[CynthiaClay]

I bought an ad for a book of my which I currently offering for free as a promo. The ad place listed all these place that would run the ad, so I published the book at Smashwords as well as Amazon. Amazon matched the free price after I asked them too. The problem is that as soon as they listed it as free, it does not show up in their search engine. Also, even though the book is ranked as #20 in fantasy, if you look at top 100 in free fantasy my book is not in the 20 spot, a Kindle unlimited book is. I think this is very unfair.

Also a book I took off of Smashwords so I can get it into the Kindle Select however, that option has yet to appear on my bookself. Anybody have experience with that problem? If you got it back to Amazon exclusive to put in Kindle Select, how long did you have to wait for Amazon to accept it?

If you are wondering which book is the #20 in free fantasy, just look at these covers and chose the one where the title begins with a C and the woman is wearing jewelry.

 

[Janeal Falor]

I'm seeing The Contending as #21 in the free store. When you click on the best sellers list, it automatically takes you to the paid list. You have to click over to the free book.

As for the search for it, I found it as well, only it was on the second page. It's frustrating when they get hidden back there, but I don't know if there's anything you can do short of selling more books.

 

[DaniO]

I see it as no17 in the Epic fantasy free list. No 20 in the Free Sword and Sorcery. As Janeal said, if you click on the link it takes you to the paid list (your book won't be visible there.) You need to click on top 100 free underneath the fantasy bestsellers title.

 

[Doglover]

I'm not sure what you mean by the option for select enrolment isn't there. You have to go to your bookshelf, click the three dots on the far right and then click enrol in kdp select.

 

[Doglover]

I am in the UK and your book is showing at £3.80 not free.

 

[CynthiaClay]

I'm seeing The Contending as #21 in the free store. When you click on the best sellers list, it automatically takes you to the paid list. You have to click over to the free book.

As for the search for it, I found it as well, only it was on the second page. It's frustrating when they get hidden back there, but I don't know if there's anything you can do short of selling more books.

Thanks so much for checking on this. I checked today again, and yes, I too found it in the search engine but not on free book list. I checked early in the day, maybe the "glitch" got fixed later.

 

[CynthiaClay]

I'm not sure what you mean by the option for select enrolment isn't there. You have to go to your bookshelf, click the three dots on the far right and then click enrol in kdp select.

That you spot you describe, on my bookshelf does not include the kdp select option for The Romance of the Unicorn.

 

[CynthiaClay]

I see it as no17 in the Epic fantasy free list. No 20 in the Free Sword and Sorcery. As Janeal said, if you click on the link it takes you to the paid list (your book won't be visible there.) You need to click on top 100 free underneath the fantasy bestsellers title.

oOO It moved up! Goody

 

[CynthiaClay]

Amazon's search engine is a joke. They order the search results based on something other than accuracy. It's not rank. It's not popularity. Nobody knows what it is. Searching for "the contending" will bring up every book with "contending" in the title (85). Yours is on page 2. "The" is ignored, so "contending" also brings up 85 results. Yours is still on page 2. All these search targets will bring up only your book:

contending clay
contending joyce
contending saga
contending dragon
contending born

contending cynthia brings up two, including yours

I'm laughing even though this is terrible. My gawd I worked hard on that book. Thanks for the laugh and the crazy stats

 

[CynthiaClay]

I am in the UK and your book is showing at £3.80 not free.

grrr, Then pop over to Smashwords or Kobo and other ebook sites to get it free. thanks for checking for me

 

[Doglover]

That you spot you describe, on my bookshelf does not include the kdp select option for The Romance of the Unicorn.

That's odd. I have one book that has never been in select and is on every other platform. I checked on that one and the option is there. If you don't have it, you should contact kdp and ask why not.

 

[CynthiaClay]

I wondered if you'd just rushed through this post without checking or correcting mistakes so I was curious enough to look at your book.
The blurb and the Look Inside both show mistakes that need editing & proofing.
Just one example would be breathe, not breath.
I'm not sure if English is a second language for you but your book does need to be edited.

I always rush through posts. The book was professionally edited three times, but as you know, there are always going to be mistakes that slip by. A friend of mine in the publishing industry was the head of 20 person team. In another company the team was just as large, and still Mississippi was misspelled.

The blurb I will take a look at again.

 

[Decon]

I am in the UK and your book is showing at £3.80 not free.

It's not free in Brazil either when viewing .com, but it shows the free ranks. What everyone has to know is that if they price match to free, other territories are still paid, and individually Amazon sites don't have to follow and usually don't. Sometimes the UK will price match and for no reason set them back to paid.

Amazon don't make anything from free books, so they have done things to hide them, like having customers clicking on the paid top one hundred to get to the free ones. A while back they had a purge of associate sites offering free promos when it got out of hand in the mad scramble for everyone wanting free promos.

If you look at the top free ones on .com, and you live outside the US, there are lots in the list showing as priced and not free. As far as I know, only having a KU promo guarantees all sites and territories showing as free and I think that's fair as a perk for being exclusive and restricting it to 5 free days over 90 days rather than perma free price matched when a book is wide.

I can understand your reasons for wanting it free, but I can also understand them doing that. If everything was perma free, or if customers only went for the free offering, they'd be out of business and we'd all lose out.

It's years since I took my books off smashwords and it took two months before they were all cleared, or so I thought. Amazon said one site still had it on their books, and it took another 4 weeks to get sony to remove it.

 

[Tilly]

It's not free Downunder either - I see a price of $5.62. I assume your free run is US only?

 

[CynthiaClay]

It's not free Downunder either - I see a price of $5.62. I assume your free run is US only?

Nope, it's supposed to be free everywhere. If you need it in Kindle, Smashwords has it free in the kindle software. If you want it, but can't find it free online, email me personally.

 

[Tilly]

Nope, it's supposed to be free everywhere. If you need it in Kindle, Smashwords has it free in the kindle software.

As a reader, when I see a free promo, I look at the Amazon page and if its not free I move on. I don't buy from Smashwords and I'm not going to figure out where or how to get the book for free. From the responses in this thread it looks like the title is free only in the US.

 

[Doglover]

Nope, it's supposed to be free everywhere. If you need it in Kindle, Smashwords has it free in the kindle software. If you want it, but can't find it free online, email me personally.

When did you ask Amazon to make it permafree? In my experience it can take a week or more to soak through to the other sites.

 

[CynthiaClay]

When did you ask Amazon to make it permafree? In my experience it can take a week or more to soak through to the other sites.

It actually isn't permafree. It is free while I have the promotion on it which is until Aug 24. Then I'll change its price to .99. Once I have all four books out, books 2-4 will go to more reasonable (for me and Amazon) pricing, and book one will stay at .99. I'll do a freebie promotion on book 4 when it first comes out.

Thank your for that infor about permafrees needing time to soak into other sites.