Help me conduct a very interesting experiment — that could pay off for you big time, down the road, quite apart from getting a free read now.
Kiss Across Time was part of the KDP Select program on Amazon, which gives me the nice ability to offer the book free once every 90 days. Free days are a great way for me to find new readers who might enjoy the free book enough to buy the rest of the series, and naturally, fall in love with my magnificent prose and stellar story telling, and become a life-long fan on the spot, and go on to tell everyone they know and perfect strangers to go buy my books.
(It’s a nice fantasy, c’mon!)
The one thing I don’t like about KDP Select is that I have to keep the book exclusive to Amazon. I know a lot of you don’t like it either — I have the emails to prove it.
So. Here’s the experiment.
I’ve taken Kiss Across Time out of the Select program, and as of today it’s now available at all the retailers I usually distribute to. (Sony, B&N, iTunes, Diesel will take a few days/a few weeks to appear, thanks to Smashwords’ distribution system.)
Better still: at Kobo, Smashwords and ARE, Kiss Across Time is free.
Alas, Amazon doesn’t let me make a book permanently free, but there’s a way around it.
How you can help.
Go to any of the sites where the book is free (see below).
Grab the URL for the book’s page.
Go and tell Amazon it’s free elsewhere and they need to drop the price to match. Here’s how:
- Go to the Kiss Across Time page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CLDQEV8
- Scroll down to the Product Details section and click on the “tell us about a lower price” link:
- Fill in the form, including the URL you got from the site where Kiss Across Time is free.
This will force Amazon to drop the price to zero. They won’t do it if just one person reports it, but if enough people draw their attention to it, then they will drop the price all that more quickly.
What the experiment will do
Telling Amazon will force the price of Kiss Across Time to free at all retailers, permanently, rather than just free only at Amazon for five days every three months.
If the rest of the series continues to sell as well or better than when Kiss Across Time was in the Select program, then I will bring other first books in my series out of Select and make them permanently free, too. (Along with any new first books in new series I happen to write). This is the outcome I’m really hoping for.
Let’s see what happens!
I did it…
Thanks, Robyn! I really appreciate your help.
Cheers,
t.
Isn’t it ridiculous to have to do this? Why don’t they just put it out for free if you ask them to? Amazon games. Good luck!
Hi Naomi! It is mildly ridiculous, but it’s nothing compared to some of the shenanigans ALL the publisher platforms put you through. Smashwords is particularly pedantic, for instance. If I didn’t have readers who absolutely depend on my books being available on Barnes & Noble, I’d dump Smashwords altogether. How they deliver your books to retailers is abysmal. But…it’s better than nothing!
Cheers,
t.
I submitted the Kobo link. Hope it helps. I’ll schedule the book on the Facebook page as well.
Thanks, Lynn!
The book is at least only 99 cents on Amazon (which is as low as Amazon will let me set the price) so it’s not gouging anyone who prefers to shop there. But the sooner it drops to free, the better, so thank you for your help!.
Cheers,
Tracy