[SawyerBennett]

I'm doing my Happy Can't Dance Dance this morning. I finally broke Amazon's top ten free list overnight after hovering between #12-15 for a few days. This is my last day of my free run and I'm at approx 30,000 downloads so far. I wish I knew the formula. One thought I had was the categories I picked. I chose what I feel is a very popular category (contemporary romance) and one that was a bit more obscure (coming of age). I quickly shot #1 to coming of age, so I'm thinking maybe the visibility on that list helped to boost downloads. Again, these results are a far cry from my paranormal romance I ran for free weekend before last that had a whopping 1000 downloads over 2 days.  So I'm also thinking contemporary romance is just more popular than paranormal romance.  Finally, I've received a lot of comments about my book cover for Off Sides and I think it's probably just more appealing than my other cover.  At any rate, I have no clue why Off Sides did so well but I'm continuing to study it. I've been looking at my Google results to see who is talking about the book, and alot of free promo sites picked it up on their own, as well as book groups and book blogs.  I'll post about what happens after I take it off the free run.

 

[60865]

Félicitations!

 

[Michael_J_Sullivan]

Congratulations1

 

[Chris Northern]

I read a little and it's probably just that it's brilliantly written. I´ll buy a copy later when I have a day to spend on myself. 

 

[MorganKegan]

Congrats! Hope you get a lot of sales from the visibility.

BTW, you have a problem with the blurb for Off Sides:

Forced her to abandon her music career...

 

[Carry Lada]

Congratulations!

 

[phildukephd]

Sorry to rain a little on your parade, but fact is, readers who get your book free will never buy it. A person reading any free book is a person who didn't buy a book to read.

 

[SawyerBennett]

Congrats! Hope you get a lot of sales from the visibility.

BTW, you have a problem with the blurb for Off Sides:

Thanks Morgan!!!! I am so on it right now. Geez!!!

Sorry to rain a little on your parade, but fact is, readers who get your book free will never buy it. A person reading any free book is a person who didn't buy a book to read.

Phil: that doesn't rain on my parade at all. I have zero expectations on sales and frankly, I ran the free promo to get exposure and build a fan base, which that has definitely paid off. If I do think it might help sales, it is for my other books in that I hope if people like my writing, they might buy my other books that are published. I will definitely keep everyone posted on the results because there have been so many mixed reviews on the effectiveness of the KDP Select program. We'll see what happens.

 

[Lisa Grace]

Sorry to rain a little on your parade, but fact is, readers who get your book free will never buy it. A person reading any free book is a person who didn't buy a book to read.

I can see you're fairly new to Kindleboards, and this statement is absolutely false. Matter of fact, Amazon has printed statistics in it's KDP newsletter that readers actually go on to buy books they've borrowed free through Prime. I, myself, have a book permanently free, and for every 9 downloads, I sell one of my other two books in the series, and that's not including the people who go on to buy my two other books outside the series, or those who buy the bundled 3 pack.

Readers do go on to buy other books by an author if they read and like the free one.

There's a reason Amazon allows authors in Select to offer their book free for five days out of ninety, and that's because it does lead to sales.

Also, just noticed, but if you don't think free works, why on earth are you offering a free book on your website?

SawyerBennett - Congratulations! You're at #7!!!

 

[Janet Michelson]

Sorry to rain a little on your parade, but fact is, readers who get your book free will never buy it. A person reading any free book is a person who didn't buy a book to read.

Well, how rude. She's trying to get a fan base and some exposure. Being buried in oblivion doesn't seem to be a good strategy.

Sawyer, I just checked and you are No 7! I'm sure you will get a bump on sales of your other books.

 

[SawyerBennett]

Well, how rude. She's trying to get a fan base and some exposure. Being buried in oblivion doesn't seem to be a good strategy.

Sawyer, I just checked and you are No 7! I'm sure you will get a bump on sales of your other books.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Janet. Increased sales would be nice because who doesn't need that, but at the risk of sounding so very cheesy, honestly the best thing about this has been getting validation. It's one thing to have my family and friends tell me my writing is good *rolls eyes at them* But now, I'm getting emails, tweets, and FB postings from people who became emotionally invested in my characters and that feels oh so sweet . That more than anything made the free run worth it!!!

 

[ClaireMarie]

Phil's comment is very discouraging to an indie author to say the least. I myself have been carefully strategizing for my next week's free run of number one in my series. This is my first visit to the Kindleboards and this is my first post.
Anyway, Sawyer, congratulations. I will be looking for your results later. Seems to be that 30,000 downloads has to result in some sales. I'm going to go pick it up and try to review.

