Over the last 8 months I’ve run 3 free download exercises to evaluate if allowing readers to sample your voice/style expands your platform and results in increased site visits and eventual sales. The results, in my opinion are mixed. I’ll summarize below then provide my conclusion.
1. Free download of a cookbook – 18 published authors associated with the blog TheWritersVineyard.com created a book of their favorite recipes (about 40), bundled with a nice cover and display, then uploaded to over a dozen websites that offer free e Book downloads, plus each author listed on their site for free download. Over 8 months the cookbook has been D/L over 6000 times with most occurring during first 2 months. Within that initial period I did notice a significant increase (roughly a third) in deep hits to my websites and a resulting increase in royalty but since then the affect has tapered off.
2. KDP participation of a novel – An author friend and I created a Novella length book (60,000 word romantic suspense entitled DISTANT OBSESSION) specifically for evaluating the KDP program. During the first 3 month download period there were 2200 D/Ls across 5 free days with 70% occurring on the first day. During 2nd KDP 90 day period 515 readers D/L the book. This experiment was outside the free cookbook first 3 months period. I noticed no significant increase in deep hits.
3. KDP participation of a short story – During the second KDP period for the DISTANT OBSESSION novel I decided to try a free D/L increment with a short paranormal romance (BEYOND FOREVER) that would eventually be part of an anthology I was participating in development with 16 other authors. Over the 90 day KDP period a total of 243 copies were D/L but again I saw no significant increase in deep hits to my website.
My conclusion – I know that others have posted their own experience and some touted the KDP program, but I can only report what I’ve seen. I currently have agreed to participate in two other KDP experiments over the next three months with other authors and will carry through with that commitment but after that I won’t repeat the exercise. If you’ve observed better results by all means go for it but I can’t offer false testament to what I haven’t seen personally.
It’s possible that most who download freebies place them in a queue folder to be read later and never get to the story or perhaps 6 to 12 months downstream they do read, in which case I wouldn’t have observe any impact yet. My gut tells me it’s more likely that those who prowl the halls of free downloads rarely wander over into the pay zone, but I have no data to confirm that hypothesis.
In terms of why the cookbook did better than the fictional downloads, only possibility I can figure is that it was placed on more diverse sites and not part of the KDP program, which many find hard to search and find stories unless they’re in the top ranks.
I also observed that spreading the free downloads across the 90 day period was more affective (total D/L wise) than in one total 5 day increment. Most D/Ls occurred over the first day and logic says that it’s more likely to get exposed to readers offline for 5 days (e.g. vacation, etc) by spreading D/L days across your sign up period.
Hope that’s helpful.
1. Free download of a cookbook – 18 published authors associated with the blog TheWritersVineyard.com created a book of their favorite recipes (about 40), bundled with a nice cover and display, then uploaded to over a dozen websites that offer free e Book downloads, plus each author listed on their site for free download. Over 8 months the cookbook has been D/L over 6000 times with most occurring during first 2 months. Within that initial period I did notice a significant increase (roughly a third) in deep hits to my websites and a resulting increase in royalty but since then the affect has tapered off.
2. KDP participation of a novel – An author friend and I created a Novella length book (60,000 word romantic suspense entitled DISTANT OBSESSION) specifically for evaluating the KDP program. During the first 3 month download period there were 2200 D/Ls across 5 free days with 70% occurring on the first day. During 2nd KDP 90 day period 515 readers D/L the book. This experiment was outside the free cookbook first 3 months period. I noticed no significant increase in deep hits.
3. KDP participation of a short story – During the second KDP period for the DISTANT OBSESSION novel I decided to try a free D/L increment with a short paranormal romance (BEYOND FOREVER) that would eventually be part of an anthology I was participating in development with 16 other authors. Over the 90 day KDP period a total of 243 copies were D/L but again I saw no significant increase in deep hits to my website.
My conclusion – I know that others have posted their own experience and some touted the KDP program, but I can only report what I’ve seen. I currently have agreed to participate in two other KDP experiments over the next three months with other authors and will carry through with that commitment but after that I won’t repeat the exercise. If you’ve observed better results by all means go for it but I can’t offer false testament to what I haven’t seen personally.
It’s possible that most who download freebies place them in a queue folder to be read later and never get to the story or perhaps 6 to 12 months downstream they do read, in which case I wouldn’t have observe any impact yet. My gut tells me it’s more likely that those who prowl the halls of free downloads rarely wander over into the pay zone, but I have no data to confirm that hypothesis.
In terms of why the cookbook did better than the fictional downloads, only possibility I can figure is that it was placed on more diverse sites and not part of the KDP program, which many find hard to search and find stories unless they’re in the top ranks.
I also observed that spreading the free downloads across the 90 day period was more affective (total D/L wise) than in one total 5 day increment. Most D/Ls occurred over the first day and logic says that it’s more likely to get exposed to readers offline for 5 days (e.g. vacation, etc) by spreading D/L days across your sign up period.
Hope that’s helpful.
