Bunch of Kindle marketing questions

Everyone tells me that for fiction, that varies a lot from genre to genre.

There are certainly many authors who make more money from 30% of $0.99 than they do from 70% of $2.99 (counterintuitive, isn't it?! Like so many things in internet marketing), because the $0.99 books can sometimes sell 30 or 40 times as many copies as the $2.99 ones. Much has certainly been written about this, and it's discussed in quite some detail, on some authors' blogs.

But I've also heard (here - in other threads) that in some genres of fiction that isn't true, and that $2.99 can actually sometimes be a better price-point than $0.99.

Congratulations on your first listing, and good luck with the sales!

Many people like to wait until their book has a few reviews before they offer it on the free promotion. It may increase your free downloads if people see some reviews first.

Thanks, Amy. That makes sense. I appreciate it.

In my experience the day of release doesn't matter as much as the length of the promotion, and fine tuning. Watch your free downloads to see if people are responding to your cover art, and title. If there not, then you might need to change them. Also you should only be running your free promotion for a day, or two at the most.


You should run your free promotion as soon as possible, there is nothing to be gained waiting a few weeks.

You need to set a higher goal then this, a sale a day isn't going to get you into the best sellers list and that is where you should be aiming for.

Some fiction writers have made a lot of money pricing their books at .99, and since it's a short story that price makes sense.

I would set it to .99 in the beginning, once you have gained some positive reviews and reached the best sellers list. Then change the price to $2.99 which is still small enough to be an impulse buy.

First, congratulations for publishing your first creative work on Kindle.

As a Kindle author, I can tell you what I do when I publish a new book. I do a 1-day only free promotion as soon as possible. But, I make sure that I have researched good Amazon keywords first and put those into my book tags. You get to have 7 tag keywords and you should use those to your advantage.

Why?

Because when you run your free promotion, it moves your title up the rankings if you get lots of downloads. After the promotion, you should check those keyword tags to see if your title has made it onto the first page. If not, you can go back and replace any keyword tags that aren't giving you 1st page exposure with others that may work well.

I do not do any further free promotion days unless a title has dropped off the radar completely.

As for pricing, it's really about the perceived value you provide your readers. There is no right or wrong price per se, but what readers find fair. If your novella is of good quality, then people will happily spend the 2.99 to read it. Remember, they can preview a few pages before buying.

Don't be afraid to set prices where you can make decent money (70%).

Consider including a sneak peak preview or chapter for an upcoming story in your current book. This is free publicity.

Keep publishing and building your writer's brand.

Thank you Orator, TCwarrior, and Ms. Fun to Write! This is all great information and I thank you very much for taking the time to respond!

I agree, get some reviews then do a 2 day free promotion. Keep an eye on those 2 free days, pay attention to how many free books are given away. Also, go to your book page on Amazon (when it's free). Look at your rank and if it's #1 in any categories. This does happen and you can even be listed #3, #1, etc in more than one category. Take a screen shot of this ranking. It's good to promote your book later. I've noticed the free giveaway also helps make sales as well.

As for your fiction book, a lot of new authors are writing books as 2-parters or even trilogies. They are offering the first (or first 2) books for free and then charging 6.99 or so for part 2 (or 3). By that time, you have hooked readers willing to buy the latest book to read the ending.

You do know the title trick right?
And what about the negative review technique?
Or the extra chapter lead generation tip?

Amazon marketing is becoming it's own thing. There's a lot of things out there you can do to promote your book. Good Luck!

Great discussion guys- I would emphasize on what was said earlier about reviews. They are key and make a huge difference in your sales. However, they seem to be the most challenging to get. The days of buying fake reviews from FIVERR and writing your own from multiple accounts are over. Amazon now crack down on that kind of behaviour.

So it is a catch 22 situation- u need the reviews to make the sales, but where do u get the genuine reviews from????

I have done many free promotion days and some of my ebooks get over 1000 downloads but still no reviews.

Getting good reviews won't usually happen if you even give away 10,000 books because the reader is not emotionally invested in you or your book. You need to engage them and brand yourself via your website, blog, and social media in order to make that happen.

In addition, you can do many different things IN YOUR BOOK to get 10X more reviews pretty quickly. I'll do a free Webinar on many of the different ways to get Amazon Kindle reviews very soon.