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Help! Can't price my ebook at zero!

1500 Views 16 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  TexasGirl
Hi,

Announced that my ebook will be free tomorrow and now I don't see an option to set it to zero!!!

Help anyone?

Tks!

Filipa
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The only ways to get a book free on Amazon are to either make it free everywhere and hope they price match, or enroll it in the KDP Select program, which gives you 5 days out of every 90 to set the price to free.
Tks! Not good...at all...

Well, let's see if it works. Anyone tried this and failed? There seem to be so many free ebooks there I thought it was a no brainer...rookie:)
You probably won't get it to price match by tomorrow so your best bet is to enter it in KDP Select and then schedule it to be free - you can do this easily through the drop down menu.  Should be able to do that no problem. 

The only thing is that you can't be selling the book anywhere else or that violates the terms.
leedobbins said:
You probably won't get it to price match by tomorrow so your best bet is to enter it in KDP Select and then schedule it to be free - you can do this easily through the drop down menu. Should be able to do that no problem.

The only thing is that you can't be selling the book anywhere else or that violates the terms.
This.

Unlikely you will see the price match in time. Joining KDP Select will let you set to free tomorrow.
Unlikely you will see the price match in time. Joining KDP Select will let you set to free tomorrow.
Yes, but if it's up for sale on any other site, you probably won't be able to get it taken down quickly enough.
MegHarris said:
Yes, but if it's up for sale on any other site, you probably won't be able to get it taken down quickly enough.
Tks everyone for the clarifications. Unfortunatelly I'm already published in other stores so I won't make it on KDP by tomorrow...fail.
From what I've read on here in the past, Amazon gives you a grace period when you enter Select. They know that it takes other sites some time to take your books down.
NicholasAndrews said:
From what I've read on here in the past, Amazon gives you a grace period when you enter Select. They know that it takes other sites some time to take your books down.
They do give you a grace period. Quite a number of us here emailed Amazon to confirm this and Amazon did. As long as you have requested the removal, you're good with Amazon.
leedobbins said:
You probably won't get it to price match by tomorrow so your best bet is to enter it in KDP Select and then schedule it to be free - you can do this easily through the drop down menu. Should be able to do that no problem.

The only thing is that you can't be selling the book anywhere else or that violates the terms.
I want to clarify: You can't sell it anywhere else as an ebook. You can sell it everywhere else as a paperback.
By the way, the text of what I am sure is a standard Amazon e-mail confirming that all you have to do at Smashwords is request the removal has been posted here a number of times. A search would probably turn it up.
How widely was this out? Did you pay for ads, submit to lots of sites? If so, I'd honor it, yank the book from other retailers, and put it in Select. Like, now.

But if you were just doing it on your own site or to your own fans, head over to Smashwords, put it up there if you haven't already, then either make it free there or generate a coupon to make it free. Then link everyone to there or publicize the coupon.

You can also go free on Kobo instantly, as well as iTunes if you put it up direct (not through another site like Smash, Lulu or D2D) and already have the book up. Price changes go through fast.

Just not Amazon or BN. Those are not easy venues to be free.

Good luck.
TexasGirl said:
You can also go free on Kobo instantly, as well as iTunes if you put it up direct (not through another site like Smash, Lulu or D2D) and already have the book up. Price changes go through fast.
You can go free at iTunes (and Kobo) through Draft2Digital. I thought you could at Smashwords, too, but I haven't used the site in over a year.
I know you CAN go free with Smash and D2D, but will they go up by tomorrow? That's the OP issue. Only the direct uploads will be that fast, I'm betting.

Smash is definitely not that fast, and last I heard, D2D wasn't taking new publishers at this very moment??? Someone posted that.
TexasGirl said:
I know you CAN go free with Smash and D2D, but will they go up by tomorrow? That's the OP issue. Only the direct uploads will be that fast, I'm betting.

Smash is definitely not that fast, and last I heard, D2D wasn't taking new publishers at this very moment??? Someone posted that.
Correct. You can bet that they will NOT go up on other retailers by tomorrow.

TexasGirl said:
How widely was this out? Did you pay for ads, submit to lots of sites? If so, I'd honor it, yank the book from other retailers, and put it in Select. Like, now.

But if you were just doing it on your own site or to your own fans, head over to Smashwords, put it up there if you haven't already, then either make it free there or generate a coupon to make it free. Then link everyone to there or publicize the coupon.


You can also go free on Kobo instantly, as well as iTunes if you put it up direct (not through another site like Smash, Lulu or D2D) and already have the book up. Price changes go through fast.

Just not Amazon or BN. Those are not easy venues to be free.

Good luck.
Extremely good advice.

Bolding added.
Hi everyone,

Just an update on my (failed) free offer:

1. I unplublished from Smashwords but not in time to make it free on the 13th as disclosed in several websites
2. Although it was not free, the simple fact of being mentioned in some facebook pages and emails led to about 150 sales in 5 days
3. My take is that people saw the book, thought it might be interesting and had no problem paying 0,99 USD for it
4. It's now two days since it's been on sale for 2,99 USD and sales have started decreasing but are still around 10 per day
5. About 10% of the purchases were returned. I think that most of them are from people that pressed a button thinking it was free and then returned the book

I'm sorry for the confusion, and will join KDP very soon to make a proper giving. What do you think is the best option: using the 5 days in a row or splitting?

Tks everyone for the help,

Filipa
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Plan for it to be a two or three day free run. If it's not going well, stop it and save the other days. If it is going well (you're rising up the top 100 free), then do the full five.
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