Do Amazon Promotions work?
Last month, I ran an Amazon Promotion with KDP Select to see if it would boost book sales and expand my audience. If you are wondering if it is worth your time and effort, read on!
KDP Select Overview
By enrolling in KDP Select, Amazon is given exclusive digital rights for the sale and distribution of one or more of your books for Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) readers for a 90-day period. As such, your work has the potential to be seen and bought by millions of readers worldwide. What's more is, for every time pages are read for the first time, you can also earn a share of KDP Select Global Fund royalty payments.
To promote your book(s) to the Kindle store, you can either run a Free Book Promotion or a Kindle Countdown. With a Free Book Promotion, each selected book is free for a limited time. If you so desire, your promotion can run for 5 consecutive days, or on specific dates of your choosing. With a Kindle Countdown, each select book is discounted for a limited time. Both end after a 90-day period, and you have the option to re-enroll at its conclusion. While I won't bore you with more of the particulars on the program, feel free to read Amazon's KDP Select.
Why I Did it
I never expected to be an independently published (indie) author. Throughout my teenage years, when I'd first written the basis of what became my debut novel The Ellises Series #1 A Place to Call Home, I envisioned having an agent/publicist, and having my work picked up by a publishing house so that I would be featured in bookstores everywhere. I may have been a tad overly ambitious, but at the same time, there were a lot of years where I saw so many authors gain notable mention and publicity because of their work, and so I fully expected that once I was published, it would all click into place. Moreover, in print magazines, newspapers, and journals were all still the only way people had at their disposal during this time, because the internet wasn't even a thing. And even when it was, not everyone had it in their homes (because smart phones didn't exist quite yet, either). Scary times! But that's all to say that my rationale was based off of what people did then, and so by the time I first saw my name in print for magazine and journal articles, and was also able to publish online articles, I began to see how much easier it was to "become a writer/author." I didn't realize that it would also make it harder to market myself!
At the same time technology finally caught up, businesses started seeing the value of having websites for customers to find them more easily, so I enrolled in a certification program akin to an associate's degree in journalism to officially call myself a freelance writer. It was where I learned to fine-tune the skills I'd started using, and how to approach potential publishers of all types. After that, I enrolled in another certification program akin to an associate's degree in desktop publishing and design, which enabled me to know how to market myself visually, both in print and online. Because of both certifications, I spent many years writing ghost blogs and articles, designing invitations and flyers, and typing resumes and letters as paying side-gigs, all while working a full-time office job in customer service.
What I knew then and now is that people are everything. That's why I enjoy customer service - because helping others matters to me. But what I found in the traditional publishing world is that there is a huge disconnect between how that works to bring people together with what they want (to read). I've mentioned it before, but my novel was first published with a local, boutique press. Advertising was minimal, but I naively assumed they had the tools to take me where I wanted to go. Sadly, in under a year after the book released, my publisher made the decision to shut down because of the ease of self-publishing through Amazon affecting her bottom-line. My options were to look for an even bigger publisher, or try Amazon for myself. Right away, I saw Amazon as a double-edged sword in terms of helping and hurting traditional publishing houses, but it resonated with me in terms of wanting to get my novel back out there in print, and go forward with more of them, without having to soliciting manuscripts to publishers in hopes of getting a book deal in a few years. I didn't have that kind of time to waste, not when I had a fan-base I wanted to maintain.
That was two years ago, and it's been a constant learning curve to keep up with how I'm supposed to "do things right" as an indie-author. It's still a work in progress. I participate in author groups, read all the blogs I could, and scour whatever free and low-cost resources are out there (mainly because of having a zero budget, but also because I have a penchant for good deals and am known for my frugality). I've learned that to be successful, authors must achieve maximum exposure, while providing lasting value. How that value is expressed is by how attainable and affordable my work is, as well as what others have to say about it (i.e., reviews). So when I saw that Amazon KDP Select was FREE, I had to try it, just once, to see if it would be the marketing tool I had been waiting for.
