Pastime With Books: Rachel Thompson – Top 3 Tips To Make Your KDP Select Free Days A Success

Top 3 Tips To Make Your KDP Select Free Days A Success On A Shoestring Budget!

by Rachel Thompson

If you decide to go the route of Amazon’s KDP Select (which I have), there are a few key points to not only make your free days successful, but to also know what happens when you go off free and port back over to paid.

I’m not part of any big PARTY group of free books. I usually do free days on my own or with a few other authors I know well. Copromotion is an awesome way to get the word out in a fairly passive way.

Let’s deconstruct.

COPROMOTION

What does copromotion really mean? If you’ve even been part of a sales team, you know. When I was a pharma rep, there were usually groups of two or three of us copromoting the same product. Seems kinda dumb and repetitive (especially to the office staff and physicians), but the company thinking was that the more someone hears the message, the more likely they are to write the product (or in our case as authors, buy our book).

At one point, my ginormous company decided that if three reps were good, eight must be better! Let’s all promote the same product to the same doctors ALL THE TIME!!

Yea, no. Having experienced first-hand the ups and downs of various brilliant marketing strategies like this (and being kicked out of a few offices), you may now have a bit of a better understanding why I advocate smaller, more focused promotions.

How does copromotion work for authors? Same basic concept: the more a potential reader hears your message, without you beating them over the head with it, the more likely they are to recognize you/your book and make a buy decision.

Ways to do this include:

Write on your Amazon copy (on the catalogue page where people buy), that so-and-so’s book is also available free. Give the titles and authors you’re promoting with (links are not allowed).
Guest post for each other during the free days.
Ask reviewers to post their reviews in tandem with your promotion.
Pay for a Facebook, Goodreads, or Google AdWords ad promoting your event (for just that few days). You can also set up a free event page on Facebook.
Use social media, but not in a spammy way. For example, I have the link to one of my books on my Twitter bio. That way I can announce a free promotion and if people want to click, I direct them to check my bio.
Do a Spreecast. If you’re unfamiliar with it, click on the link to check it out. It’s a fun way to gather folks together and discuss your books, the promo, or your upcoming titles. And it’s free. And you can sign in from either Twitter or Facebook. (Can you tell I like it?) Or use a G+ hangout if you prefer that.
Book some interviews (radio, blog).
Send out a newsletter the day before or even that day to let people know your book and a few others you’re working with are free.

With the exception of ads (and you can spend as little as $1-$2/day), none of this requires money.

OPTIMIZING YOUR PAGE

Many authors don’t understand SEO or SMO (search engine optimization or social media optimization) and that’s pretty much because it’s fairly complicated. I know what I know from trial and error and working with hundreds of authors on their categories, keywords/key phrases, and tags, as well as my own background in marketing and sales.

I do offer this is a service of my company BadRedhead Media, and while optimizing your page (whether I do it for you or you do it yourself) doesn’t guarantee increased sales, it does help immensely with visibility and exposure.

AFTER YOUR PROMOTION

Many times authors who’ve never done a free promotion before go into ‘freak out’ mode when their book comes off free, because they’re either not ranked at all or they’re much higher than they were before. This is normal. DON’T freak.

Amazon is recalculating their algorithms (which remains a mystery but we can guess), and it can take anywhere from a few hours to a full day to repopulate lower on the lists. A few considerations:

What price is your book normally? Some people set their price coming off free much lower for a few days to capture some sales volume and improve rankings. Others go back to regular price and just wait to see what happens. I’ve done both and find that if I return to 2.99 instead of 3.99 (say, for Mancode: Exposed), I rank better.
Some people say to keep it at 99cents for a full week, and while I’ve done that initially (when KDP Select first started last December), I don’t do that now. My books sell as well if not better at 2.99 than at 99cents. You have to do whatever is appropriate for you.

I hope these tips help you understand a bit more about the process. Tell me what your experiences have been and how it has worked out for you!