Hi all,
Another week has passed
without much progress on my novel. The past two weeks have seen my writing output
drop back to the low word counts of before National Novel Writing Month.
Computer problems have been the major reason. But they should soon be over as I
have ordered a new laptop. Not unexpectedly, since I ordered the laptop two
days ago my desktop has behaved itself.
New Article on Divine
I have a new
article on Divine. The article is about free and cheap travel to medical
appointments for people with disabilities. It mentions Red Cross cars,
community cars, and state government reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs.
I have started researching my
next article. This one is on the health effects of global warming. I have
sections of IPCC and Garnaut reports siting on my desk to read.
Authors Increase Sales With Free
ebooks
A couple
of posts ago I mentioned Amazon’s KDP select. It’s a program where authors
make their ebook exclusive to Amazon for ninety days. During those ninety days
they are allowed to make the ebook free for five days. Authors hope that while
their ebook is free it will rise up the bestseller lists and be noticed by more
readers. They then hope the ebook’s high ranking will lead to many paid sales
when the ebook is no longer free.
I mentioned in that previous
post how David Kazzie sold a lot of ebooks after using this method. Aussie
science fiction writer Graham
Storrs tried the same method with his novel Timesplash
and was happy to make some money. In a thread on LinkedIn.com other authors
have mentioned that they are trying to do the same. I have no doubt that many
authors will try converting free downloads into paid sales.
With my computer problems gone,
I aim to get back to posting my weekly post on Mondays, assuming I am not too
busy playing with my new laptop.
4 comments:
Good to keep track of free reads, and how they work in generating sales, over time...such an experimental time we're in. :)
I just hope they don't all turn into free reads.
Congrats on your article. Anything to avoid to trip to Southern Cross (still Spencer St. in my head) is a good thing.
Here's an article you might like. She's on blogger.
http://shevi.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/7-steps-to-becoming-amazon-bestseller.html
Hi Anthony,
I had a look at Shevi's post. She seemed to have mixed up the way KDP select works, as pointed out by Kelly in a comment. Shevi implies that the benefit from the free downloads of an ebook comes from being part of the borrowing library. From my understanding, what authors are doing is making their ebook free, it rises up the bestseller lists, than they put a price back on it, and because people see it is high in the bestsellers lists, they buy it.
I don't think I have ever bought a book or ebook just because it is in the bestseller lists, but the fact that it is in the bestseller lists can bring the book's existence to my attention.
Take Dan Brown as an example.
But I do think Shevi has some points. I think the majority of the downloaded free ebooks will go unread. And that the authors of such unread ebooks will not generate future sales of other ebooks, especially if they have the gaul to charge for them.
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