The Kindle Countdown Experiment

My young adult novel, The Photograph, is currently Amazon exclusive. I decided to go exclusive to try out some of the promotional tools KDP select gives you. With the Zelda release last month, I decided to wait until October to try the promotions. Last week, I ran a Kindle Countdown Deal from Sunday through Saturday on The Photograph. I set the price to $0.99 all week, a $3 discount from it's regular $3.99 price. Here's what I learned:

• Kindle Countdown Deals will not sell books on its own. On days I didn't run an ad, the sales numbers didn't rise.
• Running a Countdown Deal in conjunction with ads is a good strategy. I set up a few low cost promotions during the week. BookSends and The Fussy Librarian netted me good sales, enough to move my book up the Amazon charts in my sub categories. I topped at #5 in YA Sports Fiction and charted in a few other categories.
• I wish I had submitted to ENT earlier. I was too late to get the week I requested. With ENT and the other two sites, I think The Photograph could have hit the top spot in the category.
• Kindle Countdown Deals net authors a 70% royalty, even at a $0.99 price point. The higher royalty rate made the sale much more worthwhile.
• The Photograph's cover and description will sell books if I get it in front of readers. The Photograph is a contemporary YA with mystery, basketball and a little romance, so it's not in one of the best selling genres. It hasn't sold well yet, but I think it can do okay with some extra push (and the next two books in the Eastbrook series available).

My remaining question:

• I will stay in KDP select for another 90 days. However, I have mixed feelings about whether I should run a free promo or another $0.99 deal in this section. I think free will move more copies, but I'm worried free doesn't equal people who will actually read the book. Any thoughts out there wordpress universe?

Overall, I'm happy with the deal. I'm glad to have my book in the hands of more readers. I look forward to trying more tactics when my second young adult novel is published in 2015.

What has been your experience with Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Promos?

Grab The Photograph for a Buck!

I'm running a $0.99 promotion on my novel, The Photograph, this week (October 5-11) in the Amazon Kindle store. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, it's only a buck, so fire up your Kindle and load it. Find it here in the Amazon store.  Also, happy October. Eat something pumpkinish. :)

The Photograph 

On a quest for truth, one girl will find more than she bargained for...

Sixteen-year-old Rachel Brandt is excited about her six-month anniversary with her boyfriend, Brent, getting her driver's license, and competing for a district championship in her first season on the varsity basketball team.

But when Rachel stumbles across a photograph of her parents, she can't shake the feeling that she is meant to find her mother, whose identity is a secret her grandparents have closely guarded. All Rachel knows is that her mother disappeared around the time her father was killed in action in the Gulf War a few months after she was born.

Her discovery of the photograph sends Rachel on a search for her mother against her grandparents' wishes and propels her life into a tailspin. She never imagines her search will reveal a series of lies that jeopardizes every important relationship in her life and her success on the basketball court.