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Free First in Series on Kobo

92K views 430 replies 283 participants last post by  Bookread 
#1 ·
I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of FREE FIRST IN SERIES, a promotional spot on Kobo that we have been able to use to help authors gain some traction on Kobo.

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/Collection/free-first-in-series

It doesn't always work, but many of the books that have gained a healthy number of downloads have typically converted into sales. Stats show that if, for example, 10,000 people download a free book, less than 1000 of them will actually OPEN the eBook, and maybe 70% of them will actually finish the book in a 3-4 week period. HOWEVER, of the people who finish the book, we've seen conversion rates of as high as 54% where the reader goes on to buy one or more books from that author. And sometimes, that's all it takes for an author whose titles haven't been moving to gain a little traction and slowly build an audience.

If you have a book that's perma-FREE at Kobo and the first book in a series, please feel free to post it here (including covers makes things quicker). I'll keep dipping in to follow comments this list and making recommendations for forthcoming titles to be added to our landing page.

If you have a first book in series that you are planning on making free at Kobo, share that too - (but please be clear it's a limited thing and do try to give some lead time for merchandise planning). And don't forget, that, within Kobo Writing Life (www.kobo.com/writinglife) there's a price promo tool you can use to enter your planned price promo into our system weeks in advance if you're doing a timed price promo or timed free promo.

Thanks

Mark from Kobo
 
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#53 ·
Mark Leslie said:
Hey Philip - yes, it would qualify - this is a unique case where the series could be read in any order - the key (from our POV) is that we provide the customer with a great book they can check out for free and the desire is they like it so much they go ahead and buy one (or more) of the other titles in the series. (If that happens, all of us win - the reader, the retailer and the author!)
Thanks. How many books in the series would need to be available on Kobo to qualify for this promotion?

Philip
 
#54 ·
#56 ·
Philip Gibson said:
Thanks. How many books in the series would need to be available on Kobo to qualify for this promotion?

Philip
You need at least one more book that has an actual price - we want customers to find great things to read that are free, but ideally, we want them to move on to buy the books from authors that they like because they got to check them out risk free. Of course, the more, the merrier. Some of the tests and studies we've run on this type of feature show an "Oscar Wilde" type return on investment in that "nothing succeeds like excess" -- not sure why -- could it be that customers are more likely to take a chance on an author they don't know if they see that the author has been producing and has a "wealth" of material? A certain small percentage of customers actually go and buy one or more other titles at the same time they grab the free one (Karmic reward?) - most, however, don't buy the 2nd until they read the 1st one - that's where the majority of the bump comes from . . . .
 
#57 ·
Mark Leslie said:
You need at least one more book that has an actual price - we want customers to find great things to read that are free, but ideally, we want them to move on to buy the books from authors that they like because they got to check them out risk free. Of course, the more, the merrier. Some of the tests and studies we've run on this type of feature show an "Oscar Wilde" type return on investment in that "nothing succeeds like excess" -- not sure why -- could it be that customers are more likely to take a chance on an author they don't know if they see that the author has been producing and has a "wealth" of material? A certain small percentage of customers actually go and buy one or more other titles at the same time they grab the free one (Karmic reward?) - most, however, don't buy the 2nd until they read the 1st one - that's where the majority of the bump comes from . . . .
When I was talking to agents about traditional style publishing - they told me that they found that readers do not trust authors with less than 4 or 5 books out. No idea if its true, but sounds like you are experiencing the same thing.
 
#58 ·
VydorScope said:
When I was talking to agents about traditional style publishing - they told me that they found that readers do not trust authors with less than 4 or 5 books out. No idea if its true, but sounds like you are experiencing the same thing.
I wouldn't doubt it. Not really sure if that's the case, but an author with multiple titles suggests a quality presence, someone who has been writing for a while - maybe it's a subconscious Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours type thing -- who knows. Could be the old "hey there's a mob of people standing here looking at something, perhaps I'll look at it too" mentality that translates to seeing an author has a number of titles. Whatever it is, it seems to work.

