Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
I see the free book as my best marketing tool, and the only thing that I can point to actually working. Before it went free I sold like 2 books, maybe three. After it went free, well suffice to say I am now making a profit selling books, enough to pay my editor and cover artist. Oh, and I bought my wife an iPhone with profits.  Not huge dollars, but I am getting there. 
All I know is that it seems to be working for me. I decided to go this route after reviewing what other successful indies did. I am not blazing new ground, just following along where the success have walked. I am still working the plan, and have a ways to go yet. I made some mistakes early on that hurt me and slowed me down, but eh, I carry on. |
Hey, "getting there is" is awesome. Glad it's working for you. I'm really leaning toward (I've got three novels pretty much ready to go), doing the first one totally free and then the other two for 99 cents. The Amazon Monster is still lurking, though, with its warnings and delays (see below--the last two paragraphs are from KDP Forum). I don't know, I guess I could do the first book in the KDP Select for three months and
then go totally free with it. Still batting it around. I hope you don't mind but I'm kind of using you as my guide. (So if you have any more info for me I'm all ears.) Thanks.
Some authors have effectively marketed a series by giving the first book away for free for an extended period (i.e. months). It doesn't always work. The authors who succeed usually have a good business plan and good marketing ideas. They also have a lot of belief in their books, i.e. in terms of the first book (and the blurb) being good enough to hook the reader and the remaining books being good enough to reward them for continuing. It may not be quite as good for similar titles that aren't part of a series because then the reader isn't being hooked on the same concept or characters.
If you succeed in getting Amazon to price-match and change your mind later, there may be a lengthy delay (like a month) in getting the price restored (and then you may have to agree to stop discounting your price elsewhere).