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3 Benefits of Promoting Your Kindle eBook for FREE

Hello. I haven’t blogged for about a week and it seems like forever. Promise not to make this a habit.Baby Animals Books for Kids

I’d like to share something noteworthy with you. I ran a free promo on Amazon which allowed people to download free copies of I Love Baby Animals last week over a  three day period to their Kindle or Kindle app. Over those three days, I had 7,985 downloads. Following the downloads, this book started gaining serious traction and ended up as the Number ONE best-seller in 2 categories on the Amazon US Store. ILBA was the Number 1 in the Zoo and Animals (Non-Fiction) categories for almost a week. I checked this morning and it seems we’ve slipped to Number two, so please help me share this book with your friends and let’s get it back to Number One.

Sometimes, people question the logic behind doing a free promo. I think its three-fold.

First of all, as a new author whose relatively unknown, doing these free days will allow my books and my name get to a wider audience who hopefully after enjoying the free book, will give my other titles a chance.

Secondly, Amazon’s algorithm actively promotes a book if it has a successful promo period. My understanding is that above a thousand downloads is good. Above five thousand is better and above ten thousand is bananas! Now I have to admit that I’ve had varying degrees of success with free promo days. There are various factors that will make a book attract a massive avalanche of downloads. One of them and I believe this is highly critical, is the title and cover of the book. There is just something cute and heart warming about this book cover that has made it a success. I met a lady on Goodreads who said she actively promoted it (without my knowledge) on her website as she just liked it. Now if my cover was bland, I don’t think this would have happened. Only God knows how many other people saw this book and promoted it to their followers on Twitter, Facebook or their blog. I wrote a blog post ‘How to Improve Your Kindle eBook Sales,’ which explains the evolution of this book.

The third reason why free promo periods are good is because customers who read and enjoy your book can leave a good review.Eagle The social proof from other readers serves to convince other people to buy and read your book. Over this promo period and following it, I have received 22 glowing reviews mostly made up of 4 and 5 stars. I’ve had only three 3 star reviews on this book. Below are some of the reviews I received in the last week.

 

In reading this to my daughter she discovered some new-to-her baby animal names, some surprising such as the dolphin baby name, calf. She loved the cuteness of the baby animals, as well as the information provided. – Joy

 

I got this book for my six year old daughter, but I enjoyed reading it with her. The sentences aren’t too long or too difficult for her to read, so it was easy to read along while I read to her. – Minimoe1974

 

While kids will probably know the names of the adult animals they will probably not know what a baby alligator, hedgehog or llama is called. I personally didn’t know so it was a surprise to me. This book is super cute with a drawing of the adult animals and a photo of the baby animals. Kids will love the surprise factor as each animal is revealed. I enjoyed this book and think it will be a hit with kids.- Rebecca of Amazon “The Rebecca Review”

 

I have to admit that reading reviews from people who I have never met who endorse books that I worked really hard to produce is a truly rewarding and humbling experience.cartoon hedgehog Reading such reviews just gives me the motivation to write more books and improve on my previous books.

If you’ve ever wondered if doing a free promo on Amazon was worth it, I hope my little piece here has opened your eyes to the possibilities. Will gladly answer any questions or comments you have.

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