A Transparent Two Day Experiment of Amazon's KDP Select Free Promotion

Amazon is by far the most popular seller of ebooks. There's no question. If you have any hopes of self publishing a book and having anyone read it, you need to make sure it's available there. However, in a sea of millions upon millions of books, how does one get noticed? Amazon seems to offer one idea: The KDP Select program. There are three primary draws for signing up to KDP Select: 1) The free promotion days (you have five you can use in any 90 day enrollment period), 2) Kindle countdown deals (where your book goes on sale, gets a little promotion, and the price starts out with whatever discount you set and then slowly climbs up to the regular price), 3) The Kindle Online Lending Library (KOLL) and Kindle Unlimited (KU) (users essentially "take out" your book like it's a library book and you get money if they go through more than 10% of the book.)

In the past, I have taken part in the free promotion days. However, this time I wanted to track precisely how well my book, "1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts", performed, where I promoted my book and the resulting statistics for a few days after. Your mileage will vary, obviously. Leading up to my free promotion, I decided to do absolutely no preparation. It was more of a "fly by the seat of my pants" style prep. I would not recommend this to anyone. It's much better to contact blogs and other sites in advance to see if they'll tweet or write a note on Facebook about your book being free on the day of. This will generate more activity than if you rely on yourself to promote it.

One last thing to note before I share with you the results of my experiment: I decided I would make my book free on two of the busiest online shopping days of the season. Thanksgiving and "Black Friday." I wanted to see if this would increase sales during the Saturday, Sunday and "Cyber Monday" that follows it. It should be an interesting ride. (Note: Cyber Monday has yet to happen, this blog post will be updated once Cyber Monday has concluded.)

DAY ONE (Thanksgiving: November 27th, 2014)

• 12am-11am EST - I did zero promotion, zero linking on any sites. I'm sure the stats won't be impressive. The stats will reflect end of hour totals by the way. 
  
  
  STATS: 22 free downloads overall. 10,010 overall. #23 Writing Skills. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of my second nonfree 99 cent ebook.

• 11am-12pm EST. Put a link up on my twitter account. Put a link on some link aggregate sites (Reddit, for example.) Put a link on a few Facebook pages.
  
  
  STATS: 43 free downloads overall (+21 downloads/hour.) 10,010 overall. #23 Writing Skills. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of 2nd 99 cent ebook.

• 12pm-1pm EST. Letting the links get shared rather than sharing the link in other places. Figured I'd give it some time to go around a bit.
  
  
  STATS: 60 free downloads overall (+17 downloads/hour.) 6,956 overall. #14 Writing Skills. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of my second 99 cent ebook.

• 1pm-2pm EST. Posted this thread. Shared the link on a few other sites.
  
  
  STATS: 107 free downloads overall (+47 downloads/hour.). 6,444 overall. #12 Writing Skills. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of my 2nd 99 cent ebook. This is the area where downloads would need to start climbing by the hundreds to start having any significant chart effect.

• 2pm-3pm EST. Let the link grow organically rather than share it elsewhere. Will likely do this for the next hour as well.
  
  
  STATS: 119 free downloads overall (+12 downloads/hour.) 3,448 overall (quite a leap.) #7 Writing Skills. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of other 99 cent ebook.

• 3pm-4pm EST. Others have told me they've been sharing the link. I've done no extra promotion, however.
  
  
  STATS: 154 free downloads overall (+35 downloads/hour.) Ranks have not changed. Sometimes this happens with the hourly updates not updating in a particular hour. 0 sales of softcover book. 0 sales of other 99 cent ebook.

• 4pm-5pm EST. Still no extra promotion or linking anywhere else. Letting the "organic" linking/sharing thing happen.
  
  
  STATS: 202 free downloads overall (+48 downloads/hour.) 1,862 overall. #5 in Writing Skills. 1 sale of the softcover book. 0 sales of my other 99 cent ebook.

• 5pm-6pm EST. Once again, just letting the link grow as it should. I will start linking on other sites to help growth (and will link to said sites at the end of this post so you know which sites I promoted with.)
  
  
  STATS: 222 free downloads overall (+20 downloads/hour.) 1,438 overall. #3 in Writing Skills (being in the top 5 free of Writing Skills will also help downloads.) 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 1 sale for the day of the other 99 cent ebook.

• 6pm-7pm EST. I was delayed in writing this update. I did additional promotion via twitter for this hour, then got sidetracked.
  
  
  STATS: 241 free downloads overall (+19 downloads/hour.) 1,399 overall. #3 in Writing Skills. 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 1 sale for the day of the other 99 cent ebook.

