What You Need to Know About Kindle Direct FREE Promotions for your Books AND Last Day to Download Free Book

The link to my blog post with this information was at the bottom, and I think it was hard to find. So I’m putting the “educational information” about this kind of promotional program here for you to read. And if you feel like it, at the bottom are the links for the LAST day to get free Ebooks. You are not obligated, of course! 

I hope this information about doing a book promotion to help the sales of your books is helpful. We will offer some upcoming programs at NAMW about eBooks, Kindle programs, and how to promote your books through KDP this fall and early in the year. 

Happy reading, and stay tuned for an email about our September programs, and our Labor day Sale in a few days! 

If you have an eBook or plan to create one, you should absolutely know about the Kindle Direct program (KDP) with Amazon.  

KDP allows you to arrange giveaway days for your ebook. Why in the world would you want to give your book away for free?  That’s a reasonable question.  The answer is that by giving away books (sometimes many thousands of books, if you’re lucky) you are getting free billboard space on Amazon’s giant site, making your book conspicuous to potential buyers following the giveaway.  

Free Books? Is that a good idea? 

How Does It Work?

Select the dates for your program after reading more about KDP on Amazon. The rules are listed there. Ideally you’ll offer it free for at least 3 days in a row, but you can split the days up any way you’d like. KDP allows you to offer it free for up to 5 days within a 90 day period.

Contact your publisher to release your book from all online vendors EXCEPT for Amazon for the 90 day period.

Look for online sites that feature eBooks discounted and for free. Apply for your book to be featured on their lists on your giveaway days. This will help others to learn about your giveaway.  Remember, your goal is to give away as many copies as possible!  (I know, it’s a weird idea, and one that takes getting used to.)

Write PR about your book, and submit it to online PR. I used Webwire. There is a fee for this.

Announce your giveaway to friends on social media and by email to ask them to download your book. Give them the link and ask them to share it with their networks.  This is going viral in the best kind of way.

Results? Sales, fans, Reviews?

It’s hard to predict of course exactly what your promotion will produce. In any case, it’s all online and fun, and you don’t have to pay plane fare to visit bookstores. The online sites reach people all over the country, and in many countries in the world. 

I was inspired by my friend and writing colleague, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder to start my promotion. Her success was amazing, with many thousands of downloads for her novel. Thank you Betsy, for helping me to learn how. Another helper angel was Julie Valin, who helps authors with their websites and book campaigns. I learned so much from them! 

And thank you to She Writes Press for being my publisher and helping me with the promotion! As we authors are always saying, “It takes a village to write a book.” It takes a village to get the word out too. 

Good luck with your promotions! And please tell others about my giveaway the next three days!  

Enjoy downloading and reading!

“I was a skeptic about the whole idea of a giveaway, but I listened, learned, and acted. I did a lot of promotion and it paid off. Fire & Water was downloaded a whopping 38,101 times in 3 days! It was ranked number 1 in women’s fiction, #1 in commercial fiction, and #3 in overall fiction among all free downloads.  What’s more important is that I started with 19 Amazon reviews, and as of this writing, I now have 100, and 83 are 5-star. I’ve received dozens of letters from fans I’d never find without a giveaway and sales have held steady since the giveaway.”      

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, author of Fire & Water

Here is the link for Don’t Call Me Mother