Amazon, Book Marketing & PR

How to Make the Most of KDP Select Free Days

Free sign

The success of KDP Select’s free days (or other ways of giving away free ebooks, since this can be done strategically via Smashwords or iBooks) has been widely debated. I’m not going to touch upon the issue of whether you should go free or not – that’s a personal choice and there is much literature out there to enable you to decide. Rather, this post is written for you if you HAVE decided to enroll in KDP select and want to make the most of your free days.

Three of the authors I have coached this year reached over 20,000 downloads over 2 free days, and KDP Select really was the jumpstart they needed in sales. However, just like I read on a billboard yesterday, ‘Every overnight success was years in the making’. Not years in this case, but we certainly spent a lot of time and employed some strategy in order that the free days reached their full potential. Below I share what we did and what I recommend you do, too. Best of luck!

Make your Amazon page irresistible, baby.

1) Before you go free, make sure you are happy with your Amazon page. Is your product description up to scratch? Are you happy with your cover and author bio? Have you carefully chosen your categories? If you can hit number 1 in a category, your ranking will improve and you’ll see a snowball effect. Do your research and choose your categories wisely. I’ll talk more about what makes an irresistible product description later this week.

2) Aim for at least 10 reviews and an average of 4.0 stars or higher. Here are 6 tips for getting more reviews.

Work on your Perceived Value

3) Consider putting your price up a few days before the book goes free. That way people will perceive that they are getting a great deal (having a high-priced paperback listed alongside your eBook is another example of this).

Spread the word!

4) Nobody will know your book is free unless you tell them. 2-3 weeks in advance of your free days, submit your book as free to the following sites which will hopefully promote you to their networks on your big day:

(Link will take you to their free services/ submissions page)
INDIE BOOKS LIST
DIGITAL BOOK TODAY
KINDLE BOARDS –> The Book Bazaar
PIXEL OF INK
THE FRUGAL EREADER
KINDLE AUTHOR 
BARGAIN EBOOK HUNTER
EREADERNEWSTODAY
EBOOKSWAG
STORYFINDS
BARGAINEBOOKHUNTER
FREEBOOKSDAILY
FREEBOOKSY
KINDLEBOOKPROMOS
CENTSIBLEEREADS

5) On the day, let the following ‘Twitterers’ know about your free kindle book:

@DigitalBkToday @KindleDaily @kindleebooks @Kindlestuff @KindleEbooksUK @KindleBookKing @KindleFreeBook @free_kindle @FreeReadFeed @4FreeKindleBook @KindleFreeBooks @KindleFreeStuff @KindleSurprise @FreeKindleStuff @KindleUpdates @Freebookdeal @freebookpromos @freebooksy @KindleFireDept @Kindlbookreview @kindle_mojo @Kindlefreebies @KindleUS @KindleUK @KindleDE @KindleES @KindleEbooksUK @KindleKing @Kindle_Max @KindleBlaze @KindleBookBlast 

6) Send out your own tweets using some of these hashtags:

#kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #freeebook #Kindlefreebooks #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook

7) Finally, be sure to let your own network know! Tell your Facebook friends, mailing list, and perhaps write up a blogpost on your website.