Reflecting on my past journies with free book promotions, I must admit the results were never as hoped. I remember the first one I ran soon after I had released The Island of Stone four years ago as a newbie self-published author. I gave away 104 copies before selling a single one and was so excited. I knew those numbers wouldn’t last, but my naive self thought that I would be making a decent profit even if those sales dropped to half. I distinctly remember doing my nightly pushups and thinking to myself, this is it. I finally made it! Ha! I hadn’t realized that, for one, I missed out on all those sympathy buys from friends and family, and two, there is a vast difference between $0 and $2.99. Over the next three months, I sold seven books and made barely enough for a Big Mac as I slowly figured out the game (this is an ongoing joke between my wife and I and how we quantify my book sales, roughly $5 in sales = Big Mac).
Yet, driven by a moment of generosity and the celebration of my fourth year in self-publishing, I decided to give it another shot. I ran a free book promotion for Dawn of the Lightbearer, book one in my Absolution of the Morning Star series, for five days (April 3 to April 7). I gave away a total of 504 books. I did not pay for any marketing or promotion, but I did announce the giveaway here and on Twitter and Facebook. At the peak of the promotion, this was good enough to get Dawn of the Lightbearer to #468 for Free in the Kindle Store (so amongst all free books on Amazon), #3 for Free Dark Fantasy Horror (as shown above), #6 in Free Coming of Age Fantasy, and #6 in Free Epic Fantasy. Most of these “sales” happened in the first two days, giving away about 200 per day. This then dropped drastically to the 20-30 range. It’s not stellar, but it’s nothing to laugh at, either. In sum, if I had actually sold that many books, it would have made me about a thousand bucks in profit in five days.
Apparently, before I joined Amazon KDP (their self-publishing service), a free book promotion could get actual results. I hear the old timers talk about these days of yore with a glint of nostalgia in their eye. With so many books flying off the virtual shelves, it would boost your ranking amongst all books, not just free ones. Those effects would also last after the promotion, so you could increase your rank to the top hundred for enough time to make an impact. This exposure would lead to residual results that would give you a bump in sales after the promotion. Secondly, statistically, with 500 copies out there, it makes sense that it would lead to more reviews- the coveted prize for all self-published authors. The consensus is that it takes about 100 sales per review. So, in an ideal world, 500 copies should yield five reviews. Thirdly, if you were making the first book in a series free, which I was, people may buy the rest. All sounds great, right? Well, those days are gone.
Now, the landscape of book promotions has undergone a drastic change. Amazon now segregates free books into a separate list reserved only for such books (you can see this delineation in the pic above). Once the promotion is over, you find yourself right back where you started. Also, with KDP’s success and popularity, the market is now saturated with free books. Every year, Amazon adds 1.4 million KDP titles. It is estimated that at any given time, there are 250,000 books available for free. To put that in perspective, according to the National Library Association, the average public library holds about 20,000 titles. So that is 12.5 libraries of free books. With so many free titles, it has led to hoarding. There are so many freebies out there, a list that constantly changes, I should add, that you could never buy a book again and still have more to read than you could in your lifetime. Potential readers add and add free titles to their “to read” library folders and may read 1% of them. Looking through various forums, it is not uncommon for people to have thousands of titles in their libraries… ugh. You can also add titles to any number of apps and wait for a convenient notification when the price drops.
What does all this mean for Dawn of the Lightbearer? The book is now likely sitting in 495 “to read” folders with a very low chance of being read. The number who eventually gets to the book will remain a mystery to me, as chances are, even if anyone reads the book, I will not get a review. I’m not being bitter. It is just a fact. As I said above, it is a 100 to 1 ratio. Also, because it was free, there would be even less drive to review it, for it has no worth by definition. If someone throws down $2.99, they are more likely to read the book and more likely to review it, too. I embarked on my promotion, hoping to get at least one positive review. I would absolutely love to be proven wrong, but I guess we’ll see. After a week, the number is still zero.
Ok, I’ve painted a very grim picture- hell, I am a dark fantasy writer. What do you expect? You may ask yourself, “Why did you do it then, Scott?” The answer to that is complicated. Writers write for an audience- whether that is one or one million, a story is meant to be read. Very few of us do it for money. There may be that dream, but most of us will never be able to write for a living, yet we keep writing because we have something to say and want to share it with you. Free or not, that is the main drive. The thought that a handful of people are now reading my story gives me chills (in a good way). If I have an ear, I will tell a story, making sitting down each day and pulling out the scant hair I have left to put 1,000 words on a page worth it. Yes, being paid a few cents an hour for that work is excellent, and I would much prefer that to being paid nothing, but a few hamburgers a month is not why I do this.
