Smashwords Free

[sal79paradise]

Hey, all,

I'm thinking of making a book free on SW for a week or so . . . My question: how nightmarish is it to switch your book back to paid on all sites, particularly Amazon?

Thanks for any feedback!

[PAWilson]

It's not that easy. If you just do it on Smashwords, the change is immediate, but the premiums can take up to 3 weeks and that's if everything goes right. I've just spend almost 6 months trying to fix a premium account error.

I suggest you do it on Smashwords with a coupon rather than a price change. If you price change, Amazon will reduce your price to match which means as long as one of the premiums has you at free, Amazon will be free.

Good Luck, I've decided not to go the route of KDP select again so I'm going to be publishing on Smashwords as well as Amazon and that means if I want to go free I will have to do coupons.

[Ruth Ann Nordin]

If you're only going free on Smashwords for a week, I don't think Amazon will mark yours as free.  It's been my experience that it takes more like 2-3 weeks for the book to go free on Amazon.  I mean, it's possible that Amazon would pick it up right away, but I don't think it's likely.  When a book is free on Amazon and you put a price back on Smashwords, I think it takes a couple of weeks to get the price back on Amazon.  One author had to email Amazon to get the price back after three weeks passed.  So the system seems to be a tricky one.

If you're just looking to go promotion on Smashwords, I suggest offering a coupon.  You can specify how long the coupon is good for, so you can list the coupon on your blog, Facebook or wherever and say it's only good for a week.  In my experience, free has worked best as a long-term plan, but I've read others on here who noticed more success when it was short-term.

Hope that helps.

[PAWilson]

I wish Amazon would allow free promos or coupons too. It would be much easier to get coordinated promos going.