• 7pm-8pm EST. No additional promotion on sites during this hour. Just seeing where it goes.
  
  
  STATS: 280 free downloads overall (+39 downloads/hour.) 962 overall. #2 in Writing Skills. 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 2 sales for the day of the other 99 cent ebook.

• 8pm-9pm EST. I promoted the book across a few more Facebook groups. I try to stagger where I link it and try to leave a unique thought or comment with each post depending on what group it is. I figure staggering the links will make it hit across different time zones/areas. One thing I neglected to keep track of was the stats for the stores of the other counties. These have been stats for the us. So in parentheses I will include stats for UK/Canada/Australia.
  
  
  STATS: 300 free downloads overall (+20 downloads/hour.) 758 overall. #2 in Writing Skills. 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 2 sales for the day of the other 99 cent ebook. (UK: #1,043 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #399 OA / #2 Writing. AUS: #6,734 OA / #6 Writing.)

• 9pm-10pm EST. Shared the link with a couple more groups. No more promotion aside from that.
  
  
  STATS: 358 free downloads overall (+58 downloads/hour - biggest download hour of the day.) #717 overall. #2 in Writing Skills. 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 2 sales for the day of the other 99 cent ebook. (UK: #983 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #248 OA / #1 Writing. AUS: #6,745 OA / #6 Writing.)

• 10pm-11pm EST. No additional promotion aside an additional twitter link. Just lettin' it ride.
  
  
  STATS: 389 free downloads overall (+31 downloads/hour.) #717 overall (No change.) #2 in Writing Skills. (No change.) 1 sale for the day so far of the softcover. 2 sales for the day of the other 99 cent ebook. (UK: #983 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #240 OA / #1 Writing. AUS: #6,799 OA / #6 Writing.)

• 11pm-12am EST. Posted to one Facebook group. That's about it. Things are winding down as I'll be heading to bed soon, so more updates might be done around 8am EST.
  
  
  STATS: 406 free downloads overall (+17 downloads/hour.) #620 overall. #2 in Writing Skills. I end the day with a single sale of the softcover. 2 sales for my other 99 cent ebook. (UK: #1,069 / #1 Writing. No surprise here as it is 5am in the UK. CA: #178 OA / #1 Writing. I love Canada! AUS: #6,838 / #6 Writing. Australia showing less love. It's about 6pm on a Friday. Guess everyone's in the brush out there.)

DAY TWO (Black Friday: November 29th, 2014)

• 7AM EST. Slept. Amazons stats wind up jumping around a bit after midnight EST. It now states that I ended day one with 497 downloads. (Which is always odd since it had already started ticking downloads in the day 2 stats after that 406 count. I guess they just have issues with time zones and the +90 happened between 12am and 3am hours when the day finally ended for all.)
  
  
  STATS: 61 downloads today. (Starting over the tally.) #347 overall. Still #2 in Writing Skills. The #1 book appears to be at #341. It's a neck and neck race. 0 sales today of the softcover. 0 sales of the other ebook.

• 7AM-8AM EST. No additional promotion done. Had to drive to work, after all.
  
  
  STATS: 80 downloads. (+19 downloads/hour.) #349 overall (No change.) #2 in Writing Skills. (No change.) 0 sales today of the softcover. 0 sales of the other ebook. (UK: #932 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #199 OA / #1 Writing. AUS: #6,505 OA / #6 Writing.)

• 8AM-9AM EST. Put up a few links on twitter and Facebook for promotion. Seems to be my two primary venues, I know.
  
  
  STATS: 92 downloads. (+12 downloads/hour.) #336 overall. #1 Writing Skills (finally! This means I've made it to #1 in the Writing Skills category each time I've put my book for free. Personal victory.) 0 sales today of the softcover. 0 sales of the other ebook. (UK: #932 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #199 OA / #1 Writing. AUS: #6,505 OA / #6 Writing -- international stats appear to remain unchanged.)

• 9AM-10AM EST. Shared a few links on Facebook. But FB is drowning with people doing "Black Friday" promotions of their stuff. Doubt it will have any traction.
  
  
  STATS: 111 downloads. (+19 downloads/hour.) #331 overall. #1 Writing Skills. 1 sale of the softcover. 0 sales of the other ebook. (UK: #966 OA / #1 Writing. CA: #191 OA / #1 Writing. AUS: #6,572 OA / #6 Writing.)

• 10AM-11AM EST. Shared link with the NaNoWriMo community (they only allow people who actively participate to promote there.) Shared a link on Facebook.
  
