First Free Run and questions (of course)

Hi Lizzie,
I picked up your book.  Hope it helps with the rankings. 
Now here are some hugssss. 

Your ranking with switch to free rankings for the length of the promo, then go back to paid rankings when the promo is over. But the paid ranking will drop, because you won't have had any actual sales in the time the promo was on.

because you won't have had any actual sales in the time the promo was o

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Depends. She's in KU and KU peeps are very likely to borrow it, not download it free.

Thanks, cinisajoy!

So, people can still borrow while its free? If promoting your book for free, drops you sales ranking then is it really beneficial to do it?

Lizzie G said:

Thanks, cinisajoy!

So, people can still borrow while its free? If promoting your book for free, drops you sales ranking then is it really beneficial to do it?

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Yes, it is beneficial. Since KU started, every time I've had a free run my post-promo paid ranking has been better than the pre-promo ranking. The only explanation for this seems to be the KU borrows during the promo benefiting the ranking.

Philip

To add to what Philip said: the more free copies you shift, the better the uplift in ranking seems to be. This is logical if there's a small percentage of people who borrow instead of taking the free copy. Since you seem to be scheduling a lot of ads, you should shift a lot of free copies, so you will likely get quite a number of borrows and should therefore see a good uplift in ranking. This has been my experience: small number of free copies = trivial uplift; large number of free copies = substantial uplift.

One of the hidden perks of KU.

Thanks, Pauline. I did schedule a bunch of ads for when it went free. But it's only free for a day so I'm not sure if that matters. What's your experience been like as far as the duration of the promotion? I'm still trying to figure all of this out. I just started and the learning curve is pretty steep and there are SO many different opinions.

On a completely different note- I really like your covers

Are there any rules about when you can start your free promo? I know with a Countdown deal you have to wait 30 days after you publish, but I can't find any info like that about free days.

Does that happen a lot? That people borrow when they could just keep it for free?

You can go free as soon as you publish.

nightfire said:

You can go free as soon as you publish.

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Thanks, nightfire. That's the answer I was hoping for!

Lizzie G said:

What's your experience been like as far as the duration of the promotion? I'm still trying to figure all of this out. I just started and the learning curve is pretty steep and there are SO many different opinions.

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To be honest, I don't know. I've done a 2-day free stint, and a 3-day one, shifting 800 copies and 4,400 respectively (the difference being all down to the promos I used - ENT/FreeBooksy in particular). Learning curve - yes, definitely! I'm regarding my entire first year as learning curve, frankly. After that, I might have some vague idea what I'm doing (but don't count on it).

On a completely different note- I really like your covers

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Thank you! I like my covers, too. My cover designer is awesome. If I'd had $5 for every time someone said they liked them, I could have almost paid for them.