While chatting with my farrier on Thursday, I told him about the Kindle freebie and he did say that he had actually bought the rest of a series after getting the first one free on his Kindle. That's the whole idea, of course, but it's nice to know that for at least one reader, the free promo idea works. I'm sure he isn't alone, but I gotta wonder about those downloads to other countries. Will they buy more books as a result of this one? Only time will tell, but whether I sell any or not, this has certainly been an interesting experience.
I know my Cat Star books have been sold worldwide, and some of them have been free at one time or another, but this is the first time I've actually been able to watch what happens when a book is free on Amazon. The tally in the USA changes rather rapidly; the other countries rise much more slowly. In an effort to see just how hard it was to "discover" a free book, I tried to find Unbridled on the list of free Kindle books. I never found it, which makes me wonder how anyone else stumbled onto it. Maybe they're better at searching than I am, but however it happened, Unbridled did make it onto the top 100 in free Kindle books (the highest I saw it was #51) and sat at #1 on the erotica bestseller list for a good long time. Fifty Shades was at the top of the paid list, and Unbridled was at the top of the free list.
My only complaint is that Unbridled isn't truly erotica. Erotic romance perhaps, but not erotica. There is a story and a good bit of romance in there along with the heat. I know All Romance eBooks differentiates between the two pretty well, but on many other sites, the erotic romance option simply isn't there. It's either romance or erotica, and if you're trying to sell the heat aspect, that's all you have to go on. As a result, someone somewhere isn't going to be happy with what they wind up getting.
But enough about that. It's Friday, and Fridays don't come along every day, so enjoy the day and the rest of the weekend!
I'll be presenting a workshop on Blurb Writing at the IRWA meeting at the Public Library in Fishers Indiana tomorrow at 1PM. If you've ever wanted to know how to write a blurb and get the word count EXACTLY right, come on over and I'll show you how!
I have a Nook and I download several free and sale ebooks each week from various sites (DearAuthor.com, ereaderperks.com, B&N: 0.00 romance). I may not read them right away but those I get are with the thought I may get the rest of the series if I like the first book. You may not see a lot of increase right away but you are reaching a bigger audience. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThat's the idea! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Glittergirl. I downloaded Slave for free from Amazon and after reading it, I bought every book available in the series and every book since. The same thing has happened with me for many other authors. I already purchased Unbridled, so I can't get it for free :(. A lot of authors keep one free book in their series out there just for this reason.
ReplyDeleteI find the free books on Amazon by manually checking the Top Free 100 sections. I do get the free books subscription from Amazon, but that isn't very timely or thorough. I also hear about free books from authors and review sites via twitter and blogs.
Thanks, Shauntih! Sweet!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing getting into the top 100 on Kindle and the top erotica spot made the book more visible to a lot of people, but it had to get there somehow. Maybe my posts on my website, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook were enough to get it there. Who knows?