Thursday, March 8, 2012

A New Way to Sell eBooks.

There's a new way to sell ebooks and it's very strange.

I've talked about giving your book away to get reviews in The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. I've talked about the KDP Select program and how "freebies"are a great way to promote your book. But I think I'm going to pull all those ideas together and declare that giving your book away is now the new way to sell your book.

See? Strange. I told you.

If you're an avid reader and you've taken advantage of the many free books on Amazon, you've seen the "what". The books you get for free are "what" is happening in the book market. But if you're giving your book away, you're seeing the "why". The "why" is the reason you're giving your book away. The why is a free marketing plan, developed by Amazon, that has leveled the playing field, giving virtually unknown authors like myself a platform, a free commercial, a billboard if you will, in front of Amazon's world-wide audience.

REMINDER: You may have noticed in my previous post that I lowered the prices on all my books to 99¢ through today. This is part of my marketing plan as noted in my "Floatation Pricing Strategy" discussed in The Indie Author's Guide to the UniverseI won't divulge the details now for obvious reasons, but I will tell you my marketing plan.

I'm going to "sell my books for free" for the next 90 days. 

Huh? Yep, you heard right.

If you follow The Writing Bomb, you'll want to share my updates with your reader peeps because I'm going to be giving away one of my titles on Amazon every third day or so. These books are absolutely free and you do not need a kindle to read them because Amazon has free kindle aps for phones, computers, and practically any hand-held device.

Back to the experiment ~> I'll let you know on occasion which titles I'm giving away, but the best thing to do is follow my blog by email so you don't miss any "freebie" notifications and updates.

I'm also going to document some of the results of my "selling for free" experiment along the way, too. So if you are interested in my giveaway plan, you will not want to miss what's coming.


Today, I'm giving away my best work yet… TWISTED VENGEANCE. It's free today only (March 9th). Twisted Vengeance is a supernatural suspense about Detective Rick Burns' tortured past, his encounter with a powerful supernatural entity, his loose grip on the love of his life, and a creepy boy that holds the key to unlocking his past (yeah, it's all that). I have 17 reviews and a 4.5-star rating. It's free and I'd love if you could tell your peeps about it.

So far this month, I've sold 362 of my assorted titles and rented 58 books. These numbers do not include my sales in the UK and Italy (Yes, I've sold 4 in Italy). Of these sales, I've only sold 18 copies of Twisted Vengeance because it is my latest title and still gaining traction. These sales are ALL organic, meaning that they were not sold because of a "Free Promotion".

So will you get a copy of Twisted Vengeance? Like it? Share it? Read it and review it? Let's make a deal, you read for free and I'll keep on writing.

Thanks for joining me on the ride. Watch for my next post where I discuss the "author's new drug".

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe among other suspense/thrillers.

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on the Italy sales. Must put you in the top 10. I sold (kip Select freebie, actually) *1* in Italy and hit #17 in English language crime fiction. Was a hoot to see.

    I agree with the momentum Free can bring. I've got five books out, only one exclusively to Kindle, and the exposure three (spaced by a week each) free days brought boosted sales in the other titles.

    I also have some free titles on B&N and the up take on legit sales has tripled over the previous month.

    Best of luck with your experimenting. Interested in seeing how it goes.

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  2. I just downloaded Twisted Vengeance. Looking forward to it! Thanks!

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  3. Great post...and GREAT IDEA!! I'm sharing on Twitter and Google+ then I'm off to download my free copy of Twisted Vengance. GOOD LUCK!

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  4. Just downloaded a copy of Twisted Vengeance. Good luck! My own book, The Best Sniper Ever, will be free the next two days (3/10 & 3/11) http://amzn.to/wKytTA

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  5. Congrats! I'm also experimenting with "sell my books for free" - UNHEARD CRIES:A MARRIAGE HORROR and children's Ebook, BOOGER BOTTOMS. Looking forward to reading Twisted Vengeance.

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  6. @Tony, Thank you. I was shocked to see so many there (as if 4 is so many). Good luck with your freebies!

    @Michael ~ Thanks for grabbing a copy. Reviews are much appreciated.

    @Ginger ~ Thanks for sharing. I appreciate that. It nice people like you that grow this blog one more follower at a time.

    @readjdm ~ Thank and and good luck with your giveaway!

    @ Joyce ~ Some think that only adult fiction can do well with the KDP Select program, but I've seen all kinds of books in the top to including, games, how-to, so I'm sure childrens books can do well, too.

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  7. Every time I give a book away for free for a day or two (generally between 3,000 and 5,000 downloads), I'm usually rewarded with anywhere between 50-100 sales during the next week or so. The Select program has been very good to me

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  8. @ Bradley ~ That number used to be higher. Between you and me, I'm giving the program about 6 month's life before it completely loses it's effectiveness; even more so for authors with fewer titles. But for now, you are correct. Thanks for reading.

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