... and every author should do it.
So when I decided to try self pubbing through Amazon, there was a little button you could click that said "enter your book in the KDP select program" or something like that. Basically (from what I can tell, feel free to correct me if you have another interpretation) it means that in exchange for making your book exclusive to Amazon for 90 days (meaning you can't publish with Barnes & Noble, etc) they give you five free "promo days".
At first I was all like "what? give my book away for free? that's dumb. no one will want a free book!" and then I was all "wellll..... maybe I'll do it sometime.... I mean, nothing much will happen, but I have these free promo days, might as well use 'em"
So I did. Well, I used one. It went into effect Tuesday at midnight (eastern standard time) and ended twenty four hours later. I set it up, went to bed, and woke up the next morning to over a hundred books sold to England and half as many to the US (lets be honest -- we're not a morning country). I was surprised... impressed... somewhat amazed. My regular daily figures have yet to come close to that. I went about my work day and checked back in around noon.
Over 600 books sold, you say? #29 on the free kindle historical romance, you say?
Well, that perked my ears up.
Fast forward to this morning (because I just realized it might seem like I'm bragging and okay maybe I am just a little not really I'm not -- I just want to get across the point that any other authors out there who have not signed up or used the KDP select program... do it now! Actually, you should have done it yesterday. There was no advertising involved, other then what I posted on this blog (and lets be serious; no one reads this thing) and my Facebook (interesting side fact -- if you type facebook with a lower case f it comes up as wrong spelling, which clearly it is, but if you capitalize the F it's accepted... Facebook is taking over the world!). Where all the other people came from who decided to pick up ABB for free I have no idea but man, am I glad they did.
Because the KDP select program isn't about generating sales. I mean, it is kind of. You are offering your book for free so you're going to be making next to nothing (they do have a match it program or something, but to be honest I have no idea how it works). The idea, and the genius of it all, lies in the fact that two days ago just over 400 people (mostly family and friends) had read my little novella, and now (in a twenty four hour period) 2,705 will read it.
That has all ready translated into four new reviews (and my first not so awesome one, which I've been waiting for to see how I would handle it... more on that later), more hits on this blog, my first fan mail, and more attention on my little Goodreads site.
I still have four more free promo days to use. I will definitely use two of them right before the release of A Ravishing Redhead so if you haven't picked up ABB (the first novella in the series and the one I did the free promo on) you can wait until the end of April, although right now it's only listed for $.99, a fair price I think and definitely not a bank breaker.
So to sum it all up...
KDP Select Program through Amazon = Pure, unfiltered awesomeness.
Thanks for reading!
