I agreed to commit my book to Amazon's lending library last week. As part of that deal, my work receives 5 days of free promotion through their site. I decided to put in for 1 of the 5 days just to see how it functioned, mainly because Amazon doesn't make clear how they promote the work. (In fact, I'm still unsure how it was promoted beyond being listed as free.) Regardless, the day I selected was Sunday, December 9th. I woke to a pleasant surprise Sunday morning because some 50 or so copies had been downloaded by customers at least willing to read the book for free. This tally continued to climb throughout the day so that by the end 697 copies of The Monkey's Paw Trilogy were in the paws of unsuspecting Kindle owners. Most interesting in this activity was the increased "sales" in the final two hours. "Sold" copies were fairly steady per hour until the book hit the Top 10 list in short stories and reached 20th in the horror genre. The final two hours, 10-12 PM EST, saw almost 200 downloads of the book occur. It was an eye-opening experience and shows the power of being ranked near the top, if you will, the Google search effect. The book finished ranked 501st overall on the free Kindle book list. So, if nothing else, people clearly like free books. I did download 1 free book and left it at that, simply because I knew I wouldn't have the time to read more beyond that. I also purchased a copy of Stephen's Leather's The Basement which was an enjoyable, cheap, and quick read. Oh and wouldn't you know it, that book was in the Top Ten for it's genre. Of course, I bought it. So, seeing if I can generate more interest in the work, I putting The Monkey's Tale into the Lending Library system and making it available for free download tomorrow, December 16th, 2011. Maybe you can get your paws on it. |
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