New Rule: 100 Free = 1 Sold

[Benjamin Sobieck]

I've noticed a trend with my KDP Select freebies. For every 100 e-books I give away, I make one sale within one week. I can almost set my watch (er...cell phone) to it.

Anyone else noticing that? Can there be a formula to this madness?

[I. J. Parker]

Nope.  Not with my books.  Sometimes, a title will not start selling again for days.  That makes sense, since all of those people are provided with the book.  The freebies thing is of limited usefulness.  It gets you a bit of publicity as sites list your title as free.  Otherwise, I think you need to keep it under some control.  You might do better with a 99 cent sale.

[Jon Loomis]

100/1?  So you'd have to give away 100,000 to sell 1,000?  Good luck widdat. 

[Benjamin Sobieck]

It's all part of my master plan. Just biding my time...just biding my time...

[Eric Christopherson]

It's not that simple. What really determines how many ebooks you'll sell in the "post free bump" period is how many ebooks you gave away, which determines how high you land on Amazon's popularity lists (as opposed to best seller lists). And Amazon is always tweaking their algorithms, so everything can change overnight. 

I've had very successful giveaways, most recently 14,000 ebooks, and unsuccessful ones, e.g., 2,500, and there's a huge difference in the ratios of post free sales to freebies. My guess Benjamin is you're giving away about the same number of free ebooks each time. But your own trend will change too as soon as the algos do.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

It's been all over the place. I moved 8,000 over two days in July. Made it to #43 for free overall on Amazon. Worked the promotion the same way this month and moved 200.

My little 100=1 equation isn't law, but that's what I'm seeing as an average for the first week after the "sale."

[Eric Christopherson]

I just calculated my own ratio for the 14K giveaway, which put the book in the top ten of the free list for one day, and in the first week after the free period ended the book sold one copy for every 21 given away. Not the norm, but that's the best one can expect at this time, I'd say. (Now back in December and January the post free bump was several multiples better, but those days are gone.) And my post free bump lasted about two weeks, by the way.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Are the sales primarily the "free" book that now carries a cost, or are more sales coming from other titles?

[Eric Christopherson]

I've seen very little immediate boost to the sales of other books of mine. From what I hear of the experiences of other authors, that's common. It's anyone's guess as to what percentage of free ebooks ever get read, or as to how quickly they're read.

[Matthew Bonam]

Hi All - This is my first post here so please be gentle.  I have had my first book enrolled in KDP for the last 2 months, and using the feebies was marginally successful, with around 250 downloads.  Unfortunately this hasnt led to a single sale, or review. 

My personal motivation for writing is much more for enjoyment than profit, and I was hoping that getting the book out there would elicit feedback and help me to improve my work, rather than driving a huge uplift in sales. 

What worries me more is that I dont actually have any reviews, and so it isnt necessarily that the quality is poor, but rather than I am not attracting any readers at all. Any tips on how best to present work on Amazon would be gratefully received.   

[I. J. Parker]

I hate to say this, but amazon reviews are scarce unless you pay for them or organize friends and fellow writers to comment.  And Amazon reviewers don't give good feedback anyway.  People who get freebies seem to be so ungateful as to write some bad review.

However, in time you may get reviews.  if you start making friends and announcing your give-aways, it should get some response.  If your book appeals to a specific small group, you might try announcements and promotions to the group.

[Stacy]

Try participating on Goodreads. You might have better luck drumming up some buzz and readers there.

[Susan]

I've actually received some very good reviews from readers (NOT known to me). Some in fact took the time to send me an email from my website and ask when my next book is coming out. Ah, fans!  :)  Not huge numbers, but I'll take all I can get.