for showing us the figures, much appreciated.
Jane Rutherford says
I love posts like this, when I can see clearly what worked for other writers and what didn’t. I’m always a bit vary of paying for promotion, mostly because at the very beginning I promised myself that I would spend on my writing anything that I didn’t earn through writing (my full time job pays the bills, and my website and everything connected to my writing, I paid from money I earned through writing gigs). $250 is quite a lot at this point, but perhaps once I have more books selling, I’ll try out Pixelofink. It does look interesting and apparently the money you spent were worth it.
Jessica Marcarelli (@jmarcarelli) says
After much consideration, I’m marketing one novel to traditional publishers and will be taking the other through epublishing. Tips like yours are invaluable as I prepare and try to get all my ducks in a row, as it were. Thanks.
–Jessica
SF & Fantasy Writer at Visions of Other Worlds
Julie says
This is absolutely fascinating to me. Thanks for sharing. Although I haven’t written a book YET, I have ghost authored several traditional books and I get asked all the time how Kindle publishing works. Now I know.
I’m a huge fan of Kindle and take mine everywhere with me. I sometimes download the free books, but what I really like is the first chapter free, which is always offered. By the end of the first chapter I can tell whether or not I like an author. I would rather pay for a book that I will enjoy than have a bunch of free books I won’t ever read.
Toni @Duolit says
Great post, Joanna. It’s intriguing to me to read both the positive and negative experiences authors have had with the KDP Select program. While it was a semi-bust for you, one of our indie author friends, John Betcher, recently wrote about how it was a ridiculous success for him — increasing sales by 3600%. It certainly seems very hit or miss, which makes sense at this point for such a new program as everyone tries to navigate the ins and outs. I know we’ll be watching with great interest for more first-hand experiences like yours and John’s!