Pub Tip of the Day

Now through Saturday my book of short stories The Carnival Papers is free for Kindle.  At the moment it's #2 in the Short Stories category (free, not paid of course).  In case you don't believe me:

And this brings up a point about publishing on Amazon:  being a "bestseller" can do wonders for your sales.  The first day the book was on sale it had been downloaded maybe 20 times.  I checked back the next day and it had quadrupled that number.  And since it's more than doubled that.  The simple reason is that when you get on one of Amazon's bestseller categories (and they have all sorts of weird ones) it helps more people see your book and then they download said book.

Another example is a book I published under a pseudonym.  It's done nothing in America but it's sold about 100 copies in the UK in the last few months.  The reason is it got on the bestseller list for horror short stories (paid this time!).  It's been in the 30s though at some points even higher.  Often it's beating out something by Stephen King, so that's something.

I think with that one it started again with a sale through KDP Select which led to some sales, which led to getting on the bestseller list, which has led to more people seeing it and buying it.

So the tip is if you're book is in KDP Select, it's good to use your free sale days when you can because that can drive sales.  It's like my marketing professor in college said:  People can't buy your product if they don't know it exists.  If you can get on a bestseller category then it helps people know your book exists.  It's been a lot more effective for me than Tweeting and blogging, I tell you what.