Free Books Today! Download from Kindle–and Read On To Learn About Your Giveaway Program
Today I’m giving away my two books for Free! Yes, through the KDP program in Amazon. I’m jazzed about doing this, and ask you to please download my books, completely for FREE! And I want to tell you all about this program that can boost your rankings, build platform, and earn you sales, fame, and fortune–ideally!
First: The Giveaway dates are August 27th through August 29th
Just click the link and “buy” the book for FREE $0.00 on Kindle to read when you have time. No Kindle, no worries. You can get the free Kindle App for your computer, smart phone, or tablet/pad.
You can support my efforts as an indie author by downloading this freebie, passing the word to friends, and posting the announcement on your social media sites. This is how lesser-known authors gain visibility for their books and compete on even turf with famous authors who have giant advertising budgets.
Here is the link for Don’t Call Me Mother
You can read more here and see the slide show at http://www.dontcallmemother.com
Here’s the link for Journey of Memoir
I sincerely hope you enjoy these books and find them useful personally and professionally. Please, spread the word! Share the links with your friends.
What You Need to Know about Kindle Direct for your Books
If you have an eBook or plan to create one, you should absolutely know about the Kindle Direct program (KDP) with Amazon.
KDP allows you to arrange giveaway days for your ebook. Why in the world would you want to give your book away for free? That’s a reasonable question. The answer is that by giving away books (sometimes many thousands of books, if you’re lucky) you are getting free billboard space on Amazon’s giant site, making your book conspicuous to potential buyers following the giveaway.
It’s all about search engines, rankings and a bunch of back-shop mechanics at Amazon, but the ultimate payoff is more potential book sales for you. The more you give away, the higher ranking you get. The more books get read, the more reviews you get. The more reviews you get…you get it, the more conspicuous your book becomes for new readers you’d otherwise never have reached. Through a giveaway your book has a chance to earn more readers, fans and reviews, and the free giveaway can stimulate sales after the giveaway is over, which is good for your bank account!
Free Books? Is that a good idea?
You might say—”Free? Why is that a good thing?” If your book is available for free, your readers take no risk in downloading just to take a look. Chances are, they will open it and read some of it, or eagerly devour all of it. Presto—you have a new fan, and who will share the book with someone else. This builds your platform, gives you great numbers on Amazon—and yes, agents and editors go there to check—and most of all, makes you feel great that you have more readers and fans. Let’s face it—we spend months and years writing and publishing our books—we want readers!
How Does It Work?
- Select the dates for your program after reading more about KDP on Amazon. The rules are listed there. Ideally you’ll offer it free for at least 3 days in a row, but you can split the days up any way you’d like. KDP allows you to offer it free for up to 5 days within a 90 day period.
- Contact your publisher to release your book from all online vendors EXCEPT for Amazon for the 90 day period.
- Look for online sites that feature eBooks discounted and for free. Apply for your book to be featured on their lists on your giveaway days. This will help others to learn about your giveaway. Remember, your goal is to give away as many copies as possible! (I know, it’s a weird idea, and one that takes getting used to.)
- Write PR about your book, and submit it to online PR. I used Webwire. There is a fee for this.
- Announce your giveaway to friends on social media and by email to ask them to download your book. Give them the link and ask them to share it with their networks. This is going viral in the best kind of way.
- Offer to do this for them when their book is out!
Results? Sales, fans, Reviews?
It’s hard to predict of course exactly what your promotion will produce. In any case, it’s all online and fun, and you don’t have to pay plane fare to visit bookstores. The online sites reach people all over the country, and in many countries in the world.
I was inspired by my friend and writing colleague, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder to start my promotion. Her success was amazing, with many thousands of downloads for her novel. Thank you Betsy, for helping me to learn how. Another helper angel was Julie Valin, who helps authors with their websites and book campaigns. I learned so much from them!
And thank you to She Writes Press for being my publisher and helping me with the promotion! As we authors are always saying, “It takes a village to write a book.” It takes a village to get the word out too.
Good luck with your promotions! And please tell others about my giveaway the next three days!
Enjoy downloading and reading!
“I was a skeptic about the whole idea of a giveaway, but I listened, learned, and acted. I did a lot of promotion and it paid off. Fire & Water was downloaded a whopping 38,101 times in 3 days! It was ranked number 1 in women’s fiction, #1 in commercial fiction, and #3 in overall fiction among all free downloads. What’s more important is that I started with 19 Amazon reviews, and as of this writing, I now have 100, and 83 are 5-star. I’ve received dozens of letters from fans I’d never find without a giveaway and sales have held steady since the giveaway.”
Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, author of Fire & Water