[Mike Dennis]

I woke up this morning to discover that Amazon had made one of my novels a freebie. I'm sure it was because they found out I had lowered the price of it to zero on Smashwords a couple of weeks ago. It's the first novel I self-published, a rock & roll tale called Cadillac's Comin'. I never really promoted it too much and don't even have it in my signature. Now here's what I'm not getting:

According to the sales figures, there have been over 1000 downloads this morning. I just now checked the ranking and it's #89 in the free store and #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Arts & Entertainment > Music. Of course, I can't get too excited because these aren't sales and there are no royalties involved, but is this something that would lead to sales of my other novels? Also, my other novels are crime/noir while this one is a story of a one-hit wonder at the dawn of rock & roll in the 1950s. Will that cause me problems?

If anyone has any knowledge or experience with this kind of thing, the freebies and all, I would definitely appreciate some of your wisdom.

 

[Mike Dennis]

Well, I got no response to my question all day, but I did continue to climb in the free store rankings. The book is currently #65. I don't really see any benefit, though. My three other novels have sold a grand total of 1 today. So I guess this free book thing is nothing to get excited about.

 

[Shaun Jeffrey]

I've had around 12,000 copies of my free novella Dead Man's Eye downloaded, and it's not led to an increase in sales for the paid books 

 

[Laura Lond]

The freebie book might take some time to produce sales of other books. Many people grab a freebie and read it later, so there won't be immediate action from them to check out your other works. Give it time, having a free book out usually does help sales.

 

[Gordon Ryan]

I agree with Edward about increased sales in other books taking a while.  In my case, (as we discussed in the other thread) the FREE book is volume one of three in a thriller series. I have in fact seen about two dozen sales (more than usual per day movement) along with the 3,500 free downloads so far. So, it is translating to a minor sales increase. But the books are directly related.

If there is to be spin off to your other books, a different genre, it will be the result of good writing (which will take a bit longer for them to discover) and generated interest. The two genre are vastly different.

Good luck.

Gordon Ryan

 

[daringnovelist]

I've had three books made free, one had a shruggable result.  Another hasn't seemed to have had much result in boosting other sales, but when it stopped being free, it has sold regularly since (I don't know if that will trickle away to nothing later, though.)

My short story collection with the most interesting title, though, did better in its first day than both of the other freebies did in 30 days. That one has only been free for about a week, and the other book it most ties into has seen more sales this week than it usually sees in a month.

My books are quirky, and sales are usually slow, so your mileage (and even MY mileage) will vary a lot.

Camille

 

[Mike Dennis]

Shaun, Edward, Laura, Gordon, and Camille--
Thanks for your perspective. I see now that it's more of a waiting game. So wait I shall. Wish me luck.

 

[Mike Dennis]

I just now noticed that the sub-ranking for Cadillac's Comin' is: #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Arts & Entertainment > Music. The book, however, is a novel--fiction, not nonfiction. I don't know where Amazon got the idea it was nonfiction. I've written them alerting them to this mistake, since I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking they're downloading a nonfiction book.

Could this cause problems somehow? Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any advice?