Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips!

Rachel Thompson|October 4, 2012|

Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips!

I just finished a three-day free Amazon promotion of my second book, The Mancode: Exposed. How did it go?

It’s still going! Here are some numbers:

Three days, over 10,000 free downloads
Mancode: Exposed overall paid ranking prior to promo: #25,000ish.
Mancode: Exposed overall paid rankings post promo: #1067.
Average daily download: last month I averaged about 8/day. This week: 28/day.
Listing: #1 Parenting and Families, paid. #3 Family Relationships, paid.
I’ve had over 150 lends so far this month! That’s a lot for me.

I’m kinda amazed given that the book has been out now for ten months. This is kind of my last hurrah, if you will, before releasing my next book Broken Pieces in November. Many kind folks are asking me why my books do so well on free days. I’ll tell you now: there is no magic bullet. Nothing is easy. A lot went into the planning of this free promotion.

Let’s deconstruct.

1) Co-Promotion: I combined forces with the fabulous R.S.Guthrie and Frederick Lee Brooke to promote each other during our free days. We all had one book go free. We also offered incentives (see specifics below). We shared the promo across all our blogs and all social media channels and R.S. even created a landing page for the promo on his site.

2) Contest/Giveaway: we split the cost of a new Kindle Fire HD (retail: $199) so about $66 each. The criteria to enter: no downloads necessary. Just share our free event across Twitter (one entry), Twitter and Facebook (two entries), Twitter, Facebook, and well, wherever else (three entries). R.S. was kind enough to enter all the entries into a spreadsheet, and we’ll use a random generator to figure out the winner.

3) Free Book Sites: I found a list of free book sites (just googled it), and listed my book on as many as I could. All were free.

4) Blog Tour: I planned a seven-day virtual book tour via the fabulous Pandora of Orangeberry Book Tours. She’s a brilliant marketer, author, and hard worker. The entire cost was about $30 for seven blog visits, a few #TwitterViews and a #TweetChat. More than worth the investment. In addition, schedule any guest posts or interviews during your free time period.

5) Twitter: While I’m not a fan of spamming our followers with ‘Hey, my book is free!’ updates and no other content, I believe it’s okay to update people with rankings or downloads. Refer them to your bio where you’ve placed a customized, trackable book link. People are inherently interested to see how these promos do (which is why you’re here reading this post). Right? This does a few things:

Shows that you’re sharing a free book while also being transparent about how you’re doing.
Gives people updates on your success and progress.
We learn by doing. People read your updates to see how they might do!

I do feel it’s also important to continue writing content (no link) tweets as well as providing news stories or other relevant content. Twitter isn’t all about you.

6) Facebook: I’ve become more of a Facebook fan recently with all the new changes and options they’ve incorporated. You can add a few days’ ad, for example, which I’ve found is a nice option for little investment. There’s also something to be said for interacting with your support base who want to help you succeed.

7) Newsletter: Many authors I know don’t want to hassle with newsletters and I get it. I resisted for a long time. But the fact remains that email marketing is still THE MOST EFFECTIVE way to generate sales (Hubspot, 2012). Setting up free MailChimp is not that difficult, and you can add the widget for sign-ups virtually everywhere: your site, blog, even Facebook page. This is a terrific way to let people know what’s going on with you.

8) Google+: not to be discounted, this social media channel has grown exponentially this past year, and most importantly, is given more weight than even Twitter or Facebook when it comes to your SEO.

9) Hootsuite: Long a proponent, I like that I can manage all these accounts listed above from one application (I love the desktop interface; mobile kinda sucks). I’m a fan of scheduling posts as well as live tweeting. I don’t think it should be either/or. What I like about scheduling is there’s no ‘Twitter Blast’ effect, with all of your “Hey, I’m free!” messages dumped onto people’s timelines all at once. You can write one message and spread it across several channels and they now even have an ‘autoschedule’ function (and Chrome extension) which is uberconvenient.

10) LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram: We’re naturally drawn to the social media channels that light us up. If you prefer a visual medium, post your books and blogs to Pinterest. Read a few lines on YouTube. Take a shot of your cover for Instagram. You get it, right? Not everyone can be everywhere, including you, but you can check in occasionally. Tip: Join some groups on LinkedIn.

11) Networking: I’m honored to be part of a few Facebook and LinkedIn groups that are all about supporting each other. When I went free, many regularly shared my info without me even asking and of course, I do the same for them.

12) Support: You know which writers support you and which don’t. But…so what? My dad taught me to ‘kill em with kindness,’ and while difficult at times, making enemies doesn’t help you (though it may feel awesome at the time). Be the kind of author your dad would be proud of.

Bottom line: there’s no one approach that will help your free promotion be successful. If you’re not willing or able to put in the work, don’t be disappointed when it doesn’t go as well as you would have hoped. Do the work, reap the benefits.

Please let me know if I missed anything that you have found helpful! And please share your specific experiences or questions down below.

Posted in Blog, book promotion, KDP Select

72 Comments

Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 4, 2012 at 4:13 pm

@pandorapoikilos @GuyMagar Funny, I JUST published a post seconds ago on http://t.co/bgoQ1js8 about my experiences: http://t.co/NiB4kZaG

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Berrie Pelser (@BerriePelser) on October 4, 2012 at 5:21 pm

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Robert Dempsey (@rdempsey) on October 4, 2012 at 9:35 pm

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on October 4, 2012 at 9:45 pm

Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips! http://t.co/shfMQMS5 via @BadRedheadMedia How I did it w #Mancode!