 

[bmcox]

That's fantastic, Sawyer. Congrats!  

 

[SawyerBennett]

Phil's comment is very discouraging to an indie author to say the least. I myself have been carefully strategizing for my next week's free run of number one in my series. This is my first visit to the Kindleboards and this is my first post.
Anyway, Sawyer, congratulations. I will be looking for your results later. Seems to be that 30,000 downloads has to result in some sales. I'm going to go pick it up and try to review.

For every negative comment on here, you'll get ten times the encouragement from others, so stick with it. If you need any help from me, holler!! I'm an open book (yes, I just went literal) and will share any info I can glean to help others!!!! I also have a list of free book promo sites that you can submit your book to if you want it. Just email me at [email protected] (that goes for anyone) and I'll send it to you. I didn't use it for this book b/c I ran it free on a whim, but I have submitted to them for some free runs I'm doing in March on my other books to see if I can gauge effectiveness.

 

[Lisa Grace]

Phil's comment is very discouraging to an indie author to say the least. I myself have been carefully strategizing for my next week's free run of number one in my series. This is my first visit to the Kindleboards and this is my first post.
Anyway, Sawyer, congratulations. I will be looking for your results later. Seems to be that 30,000 downloads has to result in some sales. I'm going to go pick it up and try to review.

He doesn't know what he's talking about. Of course, free works better if you have other books to sell to your readers, and you have a high quality book. When you come off free, your ranking can be better (not always) which gets you on more lists (visibility) and can increase sales. Many people get a "bump" from free. Just write your next book and good luck on your free run.

 

[Savannah_Page]

I can see you're fairly new to Kindleboards, and this statement is absolutely false. Matter of fact, Amazon has printed statistics in it's KDP newsletter that readers actually go on to buy books they've borrowed free through Prime. I, myself, have a book permanently free, and for every 9 downloads, I sell one of my other two books in the series, and that's not including the people who go on to buy my two other books outside the series, or those who buy the bundled 3 pack.

Readers do go on to buy other books by an author if they read and like the free one.

There's a reason Amazon allows authors in Select to offer their book free for five days out of ninety, and that's because it does lead to sales.

Also, just noticed, but if you don't think free works, why on earth are you offering a free book on your website?

SawyerBennett - Congratulations! You're at #7!!!

Congrats!!! That's a great way to wake up!

And agreed. There are a number of reasons to go free--building a fan base, exposure, introducing a series, etc. I recently went free with my expat narrative with the sole purpose to give the fans of it a chance to have the revised second edition for free. Not the typical reason to go free, but something I wanted to do and, hey, if I found new readers then great!

I've had readers who have definitely found books in my chick lit collection simply because of a free run. Month prior to free run: single digit sales for all books. (Yes, very dismal.)
Month directly after a free run: all books in the series selling a handful of copies every day. Had I not done the free run of one of my books in the series, then my new release would still be sitting at next to zero sales.

I don't buy into the "freebie snatchers won't buy your books" either. I personally have found several indie authors I now can't get enough of because I've snagged one of their books for free. If I like an author I'll get the rest of their books, free or not.

Congrats again on the awesome promo and ranking, and best of luck here on out!

 

[AnneEton]

Sorry to rain a little on your parade, but fact is, readers who get your book free will never buy it. A person reading any free book is a person who didn't buy a book to read.

You been on that heroin, Sherlock?

That's excellent, Sawyer! You will see results, for sure. Congratulations!

 

[LinaG]

KCfalls--

Welcome! Try not to be discouraged by Phil's comment. I doubt he was trying to be discouraging, only offering what he feels is a counterpoint to temper high expectations. I find the writers here excel in telling the truth as they see it, and we learn a lot from each other as we discuss varying opinions.  LisaG's info is a great example of this.

Hope to hear more from you, and see your book published soon!

Sawyer--  Congrats on a race won!  

Your Pal,

Li

 

[60169]

With 30K (and counting) giveaways, I think you're going to have a very nice few weeks coming. Enjoy the ride, and congratulations.

BTW... have you posted your results in the MEGA-THREAD for free runs? People who follow and track how free runs go tend to check in there a lot. Or, at least I do!

 

[SawyerBennett]

With 30K (and counting) giveaways, I think you're going to have a very nice few weeks coming. Enjoy the ride, and congratulations.

BTW... have you posted your results in the MEGA-THREAD for free runs? People who follow and track how free runs go tend to check in there a lot. Or, at least I do!

I had not Shawn! I didn't know about it but I will post there. Thanks!!!