[cblewgolf]

I've been contemplating going Free for 1-2 titles between Xmas & NY.  But something just occurred to me.  If there's a ton of new Kindle owners, are we setting a precedent that there are plenty of good FREE titles out there all the time?  That they think, "Hey, I just got a Kindle and can download Free books whenever I want."

Just a thought.  I went Free last 12/29/11-12/31/11 and had incredible results, which is why I'm debating this.

 

[JRTomlin]

Nope.

 

[dalya]

I do wonder if there'll be more competition than usual on the free list ... or if people will assume there will be and avoid the freebies ... or if I put the poison in your cup ...

 

[Amanda Brice]

I'm going free immediately BEFORE Christmas, hoping that I'll get a bump during the time period when folks will be looking for new books to fill up their e-readers.

 

[Quiss]

I'm going to launch a new book and do a freebie run in the New Year for a fresh start.

Part of this is because I think EVERYONE is going to be doing freebies over the holidays or before and it will be very hard to get listings at the usual promo sites.

 

[StrokerChase]

I'll probably put my book up for free before Christmas. That way it's up for sale so I get paid after Christmas. I'm not going to do it on Christmas day or after because I'm betting a lot of people are going to do the same thing.

 

[Onedayatatime]

I'm doing a free run this weekend and another one in the new year but nothing for the holidays.

I want to see some PAID SALES! 

 

[Josh Handrich]

I'm going free immediately BEFORE Christmas, hoping that I'll get a bump during the time period when folks will be looking for new books to fill up their e-readers.

Wouldn't it make more sense to do it after, not before, when they're busy playing with their new toy and are looking for new titles? That, and they're more likely to make impulse buys.

I've been debating this with myself for two weeks. From my perspective, I'm selling one copy of Kingdom of Rage every 3-5 days so timing is critical. I don't have any reviews yet so I'm not in a hurry to let it go free or buy advertisements. Or am I using flawed logic?

 

[JRTomlin]

I'm doing a free run this weekend and another one in the new year but nothing for the holidays.

I want to see some PAID SALES!

I am going to assume that, as usual, the freebie will spur paid sales. That's the point of them, right?

I have a Bookbub ad for a freebie on Christmas day and a reduced price sale on ENT. So... we'll see how that works out for me.

 

[Amanda Brice]

Wouldn't it make more sense to do it after, not before, when they're busy playing with their new toy and are looking for new titles? That, and they're more likely to make impulse buys.

My logic is that there will be a flood of free titles after Christmas, so it will be very difficult to get any kind of mention on the blogs. Also, the bounce you get from a free run is so fleeting that it I want it to occur while everyone is busy playing with their new toy and are looking for new titles. I want to be at full price -- at a better rank with better visibility -- while they're making impulse buys, not free.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong. I'm running a number of promotional strategies (free, reduced price) on different books at different times during the immediate-pre and immediate-post holiday season, so we'll see what works. I'm all about experimentation.

 

[Pnjw]

I'm just sticking with permafree. I did just run a promo that I'm hoping helps the rest of my books stick on the lists.

 

[cblewgolf]

Do any of the free sites allow you to list multiple books?  Say 1 on 12-21 for 3 days and another on 12-26 for 3 days?  Or will they just let you choose 1 book?

 

[Quiss]

Hmmm, with all this freebie mania happening I wonder if I should hold off the release of my new book until the frenzy has leveled off. Visibility in all the noise is going to be hard to come by.

Darned if you do and darned if you don't.

 

[Caddy]

I'm not, but don't go by me.  I don't sell that many books.  I just can't see where making my book free during the holidays is going to do anything positive for it. There will be a ton of them.  I am going to take the advice that was offered on here this week, can't remember by who.

Quit worrying about every book sale.  You can't control it. Just keep writing. The rest will happen. (Yes, I do some marketing and, yes, I try to create a presence...but free is not part of it so far. Perhaps when my series is done I will make the first one free or .99 I don't know. Since I can't make it free on B&N that may not work.)

 

[48209]

I'm considering doing a free of KISS next week two days after LSG is released, but that has more to do with the release than the holiday.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

I'm running two books free right now. Trying to avoid the holiday rush.    I'm not going to do another one until January when the second book in my new series come out.

It's hard to know what the best strategy is for the holidays, so I decided not to tie any free runs into Christmas.

 

[JRTomlin]

Let me mention that for me Christmas Day promotions I am not depending on free listings although, of course, I've applied for them. I've put some fair coin into the endeavor.

 

[Robert Brumm]

I'm going free immediately BEFORE Christmas, hoping that I'll get a bump during the time period when folks will be looking for new books to fill up their e-readers.

This. I'm having an amazing run with Windigo Soul this week. Over 16,000 downloads, a bunch of new reviews, made it in the top 20, a handful of fan letters via email, a couple of blogs picked it up, new Twitter and FB followers, and an offer from a German publisher.

I'm doing the same with Desolate next week in hopes all of this effort will rise me towards the top of the pile when people are unwrapping their new Kindles and looking for books.

So far so good. The free copies of Windigo Soul I've given away since Monday have also spurred sales from my others books. KDP Select ain't perfect but it's still doing some good for this guy....

 

[Kathleen Valentine]

The good thing about having a lot of titles is that I feel fine with going free on a few of them - mostly slow sellers anyway - and keeping my better sellers out of Select so they can be sold in a lot of places. That is my strategy because there is nothing we can do to stop the people who are determined to offer free books so we have to compete at least a little bit.

 

[JRTomlin]

The good thing about having a lot of titles is that I feel fine with going free on a few of them - mostly slow sellers anyway - and keeping my better sellers out of Select so they can be sold in a lot of places. That is my strategy because there is nothing we can do to stop the people who are determined to offer free books so we have to compete at least a little bit.

Next year I plan a substantial "out of Select" experiment. For one thing, I think I may have finally figured out at least some ways to promote on other platforms. There are things that are worrying such as reports of extremely slow payments from Kobo and the B&N site getting, if anything, worse. But we have to take these things one step at a time imo.

For the moment, Select is working very well for me so until after the holidays, I'm in and will have a few freebies.