Marketing Strategy: Maximizing Your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select Free Days
YAY! #1 IN THE TOP 100 FREE BOOK ON KINDLE
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Peter F. Drucker
Every author should have a marketing plan for his or her book, before it is published. Take the time to create and execute your Marketing plan. Writing your book is the easy part. Getting your book in the hands of readers can be challenging, hence a marketing plan and marketing strategies.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select program can help your book reach readers. Click KDP Select Program to learn more. There are some basic things you can implement to have a more successful period in the program.
Let’s Go Over The Basics
1. You have a great book, your best work
2. You have found your writing voice and your target audience
3. You have established a Platform – an author’s page on a website, blog, and social
media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
4. Your author and book pages on Amazon and other book retailers are completed.
The roll out of your book is very important; you must protect your brand. So, take charge of your Marketing Plan.
An option for your marketing strategy could be enrolling your book in Amazon’s KDP Select Program.
KDP Select Success Tips For Kindle Free Days
1. Book Reviews
Wait until you have at least 10 good reviews (5 stars or 4 stars) before going free. There are so many free books on the market that readers are more selective.
2. Stagger your free promotion days
Under the KDP Select program, you are allow 5 days to promote your book for FREE. There has been much discussion about how many and which days to select. I enrolled my book, “Unforgettable, My Love Has Come Along” for 5 days. That period was too long. From my experience and research, I am suggesting 1, 2, or 3 days.
Research shows that big sales days are Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays. So, don’t give your book away for free on those days. Best days for free promotion are Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
3. Increase your Kindle book price before your free promotion
Before your promotion, consider increasing your book price. For example, if your book price is $3.00, then make it $7.00. ‘They’ call it psychological pricing.
Keep price as is or change it back to the original price after your free promotion.
Before Your Free Days
Your book will be much more successful if you can get it into the hands of readers in your genre.
1. Market to your target audience
Do ‘Coming Soon’ Advertisements on Social Networking Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Shelfari, Goodreads, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Youtube.
Ask your Twitter followers to retweet your promotion and your Facebook fans, family and friends to share about your promotion.
Create events on Goodreads and Facebook. Network and make connections on relevant Facebook pages, websites, and blogs.
2. Promote your book on your own website or blog
3. Promote your book to your email listing of fans
4. Guest post on other blogs
5. Participate and promote in online communities and forums for authors and readers
6. Inform “free ebook” websites about your free promotion
On The First Day Of Your Free Promotion
Get up very early! Take a very deep breath and get ready to roll!
1. Add your book to the Amazon Kindle Forum thread for free books.
2. Tag your book on Amazon with keywords such as freebie, free, Kindle free book,
free ebook and Kindle freebie.
3. Go to the Kindle Boards forum and ask other authors to tag your book.
4. Alert all your followers and fans on social media about your free promotion.
5. Enter relevant information about your free promotion on websites that will allow
you to post about your free ebook on the day that it goes free.
The Results – Tracking Your Progress
You must track your progress on Amazon. Here are some of the great results for my novel, Unforgettable, My Love Has Come Along.
1ST FREE DAY – Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 11:30 pm (EST)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank for Unforgettable, My Love Has Come Along:
#18 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Religious Fiction > Romance
2ND FREE DAY – Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 2:30 pm (EST)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank for Unforgettable, My Love Has Come Along:
#4 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Religious Fiction > Romance
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity
2ND FREE DAY
# 1 IN THE TOP 100 FREE BOOK ON KINDLE
The best reason to join KDP Select program would be to take advantage of the option to promote your book free. During, those free promotion days, your book can hit the Amazon Free 100 best sellers list and that can increase the sale of your book at the end of the free promotion period.
The choice is entirely yours!
Read more: KDP Statistics
Let me know your thoughts!
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Ann Marie Bryan
CEO & Founder, Victorious By Design
Author, Encounters of the Heart series
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