How do you guys use KDP Select free days?

[Gregg Bell]

Do you try to get all kinds of ads on the same day to hopefully get into the "top 100 free" category? Spread your free days out? Use them consecutively? Something else?

[alhawke]

Use fussy librarian on either the day before OR the day of a Freebooksy promo. You can play with it further with ads and promos, but that should be your essential promotion strategy. Freebooksy is king for free. Of course, if you can land one, get a Bookbub promo.

Trouble is, ranking is rather wonky and unreliable on Amazon lately. And promos totally favor the Amazon US market. This is limiting the effectiveness of promos over ads for writers, particularly wide authors like me. But I'm still running promos to bring attention to my books for that market.

edit} I haven't been in KU so I can't recall how I used to do free. I recall spreading out free days versus using them all at once. You really only need a handful , like three days. As far as top free category, it's pretty much useless in my opinion. The book rises ranking fast and the publicity in a free category doesn't get you much of anything.

[Bill Hiatt]

When free days were first introduced, they were a big thing. Some writers claimed to have built careers on them (based on follow-through sales to other titles, greater visibility, etc.

The problem is that free is only effective if it's used sparingly. What happened instead was that we ended up with a glut of free books. And not just on Amazon. The last time I checked, almost 20% of the books in the Smashwords store were permafree.

Also, Amazon changed the affiliate payment structure because so many sites were making affiliate bucks on the back of free sales. With that change, most sites that advertised free books, often for free or for very nominal fees, disappeared overnight.

In other words, the way I use free days is...I don't. Free is sufficiently commonplace to have become an only marginally effective strategy at best. Maybe if you have a long series and do free promo on the first book, that still works to some extent. But just the act of making a book free, even if it gets a lot of downloads, doesn't really accomplish much anymore.

[Lorri Moulton]

Free can still work, but I think it depends on genre, where/if you advertise, if it's part of a connected series, wide or KU, as with everything...a lot of factors to consider.

[alhawke]

When free days were first introduced, they were a big thing. Some writers claimed to have built careers on them (based on follow-through sales to other titles, greater visibility, etc.

The problem is that free is only effective if it's used sparingly. What happened instead was that we ended up with a glut of free books. And not just on Amazon. The last time I checked, almost 20% of the books in the Smashwords store were permafree.

Also, Amazon changed the affiliate payment structure because so many sites were making affiliate bucks on the back of free sales. With that change, most sites that advertised free books, often for free or for very nominal fees, disappeared overnight.

In other words, the way I use free days is...I don't. Free is sufficiently commonplace to have become an only marginally effective strategy at best. Maybe if you have a long series and do free promo on the first book, that still works to some extent. But just the act of making a book free, even if it gets a lot of downloads, doesn't really accomplish much anymore.

All good points. But I think free is still useful for two main things. Sheer visibility for a new or faltering books/series OR lead books in series.

A third is audio visibility. I also recently ran a free book that ended up promoting the audiobook and ranking the audio (though I could have been lucky. The audio was also brand new). I had never thought about that free connection with Audible audios.

[Bill Hiatt]

Yes, I understand that some authors still do well with the permafree first in series. And certainly using a KDP free day on the first in series book, if you can get a lot of sell-through to later titles, might be worth it.

But in general, the free approach is not as big as it used to be.

[Gregg Bell]

Use fussy librarian on either the day before OR the day of a Freebooksy promo. You can play with it further with ads and promos, but that should be your essential promotion strategy. Freebooksy is king for free. Of course, if you can land one, get a Bookbub promo.

Trouble is, ranking is rather wonky and unreliable on Amazon lately. And promos totally favor the Amazon US market. This is limiting the effectiveness of promos over ads for writers, particularly wide authors like me. But I'm still running promos to bring attention to my books for that market.

edit} I haven't been in KU so I can't recall how I used to do free. I recall spreading out free days versus using them all at once. You really only need a handful , like three days. As far as top free category, it's pretty much useless in my opinion. The book rises ranking fast and the publicity in a free category doesn't get you much of anything.