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Wendy (@wendybooks1) on October 5, 2012 at 12:20 am

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on October 5, 2012 at 1:06 am

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Dianne Solberg (@Wxmouse) on October 5, 2012 at 7:59 am

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@Dawn_Abraham on October 5, 2012 at 9:24 am

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Justin Bog on October 5, 2012 at 11:01 am

Nice to see the good word, Rachel . . . always required reading for any author or blogger.

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on October 5, 2012 at 11:17 am

Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips! http://t.co/weF1i0FV by @BadRedheadMedia #writing #reading

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RachelintheOC (@indiebookpromos) on October 5, 2012 at 1:27 pm

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@LauraBHill on October 5, 2012 at 2:59 pm

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@CatalystPart on October 5, 2012 at 5:02 pm

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 5, 2012 at 6:15 pm

Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips! http://t.co/Wmpjk2eT via @BadRedheadMedia How I did it w #Mancode!

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 5, 2012 at 9:15 pm

Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips! http://t.co/cg4Sb4Rs via @BadRedheadMedia How I did it w #Mancode! Plz RT

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Find Reviewers For Your Book With These 8 Steps! on October 5, 2012 at 10:10 pm

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Grow With Stacy (@growwithstacy) on October 6, 2012 at 12:01 am

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@imclassified on October 6, 2012 at 9:31 am

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 6, 2012 at 9:42 am

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Johanna M. Cook (@mommacuisine) on October 6, 2012 at 12:01 pm

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Paul Barstow (@Paulsalesman) on October 6, 2012 at 8:40 pm

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Ross Hamilton on October 7, 2012 at 12:30 am

Hi Rachel

My publisher ran a couple of days free promotion on Amazon. Unfortunately I was not aware it was about to happen so failed to make the most of it. We have agreed to run another one in the future and I shall be making the most of your suggestions and documenting the outcome. I have started a blog about all the learning experiences from publication of my novella: http://novelladiary.blogspot.com.au/

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@SandySandmeyer on October 7, 2012 at 6:33 am

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Ross Hamilton on October 7, 2012 at 6:06 pm

I have just received word from my publisher about how the free promotion went for my novella. 452 downloads in two days with what I believe was minimal promotion of the offer. I suspect with a stronger marketing campaign (borrowing from your posts) when we next do it we can better again.

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- Rachel Thompson on October 8, 2012 at 10:44 pm
  
  I definitely think if you do the things I suggest, you’ll have way more downloads. the whole point is to take advantage of the buzzzzz. 🙂
  
  Reply
@BruceSallan on October 7, 2012 at 9:41 pm

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Arthur Partridge (@AyPee) on October 9, 2012 at 7:15 pm

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on October 9, 2012 at 9:35 pm

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 10, 2012 at 5:01 am

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Jeff Currie on October 10, 2012 at 8:39 am

Thanks for bringing all these pieces together! I have done several KDPSelect promos now to varying degrees of success and have been collecting writer’s experiences on my blog site for quite awhile, so I’ve read a lot of posts on this, but I still learned a few new things from you today! Thanks again for a well-written piece. I added it to my blog collection “A Gathering of KDP Select Experiences”.
Pax
Jeff

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- Rachel Thompson on October 10, 2012 at 10:00 pm
  
  Hi Jeff and thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate that you share such valuable info and I hope anything more I can offer is just gravy.
  
  I checked out your site earlier but definitely want to read more!
  
  🙂
  
  Reply
Jeff Currie on October 10, 2012 at 8:39 am

Thanks for bringing all these pieces together! I have done several KDPSelect promos now to varying degrees of success and have been collecting writer’s experiences on my blog site for quite awhile, so I’ve read a lot of posts on this, but I still learned a few new things from you today! Thanks again for a well-written piece. I added it to my blog collection “A Gathering of KDP Select Experiences”.
Pax
Jeff

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RachelintheOC (@indiebookpromos) on October 10, 2012 at 10:01 am

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on October 11, 2012 at 5:33 am

Want to make your #KDPSelect free days a success? Read about how I did it w/ these 12 top tips: http://t.co/6rsniDi4

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on October 11, 2012 at 5:57 am

Want to make your #KDPSelect free days a success? Read about how I did it w/ these 12 top tips: http://t.co/TNKFAqtT

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Rachel Thompson (@BadRedheadMedia) on November 4, 2012 at 3:01 pm

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Rachel Thompson (@RachelintheOC) on November 5, 2012 at 3:40 pm

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@Maureeninfo on November 5, 2012 at 10:01 pm

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The #1 Secret To Help You Sell More Books Is... via @BadRedheadMedia on November 27, 2012 at 9:28 am

[…] Make Your #KDPSelect Days A Success: 12 Top Tips! var dd_offset_from_content = 40; var dd_top_offset_from_content = 0;Rachel ThompsonRachel Thompson aka RachelintheOC is a published author and social media consultant. Her two books, A Walk In The Snark and The Mancode: Exposed are both #1 Kindle bestsellers! When not writing, she helps authors and other professionals with branding and social media for her company, BadRedhead Media. She hates walks in the rain, running out of coffee, and coconut. Buy Now : A Walk in the Snark * Mancode: ExposedMore Posts Follow Me: […]

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@realamandabretz on December 29, 2012 at 7:15 am

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@DLowbridge on February 26, 2013 at 1:50 am

With Amazon discouraging free e-book sites, perhaps we need to take these approaches
http://t.co/3ayo7XR47i #selfpublish #indie #amwriting

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@DLowbridge on March 7, 2013 at 4:07 pm

12 tips to make your kdp select days a success. http://t.co/3ayo7XR47i #bookmarketing #amwriting #author

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