My Lessons Learned

I was on the fence for months regarding whether or not to take advantage of the five free promotional days for books enrolled in KDP Select. This week I decided to take the plunge. With well over 1200 copies sold since the December 21, 2011 release of Still a Young Man, and slowing sales for the past week, I supposed I had nothing to lose and possibly something to gain.

I chose Tuesday, March 20, 2011 as the free day. Here are the results:

Free Books: nearly 1380

Highest Rank: #9 in Top 100 Free Best Sellers in Historical Romances

Highest Overall Rank: #183 in Free Kindle Store

*Amazon rankings are snapshots; figures are based upon random spot checks

How the results of the free giveaway translate in terms of increased sales, increased visibility, or both, remains to be seen. As with all my marketing and promotion efforts, I am optimistic.

Lessons Learned:

Despite the fact that Still a Young Man in eBook version has been available exclusively through Amazon for the past three months, I continue to be pleased. My experience with the other distribution channels available through Smashwords is favorable, but it takes a while before sales are made. Case in point, I added He Taught Me to Hope to KDP on October 3^rd and Smashwords on October 6^th. The first Kindle sale occurred within a day or two; the first Barnes & Noble sale occurred on November 6^th.

Still a Young Man hovered around the top ten Hot New Releases in Regency Romances for four weeks, which may or may not have anything to do with its enrollment in KDP Select. I am persuaded that enrollment in the program offers advantages of increased visibility.

I plan to enroll Bewitched, Body and Soul in KDP Select in conjunction with its release, largely as a result of my positive experience with the program.

Another lesson learned; schedule the free promotion sooner rather than wait until the last days, as well as, announce the free promotion earlier. I decided on Monday morning that I would opt for Tuesday as my first (and only) free day. I started promoting the ‘free day’ on Twitter and Facebook on the morning it kicked off. Fortunately, I was blessed with at least five retweets that I am aware of.

The next time I opt for a KDP Select giveaway, I will plan a more focused promotion campaign, and I will not wait until the last few days of enrollment. That way, I will have more time to analyze the results of the campaign, as well as schedule others.

Finally, I have mixed emotions about removing Still a Young Man from KDP Select at the end of this week; however the prospect of committing to another 90 days is unthinkable. I look forward to wider distribution. It would be great if Amazon allowed authors to commit to KDP Select on a month to month basis after the first 90 days of enrollment. Oh well.