Countdown Deals...

[R. C.]

Yea or Nay?

The one thing I have not tried are countdown deals (KDP).  I feel countdown deals might be less valuable than a Freebie/$.99 sale.

Do countdown deals have merit?

Opinions, thoughts?

Cheers,
R.C.

[LilyBLily]

Countdowns are a fine tool, but these days you'll also need to advertise the countdown. At one time it was possible to just do a countdown and sales would happen. Not so any longer, so tell your newsletter peeps, post on social media, and/or buy ads to announce it.

I've never actually seen a true countdown, BTW. The discount price has always been 99 cents or free for the entire countdown period.

[Doglover]

I don't do them for the simple reason that they are only valid in the USA and UK. I can't send out a newsletter about them, when a lot of my subscribers are in other countries. I've never had any luck with them, although I do know people who have. I do think a freebie promotion or .99 with some good promotion sites like ENT and Freebooksy work better.

[idontknowyet]

I don't do them for the simple reason that they are only valid in the USA and UK. I can't send out a newsletter about them, when a lot of my subscribers are in other countries. I've never had any luck with them, although I do know people who have. I do think a freebie promotion or .99 with some good promotion sites like ENT and Freebooksy work better.

Don't you combine both. I set up a count down deal for early july. 1st book is free. 2nd book is .99 cents. to hopefully get them reading through instead of freebee forget.
But then im doing all promo sites at the same time combined with a half dozen nl swaps

[alhawke]

When I was in KU, I'm not anymore, I combined countdown deals with promo newsletters at the same time. I didn't do a gradual price increase countdown, I just did 99c. I see very few books that do an actual countdown. Anyway, the newsletters helped in pushing extra KU reads a year and a half ago.

Also don't forget to check out promo sites that push KU reads only: KU addicts & ... well I was going to say Reading Stacks from Written Word Media but it looks like they're gone.

[Crystal]

I don't do them for the simple reason that they are only valid in the USA and UK. I can't send out a newsletter about them, when a lot of my subscribers are in other countries. I've never had any luck with them, although I do know people who have. I do think a freebie promotion or .99 with some good promotion sites like ENT and Freebooksy work better.

You can segment your newsletter to only send to US and UK people. Even if you didn't ask people for their country. Many mailing list services will have this information.

I send out a lot of single region deals (usually US or UK but not always), but I never make them the primary reason for a newsletter.

I haven't done a countdown deal in some time, but if you are planning a limited sale, then it's a question of extra royalty vs. discounts in non US/UK regions. Most discount based newsletters are aimed at US subscribers, but some do have international subscribers, and, of course, BookBub has region specific deals.

Unless you are advertising in those other regions, a KCD makes more sense financially than manually setting the price to .99.