This is a question for anybody who has ever made their novel free for a few days on Amazon. The question is – did you find increased sales after the free days had ended?
My thriller ‘For the Sake of a Child’ was free from July 23rd – July 27th. I was pleased to receive 2370 downloads. However, now that the free period has come to an end, I am still seeing increased sales. This morning it was ranked at 7,250 on Amazon.co.uk after 13 Kindle purchases in 2 days. There have also been 2 paperback purchases on Amazon.com. I try and organise any promotion to run at the same time as the giveaway, and therefore at the moment no websites are advertising the book.
The same thing happened earlier in the year when I ran an Amazon giveaway for ‘No Sex Please, I’m Menopausal!’ Sales increased for a couple of weeks afterwards. I often read that it’s not a good idea for authors to give their work away for free, but in my case the opposite seems to be occurring.
I’d be interested to find out whether other authors have also come across this delightful result of making their books free for a limited period.
Stevie Turner 
It works well if you have a series. I made the first book in the series free and then put the first chapter of the 2nd book at the end with a hyperlink to purchase it. I did see an uptick in sales after a few days. I had much better luck with this when I did a giveaway through Mail Chimp/Facebook ads instead of through Amazon. Mailchimp will let you store a .mobi or .PDF copy of your book on its survey and then you can automate the sending of the book, along with follow-up emails while you build your mailing list. I learned this technique by taking Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula course. It was pricey, but I learned a lot and have made back my investment.
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I’ve only just signed up to Mailchimp. Thanks for that info. I didn’t realise you could store a pdf copy on there.
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You can. It also has email automation, but I believe that is part of the paid service, which is still fairly inexpensive.
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I did giveaways three times with Amazon and didn’t sell a bean as a result. I see giveaways now as a method of promoting a series or an introduction to a catalogue of other novels.
At least you didn’t fall into the trap of paying hundreds to Bookbub, (or whatever they’re called) to promote books being given away for free. Still don’t see the logic in that, unless you’re the CEO of Bookbub.
It works for some, not for others.
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Also possibly the genre of book is important too. I always find my thrillers sell better.
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It sounds like you’re doing really well! I admit, sometimes after free days I notice a bit of a bump, but then it usually fizzles out again. Recently had a free day and am noticing more activity. I hope your good fortune keeps up! 🙂
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Thanks. Yours too!
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🙂
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