Thus, the age old advice still rings true - the best way to sell your first book is to write your second book.......I'm sure most of you are already familiar with WRITE. PUBLISH. REPEAT by the SPP guys (No, not "Write Publisher Pete!" Don't write him, he never writes back.....#insidejokeforSPPlisteners), but that seems to have worked well for them and their bazillion words written in 2013.......(their sales on Kobo continued to climb the more titles that they freed from the bounds of the "Select" program)
 
#64 ·
Hi Mark,

I can definitely see why you'd want to give priority to books that are published on your platform. As an author I've sold less on Kobo in two years than I have sold at Google in one month--and had more downloads at FreeeBooks.net. I guess I don't know what to expect for the extra effort.

Maybe if you wow me with the results of a Free First in Series promotion I'll want to do it though! :D
 
G
#65 ·
Do you get more sales with Kobo if you go direct than if you go via an aggregator? I have to use someone like Draft2Digital to go to Barnes & Noble because I'm Australian, so I use them for Apple and Kobo as well to make things easier for me. But I hardly sell at all at Kobo and I don't know what my free download figures are (D2D doesn't report Kobo free downloads).

If you're more likely to get sales at Kobo if you go direct I guess I'd switch, but I'm not sure if that's the case. Does anyone have any input?

 
#66 ·
What a great idea!
Here's my freebie. There will be 12- 4 are up already, releasing a part every other week. I'd be a contemporary romance or new adult or erotic romance, wherever you can fit me. And I have yet to figure out how to put a cover (or any pict) up on here, so please excuse the link only:
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/memoirs-of-a-vanilla-with-sprinkles

It's a diff pen name though- Patience Hellsmith.
And thank you!
 
#72 ·
Patricia McLinn said:
Question: So, a book that's going to be free for, say, a month could also be eligible with sufficient notice?
Yes, Patricia - so long as we know the start and end date of how long it'll be free, we can schedule it in. We do schedule it to try to ensure that there are always fresh and new titles being featured, partially to give as many different writers a chance for exposure and finding an audience and partially to keep new titles and authors for customers to discover.

The best way to set that time-frame for FREE is to use the built-in PRICE SCHEDULING TOOL...

http://kobowritinglife.com/2013/11/07/kwl-price-scheduling-tool-now-live/

You can also use this to schedule price changes for BookBub style price promos - that way you don't need to be logged in at midnight and trying to get the change done at exactly the right time. When set in advance the price change ques up on the server ahead of time and does that waiting for you.
 
#73 ·
AmsterdamAssassin said:
Hi Mark,

Caught your guest spot at 2014 Writers of the Future Awards Event. Nice work, good speech.
Thanks, Martyn. Glad you liked it. I was particularly impressed with myself when I didn't trip while walking across the stage. ;)

But in all seriousness, it was so wonderful spending the week hanging out with such a great group of writers from around the world. That type of thing (going to conferences to spend time with writers), remains my favorite benefit of my role at Kobo.
 
#74 ·
Mark Leslie said:
Thanks, Martyn. Glad you liked it. I was particularly impressed with myself when I didn't trip while walking across the stage. ;)

But in all seriousness, it was so wonderful spending the week hanging out with such a great group of writers from around the world. That type of thing (going to conferences to spend time with writers), remains my favorite benefit of my role at Kobo.
Brings back memories. I was there (and on that stage) in 2011.
 
#75 ·
Mark Leslie said:
Thanks, Martyn. Glad you liked it. I was particularly impressed with myself when I didn't trip while walking across the stage. ;)
Well, I speak in public at seminars and workshops myself, so I'm pretty critical of performances, but you didn't stumble and your joke went down well, so you did good.

Mark Leslie said:
But in all seriousness, it was so wonderful spending the week hanging out with such a great group of writers from around the world. That type of thing (going to conferences to spend time with writers), remains my favorite benefit of my role at Kobo.
I can imagine. Enjoy yourself.

By the way, do you have some sort of list so we can see when our book is listed? Or can we join a list who receives these emails?
 
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