Secondly, seeing 200 copies zoom off the shelves in a day, even knowing that the book likely won’t be read, is still a thrill. Watching your ranking shoot up within the top ten of anything is awesome. For a few days, I felt like a success at a time when I needed a little boost to my confidence. That’s worth quite a lot to me.
Lastly, there is always the chance that I may be wrong. Actually, if my life experience counts for anything, it is more than just a chance. Maybe ten people will leave a review, or a few may post a nice comment or two on their reading blog or social media. Perhaps a copy will finally find its way to the right person at the right time, and my fortunes will finally change. By chance, maybe a few will move on to the other books in the series, and I will see that bump in my sales and earn a fan (someone did purchase the other two books during the promotion, which I am thrilled about). You just never know, and that is the magic of this game. Will I do another free book promotion? I’ve said no to this question before, yet here I am again. I guess we’ll see. I will watch my numbers closely, with a hope and a prayer, but I’m not expecting much. However, if you snagged a copy, I hope it brings you thrill and joy, and if you’re feeling generous, give a struggling author a good review and make his day.
Cheers!
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I’ve had mixed results running free promos, too. Some are downloaded a couple of thousand times in 5 days, which gives you great visibility, while others struggle to hit two digits. Very hit and miss. But the way I see it is it doesn’t cost me anything (you could argue it costs you lost sales, but there’s no guarantee those sales would be made anyway) and after almost every promo I do see an uptick in my back catalogue. Plus, there’s always the chance of finding new readers who love your work, or maybe even leave a nice review somewhere.
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Much of this game is hit or miss. There is so little data to draw conclusions or develop sound strategies. The nature of the medium itself is so finicky that even the experts’ successful is largely due to volume. A publishing house only needs one Harry Potter to validate a thousand failed titles.
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I appreciate your candid and thoughtful assessment, Scott. More power to you as you pursue your dream in this tough, tough, getting tougher environment.
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Thanks! Your kind words of encourage always make my day.
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Glad to hear that, Scott. I admire your creative output and determination.
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You covered all the relevant issues when it comes to free promotions. I haven’t run a free promo since 2022 and am always hesitant to give away creations which often get snapped up by the “Freeders” never to be read. Having a series is a must if free promos are to break even or, fingers crossed, profitable.
As authors, we all hope our free book is entertaining enough to compel a continuation the series.
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Thanks! Yes, a series is key here, or even just more than one book.
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In terms of sharing my work, I haven’t covered nearly the ground that you have. However, I do relate to the excited feeling I get at something that in my head seems epic and yields little results. I too keep plugging on. I do my best to review books I read as much as possible, hoping that one day karma will play in my favor!
At this point, I couldn’t buy a single Big Mac with my earnings…
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If my experience is any measure, it is a very slow process unless you have a lot of resources to invest in it. There are highs and lows, but the most important thing is to keep writing. Volume has a lot to do with it. Not only do you become a better writer, you also have a larger catalog of work for people to buy. For me, growth has been slow, but there has certainly been growth. Maybe when I am 65 I will have a large enough fan base and deep enough catalog of work to finally turn a profit. 🙂 But that works for me as it will be just in time fore retirement!
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Swimming against the flow is tough but some folks are able to do so and reach their destinations. Best of luck to you.
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I have had pretty much no luck with the giveaways even with the series. I hoped it would encourage people to read the other books and sometimes it did but I never got reviews from them, sadly. I have to beg for reviews. Even from people who said they read the books and loved them. On Amazon it looks like almost no one has read my books even though people tell me they like them. It’s sort of disheartening to be honest. Good luck with your experiments though! I hope it pains out.
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It’s certainly a struggle. Some $1 piece of plastic will get a thousand reviews, but the book that just provided hours of entertainment (hopefully) at the same time as providing scientifically proven benefits, gets nothing. Unfortunately the psychology behind this is so varied, it’s hard to find a strategy that works. It also seems to be getting worse. My last review on any of my books was last June. In that time I’ve had hundreds of promises. I’ve tried every strategy I can think of to no avail. So, what I keep telling myself is why worry about something you can’t change? It is so easy to let the struggle to sell your books ruin the joy of writing them. My wife is great at reminding me of this when I get in the doldrums. Keep writing and keep hoping.
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It certainly is frustrating. I review books as often as I can as a favor to the reader and the author. It’s disappointing people can’t take five minutes to share their feelings anymore. If I devote time to a book then I offer a review to help readers and support authors.
