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| Source: Shitao, “Don’t ever let go of my hand…….” |
Last week I reported that I was doing an experiment on the Kindle Direct Publishing promo system. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t use the multi-pronged marketing apparatus that’s set up around KDP free books. See the blog entry for that HERE.
The results are in and not so happy. Over a two day period, Saturday and Sunday, I received 230 downloads of my novel, Beyond the Will of God. Two weeks earlier, I’d pushed on the marketing apparatus hard and received over 10,000 downloads in three days.
This was not a controlled experiment. The biggest wild card in it is that the poor showing last weekend may have been because those fishing for free books were saturated from my offering just two weeks earlier. If that’s so, it makes me doubly wonder about readers in search of freebies. Maybe it’s a smaller group than we realize. Or maybe they don’t use Amazon’s standard Kindle Free listings that pair with the Kindle Bestsellers list. Maybe they use places like Pixel of Ink and Ereader News Today.
Whatever the case, I know a little more firsthand now. It pays to put on the dog if you’re going to optimize the KDP system. For what it’s worth, though, I’ve only sold about 60 copies of my novel since that initial free weekend with 10,000+ giveaways. It’s not making a lot of sense to me to give Amazon an exclusive deal for my book through their KDP program. I can offer it free directly from my website. In fact, that may well be the next experiment I do in electronic publishing.
We’ll see…in the mean time, click on the cover image to the right and buy yourself a copy of the weirdest and funkiest novel you’ll read this year. Where else are you gonna find Jimi Hendrix, Jesse James, Elvis, John Lennon, the CIA, Deadheads, wanton sex, experimental drugs, questions about consciousness, and a full-tilt argument for the spiritual and intellectual magic of loud guitar music?
-dcb
To see more amazing art work by Shitao, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shitao/sets/
David Biddle
View More PostsDavid Biddle is a freelance writer and novelist living in Philadelphia, PA and the author of the novel OLD MUSIC FOR NEW PEOPLE. His new novel, a science fiction story called SOUND EFFECT INFINITY, is due out in early 2025. Pre-order the special hardcover edition now wherever books are sold.