KDP Select Results/Analysis

KDP select run-through.

So, I decided to use the KDP select feature and use 4 of my 5 free days from the beginning.

Overall, I think this has been worthwhile venture. 

I’ll go through what I did (with my thoughts) a day at a time.

Day 1: 55 downloads.

In the run up to the first day, I advertised my ebook on about 20-25 Free ebook websites. I purposefully didn’t pay for any premium advertising. I actually had a list of about 50-55 sites where I intended to promote, but some of these required 7-14 days notice. (I had five days to spare.) Others seemed to be free sites, but when I finalised the registration process and was at the stage of confirming my book on their page, I was suddenly directed to payment options. Certain sites required a certain quota of amazon book reviews before the book could be considered for promotion.  All in all, my options were reduced from 50/55 to 20/25.

I would have been happy for 50-60 downloads over the course of four days and to get that figure on the first day felt great. I finally opened that bottle of champagne.

Day 2: 38 downloads.

I managed to get my ebook promotion on two ‘on the day’ sites.  Downloads came down a bit, but I was still encouraged.  The drop could be because my ebook was no longer on the main/first page of some of the sites, and those who distributed free book emails tended to do it for a certain day eg free books for Tues etc.

Day 3: 22 downloads.

No promotion on this day. This was my ‘learning’ day. 22 downloads is great, don’t get me wrong, but I learned that it’s probably best to intensify the promotion over 2/3 days, rather than 4. I didn’t promote at all, because I wanted to check if copies would shift without my hand.

Day 4: 44 downloads.

I advertised across seven ‘on the day’ facebook pages that promoted free ebooks. I worded my message carefully, so that people knew it was the final day. This worked. Some people shared and thumbs-upped my msg.

Overall, the 159 downloads exceeded my expectations. It didn’t have thousands and thousands of downloads like some authors have experienced, but that didn’t matter.  I hoped that the free ebook might translate into reviews and a raise in profile. It did the latter. On the ‘people who viewed your page, also viewed’ section of Amazon, it was clear that people were now looking at my book.

I did have a five star review on.com which was great. (I had one review on .co.uk prior to this.) This, I think, was someone who purchased the book just prior to the promotion.  I was very grateful for this review.  It made a big difference.

In terms of the knock on effect on sales - which authors seem to report - this did happen/is happening. Not much, marginal maybe, but noticeable enough.

Just want to say a big thank-you for the support, downloads, page-views and a big mention to the sites that give you the platform for promoting you work. As always, if anybody has any questions, ask away.

JSC