Thanks A.L. Freebooksy and Fussy are good. I hardly have used any of my Select free days though. The majority of the ads I've run have been 99 centers when the book is released. It's just when sales dry up that I start thinking about advertising again. Post launch, I'm not thrilled with the 99 cent ads which may get 30 or 40 sales, whereas the free ones get hundreds of downloads, and the chance of having Amazon help by getting into the top 100 free in your category and there usually a decent tail of sales after that ad is over.

[Gregg Bell]

When free days were first introduced, they were a big thing. Some writers claimed to have built careers on them (based on follow-through sales to other titles, greater visibility, etc.

The problem is that free is only effective if it's used sparingly. What happened instead was that we ended up with a glut of free books. And not just on Amazon. The last time I checked, almost 20% of the books in the Smashwords store were permafree.

Also, Amazon changed the affiliate payment structure because so many sites were making affiliate bucks on the back of free sales. With that change, most sites that advertised free books, often for free or for very nominal fees, disappeared overnight.

In other words, the way I use free days is...I don't. Free is sufficiently commonplace to have become an only marginally effective strategy at best. Maybe if you have a long series and do free promo on the first book, that still works to some extent. But just the act of making a book free, even if it gets a lot of downloads, doesn't really accomplish much anymore.

When free days were first introduced, they were a big thing.

Like AMS ads, right? Reasonable bids. Steady results. Now I've heard the big authors discovered them and pretty much wrecked it for us indies.

[Bill Hiatt]

We have at least one person on this forum who still gets good AMS results, though it sounds as if it takes a lot of careful study to do that.

AMS ads were better in the beginning. I'm tweaking now to see if I can wring some kind of ROI out of them. It's not easy, and I don't think I have the patience for it anymore.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

We have at least one person on this forum who still gets good AMS results, though it sounds as if it takes a lot of careful study to do that.

AMS ads were better in the beginning. I'm tweaking now to see if I can wring some kind of ROI out of them. It's not easy, and I don't think I have the patience for it anymore.

Yes, my plan is to study and analyse AMS to the nth degree before giving it another try.

[writeway]

I have a huge backlist and freebies are a very important strategy for me. I have permafree books as well as I alternate through my backlist and do KU free days. I advertise them in promo sites like Fussy Librarian, Freebooksy, Bookspry, etc. I also share them with my mailing list sometimes.

As for the Top 100. If you're doing freebies and not getting in the Top 100 with them then there is no reason to do them. They won't benefit you if they aren't charting because you won't get visibility. Freebies are supposed to not only bring reader to that book but to your backlist. So, yeah, if my freebies aren't in the Top 100 I'd just be given books away for nothing which would make no sense. All of my permafrees stay in the  Top 100 and I barely advertise them. When I do KU-free days, all of them get in the Top 100 but the more I advertise those, the better they do since they are only free for five days. And I advise using the entire five days to get the most bang out of your buck. Some authors like to split the days but you can't get traction having a book free 2 days one month and 3 the next. You want a sustained boost as long as possible so doing the whole five days at once will bring more eyes and hopefully more reads.

[Gregg Bell]

We have at least one person on this forum who still gets good AMS results, though it sounds as if it takes a lot of careful study to do that.

AMS ads were better in the beginning. I'm tweaking now to see if I can wring some kind of ROI out of them. It's not easy, and I don't think I have the patience for it anymore.

I think I know who you're talking about (getting the good results). The best sense I can make of them is to think of them as an investment rather than an expense. ROI doesn't seem to be in the cards with them, for me anyway.

[Gregg Bell]

We have at least one person on this forum who still gets good AMS results, though it sounds as if it takes a lot of careful study to do that.

AMS ads were better in the beginning. I'm tweaking now to see if I can wring some kind of ROI out of them. It's not easy, and I don't think I have the patience for it anymore.

Yes, my plan is to study and analyse AMS to the nth degree before giving it another try.

my plan is to study and analyse AMS to the nth degree

^ Oh, that will be great fun. (kidding!)

[Gregg Bell]

I have a huge backlist and freebies are a very important strategy for me. I have permafree books as well as I alternate through my backlist and do KU free days. I advertise them in promo sites like Fussy Librarian, Freebooksy, Bookspry, etc. I also share them with my mailing list sometimes.