But, yes, we can let those disappointments steal our joy of writing so we have to be careful.
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Hi, Scott
Everything you say rings true to me. Here’s my two cents (far less than a burger!): I was never able to make ads work—I tried Amazon, Facebook, BookBub—nothing really penciled out. I went to free promotions and they at least generated some movement. I regard them now as “advertising,” getting my books into more hands, hoping for that “lightning strike” when just the right person reads one. Truth be told, I’ve never made a profit on my books—all sales went back into paying for promotions, and by the end of the year, I’m always in the red!
Unfortunately, I think your figure of 100 copies out = 1 review is now out of date. It was true during the pandemic, when I think people were reading and reviewing more, but I think that number has now risen to about 300-500 copies out. Ouch! At least that’s my current experience. Nonetheless, I continue to promote, but less frequently. A few years ago, I would run a promotion every month. Now I run one every 2-3 months.
Should you consider running a free promotion ever again, here are my suggestions:
1. Use the promo services, and use more than one at a time.
2. Be willing to fork out some cash ($250-$300).
3. The two best ones for my money are Freebooksy and The Fussy Librarian. I always use those two, and then add either Robin Reads or E-Reader News Today.
4. Make the second book in the series $0.99 on the day of the promotion. This is the critical piece that will garner some sales. (You can do that with a Kindle Countdown Deal.)
What kind of results can you expect? I don’t write in your genre, so I can’t say for sure. I write mystery/suspense/thriller and my typical results are about 1500-2000 giveaways and 20-40 sales. My biggest giveaway ever was the first free promo for a new book and 4900 copies went out. Also made 100 sales. Totally surprised!
Regarding BookBub, I’ve never been able to promote with them after trying about 6-7 times. They are astronomically more expensive, but they also have an astronomically greater reach than the services I usually use.
Anyway, there’s the skinny from my side. You’re absolutely correct—we don’t write for the money. My joke has always been: if I had to make a living on my writing, I’d be living in a cardboard box under a bridge eating dog food. But we do like to see folks reading our books, so I look every day at the KENP—the pages read.
Keep the faith, brother! Write on!
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Thanks, so much for these suggestions! I will use them next time. I need to plan more before doing a promotion. I got a congratulations message from WordPress for my anniversary, and I was like, “crap, you’re right!” and ran the promotion. It is also tough to justify the investment, as usually you don’t make it back. Additionally, it feels like I’m not only giving my work away, but paying for people to read it, which hurts.
I’ve heard so many say how successful they’ve been with Amazon ads, but I can’t seem to crack the code. I’ve wasted hundreds of dollars on it and ultimately gave up. Again, it is hard to justify the investment. Yes, there is a possibility it will work, but more likely you end up giving more money to Amazon, and I hate that. They should give some advertising for free, or at least give some more assistance. I’m sure they make more money on Indie authors from their marketing services than they do from their sales commission, which means they pray on people’s dreams, which is never cool.
You are probably right about the reviews- I was being optimistic. I’m optimistic by nature and that is why I am still here chasing my dream four years later 😉
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Hi Scott,
my publishers didn’t give away any of my books for free except review copies to the media. For me it seems that the best way to get your books sold are lecture tours and reviews in magazines. Talkshows in TV don’t have such an effect as lecture tours. On a lecture tour you not only meet lots of booksellers but you give them key words how they can offer your books to their customers. Another advantage is selling books outside the opening hours.
Amazon, Facebook etc. is only for hobby-authors. As a professional author I would never try to sell my books there. But, of course, as a professional author you don’t need to think about PR and distribution. In the contract you include a certain sum that your publisher will spend advertising your book.
Good luck with. your writing
Klausbernd 🙂
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Hey Scott,
This post was fascinating and, frankly, persuades me that it’s not worth it. I’m fairly skeptical of Amazon and would be surprised if their “promotional” services were less about getting your book read than in getting you to spend more on their promotional services. Your description of the changes do make it sound like Amazon has specifically engineered this sort of scenario. What monetarily benefits Bezos the most? Your desire for your book’s success, or your book’s success? My wager is that Amazon benefits astronomically more from the former than the latter. In other words, it’s in Bezos’s interest for your book to fail, but not too hard; and given Bezos’s sociopathic ruthlessness (well described in a recent book by Dana Mattioli) I absolutely wouldn’t rule this out.
As I’ve discovered over the years, there’s a whole industry dedicated to making money off of aspiring writers/authors. Amazon is just another one of them.
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Brilliant, honest post I can relate to.
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