Jay’s Comments (group member since Feb 12, 2014)

Jay’s comments from the Taming Amazon group.

I did a KDP Free promo around Christmas and had so many downloads I ended up trying to discourage people from downloading, afraid of giving too many away. Even so I gave away almost 4000 books and made it to #78 in the free rankings. Afterwards I sold about fifty right away, a few after that, then almost nothing, though I did get 10 new reviews.

I recently did another KDP promo for my other book. It was nowhere near as successful in terms of downloads, and I only reached #590. So far I've gotten one additional sale, and no reviews (though it's early yet).

I think I actually made a mistake not trying to give away more the first time. I think that the goal of any promo needs to be to get into the top 100 on Amazon. If you don't do that, I don't think you're going to accomplish much.

I hope they iron out the bugs, because I think it's a good idea. I like it better than putting your book up for free.
Hope your promotion is going well, Jennifer (or went well, I can't tell!). Your book looks interesting.

Yes, as a Canadian, I don't think I'd do another Kindle Countdown until it's at least visible in Canada. I sold a few books, but I don't think it was worth it.

Even if it was visible to me I'm not sure I'd use it until they make it more widely available. The biggest problem (even for Americans) is that if you use twitter a lot, as I do, it's difficult to explain in 140 characters that a promotion is only available in certain countries.

It's probably true that most sales are achieved through Amazon.com, but if you're tweeting to an international audience it still makes you look like a liar everywhere else.

My friend in the US actually sent me a screen-shot of it (it looked very nice!), so I at least had visual confirmation that it was happening. But I got an email from a guy living in Japan who said it wasn't reduced there (though he bought it anyway!), and I had to apologize to him.

Jennifer,
Yes, I don't know how they do it. Amazon.com is the American site, and we can see it, but not the Countdown. I spent quite a lot of time trying to see it and never had any luck.
I can't help you myself, but maybe one of our American contributors can.

Jay

Just a warning to any non-Americans planning to use Kindle Countdown. Unless they've changed it, the Countdown discount is only available in the US or UK. I'm a Canadian. I set up a Kindle Countdown for my YA novel 'Eldorado', and when I checked the site I was shocked to find my book was still listed at full price!

It turned out that the Countdown was in effect, but as a Canadian it was basically impossible for me to see it (even on Amazon.com!). I had to contact a friend in the US to tell me what the current price was.

Also, if you tweet about the Countdown you risk looking like a liar, because it's only visible to those in the US.