Amazon 'Give as a gift'

I have no clue on the gifting. 

If you gift it the rank will change when they claim the gift, not when you make the gift purchase, just so you know.

Can you gift a specific item or are we talking about a gift card?

Salvador Mercer said:

Can you gift a specific item or are we talking about a gift card?

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You can gift a specific book.

Or if the giftee doesn't want the book, they can get a gift card instead. 
Most books have a give as a gift button in the buy box.

SevenDays said:

If you gift it the rank will change when they claim the gift, not when you make the gift purchase, just so you know.

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Thank you. Looks to me I must gift it to my friends and ask them to accept the gift.
But does it work the same way? I mean the ranking? Or the ranking will rise slowly?

Salvador Mercer said:

Can you gift a specific item or are we talking about a gift card?

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You can gift a specific item, but there are no guarantees it will actually be purchased using the gifted funds. The gift recipient can write to KDP and have the gift you sent exchanged for a regular gift card, which can be used to purchase anything in the store.

surenfant, I'm not sure it's worth trying to raise the rank of your book prior to promotion. I'm pretty sure most readers don't even realize that Amazon ranks books (I didn't, before I became an author, even though I was a big Amazon shopper).

I just received a few kindle book gifts lately, its a email with the book in it. The cover and a large get your gift now orange button.

The email will say a gift from "name"

Under the large get your gift now button there is some writing and a small link. It says if you prefer something else you can exchange for gift card credit. So yes, the option is there to get it converted to a gift card. In case its not the book one wants or already has. The link though is under the large button and I think first reaction for most would be to just hit the get the gift option. You have to look close to see the link underneath.

surenfant said:

Thank you. Looks to me I must gift it to my friends and ask them to accept the gift.
But does it work in the same way? I mean the ranking? Or the ranking will rise slowly?

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The ranking change is exactly the same as if a stranger made the purchase.

Becca Mills said:

You can gift a specific item, but there are no guarantees it will actually be purchased using the gifted funds. The gift recipient can write to KDP and have the gift you sent exchanged for a regular gift card, which can be used to purchase anything in the store.\

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Books that are purchased as gifts can be exchanged for a gift card by clicking on a link in the gift, as Atunah says. I would have thought that gifts from the author would work the same way.

Betsy

Yes Betsy.
It works exactly the same.

it isn't going to get you very far, unless you have a TON of friends.
amazon's algo calculates bumps over time to figure out overall velocity, so one quick boost will be one quick boost, and nothing more.

Thanks for the answers.  I may need stronger eye glasses as I wasn't even noticing the other buttons but they are indeed there.  Would have bit me if they had teeth LOL! 

And in case anyone was wondering I always just purchased an item then selected the shipping address when I made a gift buy.  Later in the cart they ask me if its a gift and if I want it wrapped with a note etc.  I guess I didn't have experience in gifting a digital item before or in using the actual gift button on the main page.