  
  STATS: 121 downloads. (+10 downloads/hour. Slowing down, it seems.) #331 overall (holding!) #1 Writing Skills (seems the #1 position isn't doing much in aiding downloads. Or being in the top 400 overall.) 1 sale of the softcover for the day still. 0 sales of the other ebook. (There was insignificant change in the international stats.)

• 11AM-12PM EST. Shared some links on Facebook. Not much else for promotion.
  
  
  STATS: 135 downloads. (+14 downloads/hour.) #345 overall (dropping!) #1 Writing Skills. 1 sale of the softcover for the day still. 0 sales of the other ebook. (UK: Same stats. CA: #202 OA. AUS: #6,423.)
  
  
  
  
• 12PM-1PM EST. No promotion during this hour. Lunch time. I think links elsewhere during the next hour is best to goose the numbers. Still above where I was yesterday, though.
  
  
  STATS: 145 downloads. (+10 downloads/hour.) #345 overall (holding!) #1 Writing Skills. 2 sales of the softcover today (yay! I like softcover sales. But this is a margin of error thing of +/- 2 sales a day even before my free promotion. 3 or more would be abnormal.) 0 sales of the other ebook. (International stats holding and, really... I think they're not worth tracking at this point.)

• 1PM-2PM EST. Promoted via Pinterest, other subreddits, facebook, twitter and instagram. Likely my last push for downloads.
  
  
  STATS: 175 downloads. (+30 downloads/hour.) #373 overall (dropping. boo.) #1 Writing Skills. 2 sales of the softcover. 0 sales of the other ebook.

• 2PM-3PM EST. This is the hour where we see how much fruit blossoms from the flurry of promotion in the previous hour.
  
  
  STATS: 197 downloads. (+22 downloads/hour. Respectable showing.) #373 overall (holding. I'll take it.) #1 Writing Skills (neck and neck with the #2 spot holder. If I drop down 10 spots, I'm at #2 again.) 4 sales of the softcover for the day. Nice! An expected boost there. +2 for the hour. 1 sale of the other ebook. (It would take 2 sales of the 99 cent ebook to be out of the norm, however.)

• 3PM-4PM EST. The interesting part of my experiment started taking root. My primary goal for the free period was to improve the visibility when people searched for the basic word "Writing." Before, my book didn't show up on any page. This hour it had jumped to page 7 overall and page 6 when you searched in either the Kindle department or the physical books department.
  
  
  STATS: 214 downloads. (+17 downloads/hour.) #424 overall. (Dropping again.) #2 Writing Skills (oh well!) 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 1 sale of the other ebook for the day.

• 4PM-5PM EST. Not much to report here. Nothing of note happened.
  
  
  STATS: 233 downloads. (+19 downloads/hour.) #424 overall. (Holding.) #2 Writing Skills. 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 1 sale of the other ebook for the day.

• 5PM-6PM EST. Still no more movement in page rankings. Letting it "sit" for the rest of the day is what I've decided to do, rather than plug it more in the venues I've already tapped.
  
  
  STATS: 251 downloads. (+18 downloads/hour.) #466 overall. (At least it wasn't a huge drop.) #2 Writing Skills. 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 1 sale of the other ebook for the day.

• 7PM-8PM EST. Not much to report once again during this hour, except an unexpected bump in downloads.
  
  
  STATS: 300 downloads. (+49 downloads/hour. Second largest download amount of the experiment.) #493 overall. (But that jump didn't help with my stat here.) #2 Writing Skills. 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 1 sale of the other ebook for the day.

• 8PM-9PM EST. I guess we'll get to see if that jump in downloads helped the stats in this next hour.
  
  
  STATS: 318 downloads. (+18 downloads/hour.) #547 overall. (Nope. Still dropping.) #2 Writing Skills. 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 2 sales of the other ebook for the day (Hey, a sale is a sale.)

• 9PM-10PM EST. With the bummer of dropping down a bunch of points, at least I'm still in the top 600 overall. Let's see if I'm able to close out the last few hours in the top 600.
  
  
  STATS: 338 downloads. (+20 downloads/hour.) #555 overall. (Not a huge drop, I'm fine with this.) #2 Writing Skills (Glad this is holding.) 5 sales of the softcover for the day! Another softcover sale! 2 sales of the other ebook for the day.

• 10PM-11PM EST. Just two hours left of my tracking. This hour and the next. Let's see how far the bottom is.
  
  
  STATS: 356 downloads. (+18 downloads/hour.) #595 overall. (Still top 600! Ha!) #2 Writing Skills. 5 sales of the softcover for the day. 2 sales of the other ebook for the day.

