Free Downloads
As I mentioned in the earlier post, I made THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK available on Kindle free for about 24 hours. How does that translate into downloads?
Here's the number. In 24 hours 8564 people downloaded THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK.
The purpose of this, of course, is that some of those people - hopefully a LOT of those people - will either read the book, love it and go buy the rest, or, I suppose, be obsessive-compulsive enough that they go and buy the others whether they've read the first one or not.
I have no idea what percentage of those 8564 people will even read the book (I have my suspicions about free downloads, because I've downloaded a number and don't always read them, at least not in a timely fashion). One way or the other, 8564 people who didn't necessarily know who Mark Terry was now know he's a thriller author.
Because of the Kindle program I enrolled this book in, I can do 4 more days of free in a 90-day period. I debated doing it free for 5 days in a row or spreading them out and decided I'll spread them out. We'll see how this shakes out.
I'll know whether it makes any kind of difference at all simply by looking at my overall sales. If they increase, particularly if there's a big jump, then yeah, cool. If not, well, still, 8564 people who didn't know who I was (necessarily) now have some idea. Turning that awareness into book buying and then into fans, well, that's a different matter.
Here's the number. In 24 hours 8564 people downloaded THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK.
The purpose of this, of course, is that some of those people - hopefully a LOT of those people - will either read the book, love it and go buy the rest, or, I suppose, be obsessive-compulsive enough that they go and buy the others whether they've read the first one or not.
I have no idea what percentage of those 8564 people will even read the book (I have my suspicions about free downloads, because I've downloaded a number and don't always read them, at least not in a timely fashion). One way or the other, 8564 people who didn't necessarily know who Mark Terry was now know he's a thriller author.
Because of the Kindle program I enrolled this book in, I can do 4 more days of free in a 90-day period. I debated doing it free for 5 days in a row or spreading them out and decided I'll spread them out. We'll see how this shakes out.
I'll know whether it makes any kind of difference at all simply by looking at my overall sales. If they increase, particularly if there's a big jump, then yeah, cool. If not, well, still, 8564 people who didn't know who I was (necessarily) now have some idea. Turning that awareness into book buying and then into fans, well, that's a different matter.
posted by Mark Terry at 7:30 AM
6 Comments:
Wow! It's got to be heartening just to have that many people take an interest in your work!
In the recent past a book with that many free downloads would have caught some Amazon algorithms and you would have seen a remarkable sales increase--for that book. Amazon has changed its algorithms, though, so the free giveaway isn't the great promo tool it used to be.
Just out of curiosity, how did you advertise the free download?
Eric,
Yes, it's helpful to remember it's about readers. And hopefully some of them will become regular readers.
Jude,
The only things I did were to Tweet, Facebook and put this up on the blog.
It may be a matter of timing, as well. Oceanview made The Fallen free for a couple weeks right after Christmas. Nice bump and that timing was great. It helped overall. Not sure it did much for The Fallen. But there's not much money coming out of Oceanview for me.
Here's how it worked for me (or for you). I downloaded free.......read it in 48 hours.........bought # 2.
Review: It was well written, suspenseful, factual and pertinent.
Fibril - thanks. Glad to hear that. Hope you enjoy.
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