As for the Top 100. If you're doing freebies and not getting in the Top 100 with them then there is no reason to do them. They won't benefit you if they aren't charting because you won't get visibility. Freebies are supposed to not only bring reader to that book but to your backlist. So, yeah, if my freebies aren't in the Top 100 I'd just be given books away for nothing which would make no sense. All of my permafrees stay in the  Top 100 and I barely advertise them. When I do KU-free days, all of them get in the Top 100 but the more I advertise those, the better they do since they are only free for five days. And I advise using the entire five days to get the most bang out of your buck. Some authors like to split the days but you can't get traction having a book free 2 days one month and 3 the next. You want a sustained boost as long as possible so doing the whole five days at once will bring more eyes and hopefully more reads.

Thanks but it would seem to me to use all five free days at once (consecutively) would make for a long time without advertising the book (with a free day). Do you have another way to keep the book going once the five free days are gone? And when you say it's not worth it if you're not getting into the top 100, are you referring to the main top 100 or the top one hundred free for the book's genre category?

[alhawke]

Thanks but it would seem to me to use all five free days at once (consecutively) would make for a long time without advertising the book (with a free day). Do you have another way to keep the book going once the five free days are gone? And when you say it's not worth it if you're not getting into the top 100, are you referring to the main top 100 or the top one hundred free for the book's genre category?

I would focus on advertising with ads between promotions. Optimally, you don't need to run too many promos--you can sell by daily advertising (or some of the more fortunate of us sell without ads or promos). But I wouldn't run free promos more than once every three months or more for the same book. Same with 99c promos.

[Gregg Bell]

Thanks but it would seem to me to use all five free days at once (consecutively) would make for a long time without advertising the book (with a free day). Do you have another way to keep the book going once the five free days are gone? And when you say it's not worth it if you're not getting into the top 100, are you referring to the main top 100 or the top one hundred free for the book's genre category?

I would focus on advertising with ads between promotions. Optimally, you don't need to run too many promos--you can sell by daily advertising (or some of the more fortunate of us sell without ads or promos). But I wouldn't run free promos more than once every three months or more for the same book. Same with 99c promos.

Thanks A.L. I wasn't quite tracking with you, maybe it's a semantics thing. What do you mean by promos/promotions? To me promotions are where I buy ads and advertise/promote the book.

[alhawke]

I'm referring to newsletter promotions vs advertisements.

[Gregg Bell]

I'm referring to newsletter promotions vs advertisements.

Thanks for the clarification, A.L. I know where the confusion came in (on my part of course) in that all I do is newsletter promotions.

[djmills]

Greg, David Gaughran is doing a 99c sale this week for his books. You could pick up Amazon Decoded for details on running your own promos.
https://davidgaughran.com/books-for-authors/

[Gregg Bell]

Greg, David Gaughran is doing a 99c sale this week for his books. You could pick up Amazon Decoded for details on running your own promos.
https://davidgaughran.com/books-for-authors/

Thank you. I went and picked it up. Even got a 10 cent credit for future purchases!

[Hopscotch]

Can't make KDP free days work as they used to & appreciate some advice.  A few free days used to yield several 1,000 grabs w/gratifying follow-on sales in a series.  Not now.  Decided to fire up all 5 free days this wk in one big blast to test what happens and it's peanuts.  Book is This Way to the Combat Zone (below) in a war series and I wonder if the sales page / cats / cover hold it back even as a freebie?  Or must I do the naked moon dance again?

[Bill Hiatt]

This is just an off-the-cuff response.

The title of the book makes me think satire, an impression reinforced by the product description. The sample also seems to lean in that direction.

On the other hand, the categories (military thriller, war fiction, war and military action fiction) don't fit that impression at all. (Though I have to say, it's doing well in the existing cats on the free list, even if the downloads weren't particularly numerous.)

All of those fiction types could conceivably include a more introspective element, but that wouldn't typically be the focus for thriller or action genres.

The book has gotten good reviews, so some of the intended audience clearly found it, but I imagine a lot of people looking for thrills and action would have landed there and had a WTF moment.

[Hopscotch]

...The title of the book makes me think satire...[but] the categories (military thriller, war fiction, war and military action fiction) don't fit that impression...

5 day freebie experiment done.  Was fun.  Grabs and follow-ons few.  Cats may look askew (per Bill's comment) bc young / enlistment-age / avid readers of milfic are my target.  But I must rethink cats, and thank you.