Before and After Data Results
Prior to the start of my promotion, the Kindle version ranked (from Amazon's Kindle store):
- 788,816 in Top Paid Kindles
- 2,347 in Historical Christian Romance Fiction
- 4,840 in Historical Christian Romance
- 6,465 in US Historical Fiction
Compare that with the Paperback, which ranked (from Amazon.com):
- 2,660,671 in Top 100 Books
- 28,942 in Christian Romance
- 29,877 in New Adult and College Romance
Keep in mind, all advertising I'd done prior to this was word of mouth on social media, with an occasional boost from free advertisers on social media sites and email lists. Additionally, I had 5 Amazon reviews, and 3 ratings on the book site Good Reads.
While not ALL of the sites I submitted to listed me consistently (some only let me choose one date per 30-90 days at a time, versus needing continuous dates, or just one date at a time) I immediately gained mention on It's Write Now and saw the most activity on May 5th's promotion, which carried over into May 6th, generally between 9 a.m. EST and midnight, with some but not all of those sales from KU readers.
Best Rankings on May 5th for Kindle included:
- 89 in Top Free Kindles
- 2 in Christian Historical Romance
- 2 in US Historical Fiction
- 8 in Religious Romance
And while the paperback was NOT in any way free throughout my promotion days, I thought I would keep tabs on how it did, too. Surprisingly, removing the Kindle version from all digital platforms except Amazon actually hurt the paperback's rankings:
- 3,414,225 in Top 100
- 33,031 in Christian Romance
- 33,327 in New Adult and College Romance
Kindle sales were amazing! 1,109 free on that first day, with 5 more that carried over to the next day, as well as 3 paid sales and 68 pages were read.
Best Rankings on May 11th-12th for Kindle included:
- 724 in Top Free
- 3 in US Historical Fiction
- 4 in Historical Christian Romance Fiction
- 22 in Religious Romance
Sales started as early as 6 a.m. EST, with 97 sold on the 11th, 96 sold on the 12th, and 2 that carried over to the next day, as well as 2 paid on the 18th, 1 on the 20th, 1 paperback on the 21st, and 1 paid on the 22nd and 26th each. Pages read during this time varied, but started out at 180 pages on the 11th, to 331 on the 12th, 138 on the 13th, and then I also received two book inquiries on the 20th.
For the rest of the dates, sales dropped off considerably. On the 27th, I only sold 43 free, with 1 carrying over to the 28th. 14 sold on the 29th, with 2 carrying over to the 30th.
As of today, June 7th (which happens to be my mom's birthday!!! 🎂 🍰 🎉 🎁 ), I now have 9 Amazon reviews and 11 ratings on Good Reads, a few more followers and likes on social media platforms, and my rankings for Kindle are:
- 125,103 in Paid Kindles
- 933 in Historical Christian Romance
- 1,776 in US Historical Fiction
- 580 in Historical Christian Romance
Compare that with the Paperback:
- 1,746,082 in Top 100 Books
- 25,767 in New Adult & College Romance
- 23,621 in Christian Romance
As you can see, both sets of stats are greatly improved in the span of just one month! It's also important to note, that I'm still in KDP Select the remainder of the 90 day period, so future rankings may dwindle once I'm no longer in it - who knows! That's not to say I've not ever sold Kindle or Paperback copies of the book before, because I have and continue to see sales roll in for both ever since its release.
3 Things to Change for Future Promotions
Overall, I have been pretty pleased with how things turned out, but these are the things I would do differently:
- Mention promotion days on social media ahead of time using hashtags and visual advertising posts a month in advance where applicable (with this round, I had a couple weeks lead time before starting the first promotion day). On the day of, I would vary advertising posts so that there are different ones used, and not the same one over and over to bore people to death. I created a total of 4 which I will definitely eventually re-use at a later time. Also, some groups and sites I post to will only let me submit on the day(s) of the promotion, so even more advance planning will be necessary to ensure I don't forget to do them when I need to!
- Offer promotional days consecutively or in intervals that coincide best with listing policies by advertising sites used. This was my biggest downfall, especially when I wanted to be listed again on It's Write Now but couldn't because of it being too soon to be re-listed.
- Enroll in KDP Select more than once. I do plan to go back to having my other digital platform versions reinstated after KDP Select terms have ended, so I may have to check my rankings then and see what happens. I will keep you posted!
