[Sam Rivers]

Last month I put my three novels that were perma-free back to paid.  These were the first book in the series.

Now these books that were perma-free are selling and earning money.

This is turning out to be a very good month for me.

Now I have switched from being a believer in Perma-free to Perma-paid.

 

[Chinese Writer]

Now I have switched from being a believer in Perma-free to Perma-paid.

 

[Donna White Glaser]

What price did you set them back to? And yay!  I don't think I'm quite that brave yet. I've got the first book in a new series that I just entered in Scout. If it doesn't get picked up by them, I'm going to pub it, of course. At that point, I'll be a little more comfortable experimenting.  Did you leave any permafrees up?

 

[JTCochrane]

Last month I put my three novels that were perma-free back to paid. These were the first book in the series.

Now these books that were perma-free are selling and earning money.

This is turning out to be a very good month for me.

Now I have switched from being a believer in Perma-free to Perma-paid.

I have thought about trying that but I would like to hear from others. I am in YA Fantasy/Science Fiction. But, I have wondered about this A LOT lately.

 

[NoCat]

Can you give hard numbers on this? "Improved" doesn't mean a whole lot on its own.  Did you go from a free book to that book selling 2 copies in a month? Or did you put everything back to paid and go from selling 20 copies to 2000. Scale matters in terms of how useful this data might be for others.

 

[katetanner]

I always say you have to experiment and see what works for you. I have zero free books. I play with my pricing.

I don't think free works for everyone and for every genre.

It would be nice to know how many books you are selling now you are no longer permafree.

 

[Donna White Glaser]

Can you give hard numbers on this? "Improved" doesn't mean a whole lot on its own. Did you go from a free book to that book selling 2 copies in a month? Or did you put everything back to paid and go from selling 20 copies to 2000. Scale matters in terms of how useful this data might be for others.

This is very true. Good observation. I'd like to know, too, at least in general numbers.

 

[David VanDyke]

I'm all for doing what works. There are so many factors, you often have to try everything. This works for you, for now.

 

[Jane Killick]

The first rule about Indie Publishing is there are no rules about Indie Publishing. 

Congrats! Glad it's working for you.

 

[timstevens]

Glad it's working for you, Wild.

I use a 'pulsed permafree' strategy, for want of a better term. Permafree for a few months, with a BookBub promo to get it out there and seed the various popularity lists (as opposed to bestseller lists) on Amazon. Then back to paid for a few months, and reap the benefits. Works well, in my experience.

 

[Donna White Glaser]

Glad it's working for you, Wild.

I use a 'pulsed permafree' strategy, for want of a better term. Permafree for a few months, with a BookBub promo to get it out there and seed the various popularity lists (as opposed to bestseller lists) on Amazon. Then back to paid for a few months, and reap the benefits. Works well, in my experience.

But while it's permafree it's not collecting any sales rank. Doesn't that make the rank/searchability drop like a bucket o' rocks when you set it back to priced? Plus I'd be afraid that some of the other vendors don't get it taken down, which would just set it back to free when the bots pick it up. The bigger concern for me, though, is the rank issue.

 

[timstevens]

But while it's permafree it's not collecting any sales rank. Doesn't that make the rank/searchability drop like a bucket o' rocks when you set it back to priced? Plus I'd be afraid that some of the other vendors don't get it taken down, which would just set it back to free when the bots pick it up. The bigger concern for me, though, is the rank issue.

The immediate rank drops, but the book holds its position on the Amazon popularity lists (the ones that appear at the bottom of the book's product page, not the bestseller lists). These are the lists people find when they come to the end of a book on their Kindle and get directed to similar books in the Kindle store. They're based on the last thirty days' performance of your book, not on its current ranking, and they don't distinguish between free and paid books. That's one reason you get a tail after a short freebie promo ends, assuming you had a decent number of downloads during that period.

 

[Briteka]

I believe Amazon stopped using free downloads in their algorithm somewhere at the end of 2012. If the "pulsed" strategy is working, it's because sell-through of later books in the series has given them a higher place on the pop lists, and that increases sales of book one once it's no longer free.

 

[timstevens]

I believe Amazon stopped using free downloads in their algorithm somewhere at the end of 2012. If the "pulsed" strategy is working, it's because sell-through of later books in the series has given them a higher place on the pop lists, and that increases sales of book one once it's no longer free.

I disagree, respectfully, Briteka. Amazon certainly seemed to reduce the weight of free downloads on the pop lists, but the ranking there is definitely boosted if your book has tens of thousands of free downloads. I've seen it again and again over the last few years, irrespective of whether or not there are improved downloads of subsequent books in the series. Ive seen it with stand-alones, for one thing.

 

[srf89]

I like tempa-free but your strategy is exactly what I would consider, anyway- offer the early birds a free copy and then move it after some time to paid sales.

 

[RBradyFrost]

Was it hard going from perma-free back to paid? I'm guessing you had to raise your prices on other platforms and then report to Amazon that they were no longer free on other markets?
Is that how it works?

 

[timstevens]

Was it hard going from perma-free back to paid? I'm guessing you had to raise your prices on other platforms and then report to Amazon that they were no longer free on other markets?
Is that how it works?

You can do it that way, and it probably gets results more quickly. But I usually just set a paid price on all the other platforms and wait for Amazon to catch up. There's no rush. Amazon normally takes about a week to revert to paid, in my experience, though it has taken as long as three weeks on occasion.

 

[Sam Rivers]

Was it hard going from perma-free back to paid? I'm guessing you had to raise your prices on other platforms and then report to Amazon that they were no longer free on other markets?
Is that how it works?

That is correct. Wait until the book goes to paid on B&N or Apple and sent Amazon a link so they can check it. As soon as they verify the information is correct, they will removed Perma-free so it goes back to its original price. That usually happens within a day or less.

 

[David VanDyke]

Timstevens is correct on both counts, and not many people know it.

 

[SB James]

If I were to get rid of my permafree, I think I would simply take it down from all the sites and just make it one of my email sign-up goodies, because my permafree isn't exactly a "first-in-series," it's more of a prologue to Book 1 and people could definitely live without it.
I am curious how many of your sales are coming from Amazon as opposed to the other sales channels, Wild. I've noticed the reduced effectiveness of permafree (though it does still exist) on Amazon, while other sales channels simply have better follow-through sales. I'm waiting to see how much better my sales get on the other channels before I make a firm decision about what ultimately will happen with my permafree book.