Countdown deals

[Marti Talbott]

If you are in select, do you do countdown deals, and do they work for you? I haven't tried one. I've tried giving books away, but I can't see those on my dashboard after I set them up under "promotions." I can see two old ones from 2018, but not a recent one that has already been completed, or the new one I just set up. It would be nice to see how many downloads those produce. Is there another way to see that?

[Post-Crisis D]

I've done them, but they didn't do much for me.  Maybe one or two sales out of maybe three countdown promos?  I suppose they might have done better if I promoted them more, but I'd probably end up promoting to the same people that saw it when it was on sale or free so I doubt a countdown deal would have made a difference to them.  Of course, one must bear in mind that my books no longer sell period, so sales and free giveaways don't matter.

[Bill Hiatt]

When countdown deals first came out, they were more effective. I stopped using them because they made little difference. Also, it's too hard to coordinate them with external promotion. If I want to put something on sale, I just lower the price myself.

[Shoe]

I've used them as an excuse to send newsletters between new releases. It always livens up the shelf.

[Post-Crisis D]

I wonder if they might be more effective if they had more flexibility.  I would like to test a penny sale concept that is popular with Internet marketers.  With each sale, the price goes up a penny.

Way back when, there was a variation that if a product didn't sell for a while, it would drop by a penny.

It'd be neat to be able to set a minimum sale price and a maximum sale price and let the price go up or down by a penny as sales did or didn't happen.  And, of course, allow for the author to set the scenario as desired.  (Up/down, all up/no down, all down/no up--though I doubt you'd really want to use that last option).

[Maggie Ann]

I wonder if they might be more effective if they had more flexibility.  I would like to test a penny sale concept that is popular with Internet marketers.  With each sale, the price goes up a penny.

Way back when, there was a variation that if a product didn't sell for a while, it would drop by a penny.

It'd be neat to be able to set a minimum sale price and a maximum sale price and let the price go up or down by a penny as sales did or didn't happen.  And, of course, allow for the author to set the scenario as desired.  (Up/down, all up/no down, all down/no up--though I doubt you'd really want to use that last option).

Sounds like trying to play the stock market. I always lose there, too.

I'd rather do the free days.

When I went wide, I just lowered everything to 99c except for boxed sets. Those I priced at $2.99. Now that I've put a few books back in Select, I still won't be doing countdown deals even on my boxed sets. I'm with Bill. If I want to put something on sale, I lower the price myself.

[Denise]

I find that countdown deals give you a little more exposure, meaning that you might get a few sales without paying for promos. The issue is that it's only for US and UK, and some promo newsletters don't like it.

[RPatton]

I wonder if timing a deal prior to a launch of the latest book in the series might be effective?

There's got to be a way to push it to work, but then as soon as it happens, everyone does it so the market is habituated to it and it becomes less effective.

[LilyBLily]

I did a Kindle Countdown on Book 1 when I launched Book 4 in my western series. Nothing much to report. I'll do it again when I launch Book 5 and Book 6. The triumph of hope over experience.

[Rosie Scott]

I schedule stacked promos for my $0.99 Kindle Countdown period. With the exception of a new release promo that didn't do well (before the book had reviews), this combo leads to my best sales days and always has a tail of sales since I only promo book ones and tie-ins to my major series. Without outside promotion, the Kindle Countdown Deals do little on their own. I once tried it with my dystopian series that has a hard time selling. I did get a few sales and they showed up on AMS a few days later, so it seems like some people are more willing to try a book at $0.99, but AMS is what led them to the store page.

I remember the good ol' days in 2012 when you could put a book on a Countdown Deal and get sales without any outside promotion, but that phenomenon stopped a long time ago. 

[Maggie Ann]

I schedule stacked promos for my $0.99 Kindle Countdown period. With the exception of a new release promo that didn't do well (before the book had reviews), this combo leads to my best sales days and always has a tail of sales since I only promo book ones and tie-ins to my major series. Without outside promotion, the Kindle Countdown Deals do little on their own. I once tried it with my dystopian series that has a hard time selling. I did get a few sales and they showed up on AMS a few days later, so it seems like some people are more willing to try a book at $0.99, but AMS is what led them to the store page.

I remember the good ol' days in 2012 when you could put a book on a Countdown Deal and get sales without any outside promotion, but that phenomenon stopped a long time ago. 

And you could get 30-50K freeloads a day with excellent sell-thru. 

[Tonyonline]

If I want to put something on sale, I just lower the price myself.

That's what I do.
I don't bother with countdown deals because, for one, Amazon doesn't actually count down! At least, I've never seen a countdown box ticking away until the deal ends and enticing to buy before it does so...So what's the point in calling it that  ...Just call it a deal...Not that anyone seeing it would know that either
Another reason is that, even though two of my books sell in both print, ebook and get page reads I've still only got a few reviews (I'd have thought if you've paid for a paperback you'd leave a review...But no ...Anyhow!) so I can't use the better promo sites that would make it worth my while.

I'd like a, recently released deal that lasts for a month...I have a new one due for release next month and it would be good if I could sell at 0.99 to get sales, maybe reviews, and not take a lower royalty for doing so. But I don't think that'll ever happen  ...OH! And I'd want a BIG sticker next to the book advertising the fact

[PaulineMRoss]

I haven't done one for ages. They're a pain to schedule because of the restrictions (no price changes before and after bla bla), you can't split them like you can free days, and it's only US and UK (which have to be set up separately). Plus they're only effective if you use external promo as well, and for that you might as well just do a manual price change and have it world-wide.