Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We took some voicemails at the start of this one and you can listen to hear all about them (With Sean and Johnny working together, who won re: sending books to an editor? How did Johnny’s process change so he could write faster? And are we talking too damn much about strategy?), but this episode was super-heavy with newsworthy goodness, so let’s get started.
Are free book blogs dead… and if so, does authors’ abilities to promote well die with them?
Here’s the problem: Amazon just changed their affiliate program so that if 1) an affiliate pushes the download of over 20,000 free e-books in a month AND 2) 80% or more of the books that affiliate pushes are free books, the affiliate will earn $0 in commissions from Amazon for the month.
In case you didn’t know, this is how huge free book sites — the sites that push our books when we do KDP Select promotions — make money. The changes in the affiliate program are, essentially, requiring that those sites promote fewer free books. That’s bad news for us. Or is it?
This week, we had Ed Robertson back on to hash this one out.
There’s a ton of debate here and I won’t try to encapsulate all of it, but here are a few of the points that were raised during this show:
1. This doesn’t kill KDP Select free promotions. It just makes them less effective for people who might have been picked up by the big blogs but now will not be.
2. It might make sense to consider changing to discounted promotions rather than free promotions rather than free promotions for SOME AUTHORS in SOME CIRCUMSTANCES.
3. But, making your book free will still drive sales if you’re doing everything else right. There will just be fewer huge windfalls like those possible after a huge push of a book by Pixel of Ink or other sites.
4. Free is a tactic, not a strategy, and Sean and I both mention how gaming free promotions feels to us like playing search engine optimization (SEO) games. If it’s a trick, you can use it… but don’t base the success of your business on it, because it can change any time.
5. Because of that — and because it’s just common sense — the advice we give time and time again continues to apply: Write good books. Keep writing more books. Build a smart marketing funnel. Build and grow an email list. Be good to and take care of your fans. Those things will never, ever, ever change (although email may one day be replaced when the future arrives and we all get rocket cars) as long as people continue to enjoy stories.
6. The top 100 free charts still need to be filled by someone, as do the top 100 paid charts. They will be filled by the best books. For the best books, nothing changes here. That means that you must be awesome or go home. If you’re fantastic at what you do, the changing of any one tactic means exactly dick.
This episode is jam-packed. Study it like you have an exam coming up.
To view the video version of this episode, go to: Self Publishing Podcast #45 – The Death of Free Book Promotion on Big Blogs?
Free books were a way for Amazon to entice people to start using e-readers. Now that people have embraced the technology, Amazon is trying to re-train them back toward paying for content. Ultimately I think this is good for writers. Bargain book promotions will supplant free book promotions.
In other words : just write good books.
Seems like the Amazon change is the Affiliate people trying reduce what they see as unfair payouts. I’d be surprised if the KDP people even knew the change was coming. I’m curious to see if KDP responds in the future by changing their program in some way to compensate. Perhaps, at this very moment, the KDP people have the Affiliate people encircled, clanging beer bottles on their fingers and chanting, “Affiliates, come out and play-ay!”
Dave, was it Kindle Nation that you and Sean tried and got zero results from? I understand why you might be reluctant to name names, but, in this case, I think it would be justified and helpful, given that you’re referencing statistical results rather than some sort of hearsay.
Fuck.
In a brilliant piece of timing, I had a free promo for a novel all booked in a month in advance for, wait for it, 1 and 2 March. Didn’t get picked up by any major free book sites although listed on everything, shifted just over 500. No new reviews yet, but a little action in “borrows” since.
BookBub have just turned me down for a paid ad for a 99c promotion. Maybe they’re being flooded, maybe I don’t have enough reviews (8 5-star, 3 4-star). Will have another go in a month for that novel after I’ve set up POD and lifted the review numbers.
Meanwhile, off to write more good books.
I’ve had each of my books in KDP Select at various times and the program worked very well for me. Ironically, just a month ago I published a new book about online marketing for authors that features a big section on resources to make the most of KDP Select. A brilliant bit of timing. I’ve just spent the last couple of weeks on a major revision based on all of the changes in the market – which was a major headache but the book is SO much better now. Overall, I think the changes will nudge more authors into thinking about their writing as a business.
By the way – I’m new to your “show” and since I liked what I heard here, spent the last few days listing to most of your other 44 podcasts. I now feel I know you guys intimately … in fact, I’ve decided I’m going to buy Dave a t-shirt that has just 2 words on the front: Totally! Totally!