Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Free Cozy Mysteries and Three Ways to Have a Great Free Ebook Promotion



I finally took the plunge and decided to offer Good, Clean Murder for free for a limited time. I'm glad I did because now almost 40,000 people have a copy of it! The book peaked at number 3 on Amazon's best seller list, and has is still number 12!

Today is the last day to grab it for free, so do it while you can! Good, Clean Murder free at Amazon!

For the writers out there wondering about how to maximize the effectiveness of a free promotion, these are my top three tips:

1. Run free promotions for the first book in a series.
The goal of a free promotion is to increase your overall sales, this happens fastest if readers can grab your free book and then buy the next one. Also, I have heard a pretty convincing story that Amazon algorithms have changed and the book that was free no longer has the benefit of increased rank after the free promo ends.

2. Advertise the free promotion.
Effective ads aren't free, which is part of why you want to promote a series: if you do it right you will have to pay for your ads. There are only a few sites that are have a big impact on your sales, but it is wise to go to Authormarketingclub.com and attempt to get an ad at every site they have listed for some point in your promotion. Because things change so quickly in this business the best thing you can do is check out each site that is listed at AMC and then check out how highly ranked the books they advertised are. The ones that are worth paying for have put their books in the top ten of the whole Amazon best sellers (free) list.

3. Boost your Facebook post while your book is free.
Facebook lets you boost posts for a little quick cash. Like all ads, this is tax deductible. Unlike many other ads, this post will be targeted to people who know your current fans so it is almost like word of mouth, but not quite. For $30 the post about my free book went out to 6600 people, had 151 clicks, and gained 12 new fans. As for overall impact on the promotion, 151 clicks on my link isn't much compared to the 40,000 people who grabbed a copy, but the 12 new fans are a big deal!

If you have the opportunity to offer you book for a limited time or for a long time, I'd take it. Just make sure you are set up to enjoy the maximum impact!




And hey, if you love free books, Foreclosed: A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery is still free too!

 




4 comments:

  1. Great ideas, Traci - thanks!

    ~Nancy Jill Thames

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  2. Love those ideas, Traci! Last week I attended an RWA chapter meeting and the guest speaker was Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords. He had some fantastic advice too. I'll probably share some of what I learned in my post next week.

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  3. Just a little info to add on to what Traci was saying. Most of the marketing sites want the book to be free on Amazon. Now, I've gotten The Mystery of Hurtleberry House to be free everywhere else, but Amazon won't do it. I've told them it's free on other sites, other people have told them, they just won't change it. It is in their discretion to do so, so I'm not complaining...well actually I am but it's not their fault.. Also some of the other marketing sites can want a certain number of reviews, like a minimum of 10, and other restrictions so you need to read what they want so it will save you time.

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  4. Hey Cindy...give it a little time. :) It took a month for them to pricematch Foreclosed!

    @Linda...I'd love to hear what Mark Coker has to say about this! What a great meeting that must have been.

    and Thanks Nancy! I'm excited to see how the book does when it is no longer free..should be today, but it hasn't switched yet.

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