The MEGA-THREAD for "I went free with Select and here's my data/experiences"

[modwitch]

Okay folks.  Time to clean ourselves up.  Let's pretend writers can be organized .

There are a gazillion threads here lately about people's experiences with a Select freebie.  I'm proposing that we put all those posts in a single thread (this one!).  It will help clean up the Writers' Cafe, and the data will be a lot easier to digest in one place as well.

If you support this idea, please feel free to encourage new thread posters to move their conversation over here...  Some help keeping this post on the front page until it catches on would also be much appreciated.

ETA:  If you simply want to publicize a freebie, there is a mega thread for that too, here... http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,97167.msg1499156.html#msg1499156  (h/t to Margaret Lake for the link)

[Deanna Chase]

I like it. Thanks for herding us in a general direction.

[foreverjuly]

I think using a thread like this to publicize temporary freebies would be a good move too. People can just check the most recent posts to know what's out there.

[E. S. Lark]

*gentle bump* It'll be nice to see info posts at the top of the cafe from now on.

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

Build it and they will come. Great thread, Deb.

[valeriec80]

I went free with Select for January 2-6 with my novel The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One.

I did not make it into the top 100 Free. I peaked at around 500.

I gave away 1608 copies.

Since going paid, I've sold 14 (in 2 days).

This is an improvement--I've sold 30 copies of the book in the last two months--but it's not a revelation.

So, just a gentle reminder that not every freebie will be a magic bullet, but a freebie can help to give you some modest success. Wanted this to be in there amongst the I'm-selling-700-books-every-day-since-going-paid stories.

[Kpfowler]

Great idea! And I'll start things off, as my first free/select book, Skin has been free for about 8 hours now. This book was one of my lowest performers, and so far I'm pleased with how it's going. From an abysmal ranking, it's now up to the 4,000's in ranking. I suspect this will change eventually as the ranking hasn't moved for the past few hours despite a doubling of free-sales, so I'm assuming rank hasn't caught up. The book is also ranked #21 in Anthologies, at least until the ranking catches up.

I'm more pleased with the number of copies being downloaded. This is a book that sells a handfull each month normally, and already today I've had 50+ downloads in the US, 40-some in the Uk (didn't see that coming), and I've even gotten downloads in Spain I think. That's never happened before.

So, without even seeing how far Skin can climb, or if actual sales will be better after it comes off the Free train, I'm happy so far. Of course, I'm crossing my fingers that it gets better :-)

[ETS PRESS]

Mods -Can we make this a sticky?

[Kpfowler]

Rank finally updated and copies are still moving. I managed to snag a screen shot too!

This is for Skin in my siggy:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,932 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Anthologies
#76 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Short Stories

It's been Free for about 8-9 hours. Amazon was slow and didn't get it changed over until an hour or two after they should have. Hope this helps some of you trying to decide!

[erikhanberg]

Last month I made all of my books free--2 mysteries and 1 nonprofit fundraising guide--to see how it went.

Interestingly, the experience was enough to get the nonprofit fundraising guide into the Top 100 for Kindle books about nonprofits, where it has stayed ever since generating fairly consistent sales (and considering it's at $9.99, I get a fabulous cut of those).

Even more interestingly, a large company that provides donor management software to nonprofits found it on the free day, and now wants me to expand it to a version suited to them and their clients. We haven't worked out all the details yet, and it certainly may not happen, but they wouldn't have discovered it if it hadn't been free that one day.

So, yay free day, yay KDP, and yay Mega-Thread!

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

Mods -Can we make this a sticky?

[Mel Comley]

Great Idea, Debora, I'm afraid I've been put off visiting the boards this week because every other thread was either advertising or talking about select results, despite the mods stepping in last week! 

[David Wisehart]

Devil's Lair went free for two days before Christmas, got over 9,800 downloads, and sold very well when it returned to paid at $7.99. I blogged about my free promotion and sales, but here's the quick summary:

DATE—GROSS SALES—RETURNS—NET SALES—BORROWS
12/23—55—7—48—43
12/24—117—11—106—105
12/25—264—24—240—278
12/26—133—10—123—142
12/27—78—9—69—82
12/28—65—4—61—48
12/29—45—4—41—32
12/30—32—2—30—13
12/31—32—4—28—9

Devil's Lair retails for $7.99 and Amazon pays the publisher (me) a 70% royalty for US sales in the US Kindle store, and a 35% royalty on ebooks purchased in the US store by non-US customers.

The vast majority of my US Kindle sales (about 98%) are from US customers, so I'll use the 70% royalty for my preliminary revenue calculations. I won't know the actual US/international split until I see my December statement.

Therefore, please understand that the following is a slight overestimate of revenue, but it will be more than compensated for by sales of my other ebooks and by sales in the international Kindle stores.

