On November 8th, 2013, Before the Legend went live on Amazon. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since I took the plunge and self-published my first book. What I didn’t realize then was that it was only the beginning of my self-publishing journey. Since then, I have published two more books, including the sequel Roman Identity.
I learned many things along the way through trial and error. But I also studied examples of other successful indie writers like David Gaughran when eBooks were starting to take off. Of course, one of the hardest things to this day when it comes to being an author and the writing/publishing process is after the book goes live. If you’re an author, you know firsthand the struggles of marketing. While I’ve tried different methods from email newsletters, giveaways, etc, one of my favorite and quickest ways to boost sales was running free/discounted promos on my books. And with Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday being the busiest times of the year to shop, running free or discounted promos became my go-to marketing strategy over the years.
But this year, I wanted to do something I’ve never done before: offer a permafree book.
What does it mean to offer a permafree book? It means the book is going free permanently. Unlike a typical free promo that may last for a few days, a permafree book is free for an extended period. Of course, an author can decide at any point to price the book to its original price. Perhaps the author wants to test the waters, so they plan to set the book for free ninety days or six months. Or the author may decide to extend it for an indefinite period.
But if your goal is to sell more books, why would you make your book permafree?
While it may seem counterintuitive to profit from a free book, there are many strategic reasons why an author would intentionally set the price to $0.
- Promote a book series
- Attract new readers
- Gain more exposure
Let’s discuss each of these reasons.
Promote a book series
Have you ever been to the store and bought two or more of the same items because of a bogo sale? Why buy just one hand soap if I can get two for the price of one? The same marketing strategy applies to books. Since readers are more likely to take a chance on a newer author, if the book is free, it makes sense to price one book in the series for free. Typically, the author will make the first book in the series free to entice readers to take a chance on the rest of the series. Setting the first book in the series free allows the reader to get a taste of your writing style and tone, and get introduced to your characters (if this is fiction).
If they liked the first book enough, they’re more likely to buy other books from the same author. And if you have a box set with three or more books, you doubled or tripled the books sold in one transaction!
Attract New Readers
As I alluded to earlier, free books tend to attract new readers. According to BookBub, readers are 10 times more likely to click on a book that’s free than discounted! That’s because readers feel like they have less to lose by downloading a free book. If you are a new writer, this may be the springboard to attract readers who would not typically take a chance on your book. Every new reader that downloads your book is a potential fan. And fans are more likely to leave a review, sign up to your email newsletter (if you have one) or buy future books.
Added Exposure
Getting new readers ultimately leads to increased exposure. As an indie writer, getting the added exposure is necessary to getting your book noticed in a sea of books. Glowing reviews and word of mouth are organic ways of growing your readership. And if the reviewer has a large social media following, there’s the potential that they could share the review among their followers, bringing more attention to your book. Setting your book free for an extended period allows more time for new readers to discover your free book.
But if you really want to maximize your readership, you will need to advertise your permafree book. Sites like BookBub and Freebooksy are great ways to promote your free book to thousands of avid readers because they can place your book in front of readers who are looking for books in your chosen genre. Each site will have a vetting process as to what books they accept, but promoting your free run to thousands of new readers can give your book the boost it needs to rise in important lists like top free downloads in your book’s respective categories. The number of times people download your book compared to books of the same category factor into your daily ranking. The higher the number of daily downloads, the higher your book appears on that category list. But why is this important for exposure?
For example, let’s say you type in a search result for “how to make lasagna” in Google. What search result are you going to click on? Typically, the top search results are the first ones you’ll click on. Those links will get more traffic because users will probably find what they are looking for on those first couple of results which are at the top of the page. Similarly, the higher your book ranks, the higher it appears it appears on lists and search results, which increases its visibility.
How to Make it Permafree?
Now that we discussed the benefits of making the book permafree and how to maximize its exposure while it’s free, how do you make it free permanently? If Amazon is your primary retailer, you will not be allowed to set the price to $0 directly, so you will have to match the price with an existing retailer that is selling your book for free. You can wait for Amazon to price-match to a competing retailer, but this can take days or weeks before they catch on and adjust the price. The easiest way to price-match is by adjusting the price through a third-party site like Draft2Digital (D2D) or Smashwords and then contacting Amazon. This is helpful because if your book is distributed across multiple retailers, these aggregator sites which serve as middlemen between you and the online retailers is that they set the price across multiple retailers for you versus you having to contact each individual retailer.
Since Draft2Digital also includes Smashwords as one of its retail channels, my preferred choice is D2D. If you haven’t already, first sign up for Draft2Digital and upload your book by following the steps found here.
Once the book is uploaded, go to the tab My Books, select your book and click on the 1st button: “Details.”
Then select under New Price select “$0”
After saving your changes. Navigate back to your Amazon KDP account and select Help. Under the Pricing category on the left, select Price Matching.
Once you get to this page, select the option: “I need more help.” This allows you the option to either send Amazon an email or call them. If you choose the email option, the system will direct you to an email template. The template will provide guidance on what to include in your inquiry, such as the direct link to your book on Amazon, the other countries where your book is sold, and the retailer where your book is available at a lower price. While calling is quicker, when I tried the email route, Amazon got back to me and made the adjustment at the end of the business day.
Overall, the process to price match turned out simpler than I thought. However, if you are running a time-sensitive free promotion, I would strongly encourage you to follow these steps the day before your promotion is announced in an email newsletter.
So will making Before the Legend prove to be a strategic move for me to 1) attract more readers to my Legend Series 2) and eventually drive sales to the sequel or future books? That remains to be seen. But for now, I’m hoping to follow the bandwagon and make the best of this Black Friday weekend by offering some amazing deals to all of my fans.
Writer's Nook 