• 11PM-12AM EST. The final hour. I'll write a bit of conclusion after the stats of this hour.
  
  
  STATS: 386 downloads. (+30 downloads/hour.) #577 overall. (Ended the day by starting to climb back up and staying in the top 600. A high note.) #2 Writing Skills (Awesome to hold on top the top two spots for a good majority of the time.) 4 sales of the softcover for the day. 1 sale of the other ebook for the day.)
  
  

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, the "free period" ended for all of Amazon at 3AM EST (or midnight PST.) The downloads of day two equaled 426. With that in mind, here are some stats:

COMBINED STATS FOR THE TWO FREE PROMOTION DAYS

• Downloads: 923.
• Softcover sales: 5.
• Alternate eBook sales: 4.
• Peak position: 331 overall.
• Peak spot: #1 in Writing Skills category.

FIRST NONFREE DAY STATS

(The statistics for the day following the free promotion.)

• eBook purchases of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts: 7.
• Softcover sales: 8! (This is, by far the best stat.)
• eBook purchases of the 101 Horror Writing Prompts: 2.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (ebook): #31,124 overall. #53 in Writing Skills.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (paperback): #32,023 overall. #90 in Writing Skills.
• Keyword visibility when searching for "Writing": Last result on page 2 (in the physical books search) | Middle result on Page 3 (when no category is specified at all) | Middle result as well on Page 3 (when Kindle books category is selected.) -- These are all awesome results considering I didn't show up on the first 20 pages a few days ago when the basic word "Writing" was searched for. Perhaps this stat will rise in the future.

Second NONFREE DAY STATS

(The statistics for Sunday, November 30th.)

• eBook purchases of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts: 7 (Keeping up the pace)
• Softcover sales: 6 (not a bad showing)
• eBook purchases of the 101 Horror Writing Prompts: 1.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (ebook): #30,671 overall. #56 in Writing Skills.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (paperback): #29,078 overall. #87 in Writing Skills.
• Keyword visibility when searching for "Writing": Near the middle on page 2 when searching for physical books (it moved up about four positions from the previous day) | Top position on Page 3 (when no category is specified at all) -- So it has moved up here as well! | Middle result on Page 3 (when Kindle books category is selected.) - No change from yesterday on that last category.

Third NONFREE DAY STATS

(The statistics for Cyber Monday, December 1st.)

• eBook purchases of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts: 4 (the dropoff begins)
• Softcover sales: 4 (here too)
• eBook purchases of the 101 Horror Writing Prompts: 2.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (ebook): #27,617 overall. #55 in Writing Skills.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (paperback): #34,728 overall. #97 in Writing Skills.
• Keyword visibility when searching for "Writing": Middle on page 2 (When searching for physical books. Moving up two spots.) | Middle position on page 2 (when no category is specified at all) -- Decent position change | Middle result on Page 2 (when Kindle books category is selected.) - Big change from yesterday.

Fourth NONFREE DAY STATS

(The statistics for Tuesday, December 2nd.)

• eBook purchases of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts: 3 (the dropoff continues?)
• Softcover sales: 12?! What the heck?
• Borrows from Kindle Unlimited/Kindle Lending Library: 4. I didn't include this stat the other days because the number was zero.
• eBook purchases of the 101 Horror Writing Prompts: 1.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (ebook): #23,126 overall. #44 in Writing Skills.
• Position of 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts (paperback): #28,382 overall. #87 in Writing Skills.
• Keyword visibility when searching for "Writing": Second position on page 2 (When searching for physical books. Moving up a few more spots. Is this what drove more softcover sales?) | Sixth position on page 2 (when no category is specified at all) -- Moved a few more spots | Top result on Page 2 (when Kindle books category is selected.) - All three categories, a big position change. See note #2 below.

Note (december 2nd): It moved up in searches but down in purchases. I wonder if it moves up to page one if that will help, maybe we shall see. I will record the stats for the end of December 2nd. Then I will wait and see how it improves, if it gets to page one for searches of writing and if that has any effect on sales. Stay tuned!

Note #2 (December 3rd): These notes are written just after midnight. So this thought is about the Dec. 2nd sales. Last night the positon in searches for softcover books improved for my book. Today sales of the softcover jumped from 4 to 12. So we shall see, since the search position improved for all categories to high up or the top spot on the second page, if that results in sales. Then we shall see if in turn the search position improves more. This will tell me (and you) whether or not specific keywords are integral to sales.

Stay tuned, once again.