So applying the 70% royalty rate, we find that revenues for these three days were:

12/23: 48 x $7.99 x .7 = $268.46
12/24: 106 x $7.99 x .7 = $592.86
12/25: 240 x $7.99 x .7 = $1342.32
12/26: 123 x $7.99 x .7 = $687.94
12/27: 69 x $7.99 x .7 = $385.92
12/28: 61 x $7.99 x .7 = $341.17
12/29: 41 x $7.99 x .7 = $229.31
12/30: 30 x $7.99 x .7 = $169.79
12/31: 28 x $7.99 x .7 = $156.60

9-Day Total = $4,122.37

9-Day Average = $458.05/day

On Christmas Day Devil's Lair achieved its peak rank of #347 in the paid Kindle store.

For a more complete discussion of my experience with KDP Select, read:

http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2012/01/kindle-ebook-sales-report-day-9.html

David

[E. S. Lark]

Bumping again to keep it at the top. Mods, sticky pretty please.

[Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake']

I think using a thread like this to publicize temporary freebies would be a good move too. People can just check the most recent posts to know what's out there.

There is a thread right in The Book Bazaar for just this purpose.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,97167.msg1499156.html#msg1499156

It is sanctioned by the mods with some caveats and listed in Threadipedia.

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

There is a thread right in The Book Bazaar for just this purpose.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,97167.msg1499156.html#msg1499156

It is sanctioned by the mods with some caveats and listed in Threadipedia.

Yep. That one's a stickie.

[George Berger]

I went free in mid-December with my shiny new novel. Gave away maybe four-hundred copies over two days, got zero sales, zero loans out of it. Because I had no paid sales yet, I got no sales rank out of it, either. #FML

A handful of paid sales later, I went free again on Jan 1st. Got listed on KND and POI. Gave away about 4,500 copies in one day. Hit #1,000 in the free store. Hit #6 for free suspense. Hit #2 by popularity for new releases in mysteries, #6 by popularity for new releases in the entire Kindle store. Went back to paid with a rank of around 10,000. Sold around fifty copies since, plus a half-dozen loans. (Peanuts to most of you, but to put it in perspective, that's probably more copies than any single title of mine sold all last year.) Got two reasonably positive reviews. Had no effect whatsoever on any of my other titles, naturally. #IGotLucky

[Deanna Chase]

I went free in mid-December with my shiny new novel. Gave away maybe four-hundred copies over two days, got zero sales, zero loans out of it. Because I had no paid sales yet, I got no sales rank out of it, either. #FML

A handful of paid sales later, I went free again on Jan 1st. Got listed on KND and POI. Gave away about 4,500 copies in one day. Hit #1,000 in the free store. Hit #6 for free suspense. Hit #2 by popularity for new releases in mysteries, #6 by popularity for new releases in the entire Kindle store. Went back to paid with a rank of around 10,000. Sold around fifty copies since, plus a half-dozen loans. (Peanuts to most of you, but to put it in perspective, that's probably more copies than any single title of mine sold all last year.) Got two reasonably positive reviews. Had no effect whatsoever on any of my other titles, naturally. #IGotLucky

Yay, George! This makes me smile.

[Danielle Kazemi]

Going free right now. I am #1737 in the freebie store and #82 in action. Cannot see my kdp from here so I can only assume I have a billion unicorns.

[Andrew Warwick]

My first experience with it so far is about a day and a half in - and not going red hot like some.  Admittedly I am coming from a long way back compared to some in terms of exposure, and also have released a collection of 3 novelettes, rather than a novel, so it is to be expected.  Still, I have been making an effort with twitter, forums, blogs etc.

So far, all up, about 150 downloads from the free promotion.  Amusingly, the German side seems to be doing best, sitting at #20 in their English language Fantasy section.  (Also at #5 for English language fantasy anthologies on the French side, but that is from 1(!) download.)

[KirbyTails]

444 Copies Sold in 12 Hours today...

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #565 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#19 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense

Also, interestingly enough, in the UK Store...

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #603 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#17 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
#94 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost

The ladder is really weird, since I'm 90% sure I did not put my book in the "Fantasy, Futuristic, and Ghost" Category...

At least, I hope I didn't.

[Kpfowler]

Great numbers! I'm still happy with how my freebie is going, even if things seemed to have slowed a bit. Currently I've had near 100 downloads in the us, 60-something in the UK, and a handful at the other. My rank is the best its been yet so far, at:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,891 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Anthologies
#37 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Short Stories

One thing that is different for me, is that right now, I  don't have any other "Alex" books out there to garner any tie in sales. I have one to be released soon, but until then... that's why I'm saving the other three days until after the novel is released and has at least a few reviews.

[Eileen]

I'm pleased with my results so far. Sweetwater American was free for 1.5 days, then back to paid for a day, then back to free for another day. It was downloaded about 3,000 times and is now back to paid with the following results:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,126 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#32 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts
#57 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Mythology
#80 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > World Literature > Mythology

[Danielle Kazemi]

Right now I am #1345 Freebie and #68 Action/Adv. in US. In the UK, it is #659 Freebie, #2 Superheroes, and #37 Action/Adv. Nothing anywhere else.

[TLH]

2nd day in a day promo. Chop Suey has had about 10k downloads. Currently #1 in Suspense and #32 overall. Not sure how long I'll keep those spots but I'm happy so far.