Free Kindle Books – Is It A Good Strategy?

Four Star Member Number of posts : 636 Registration date : 2008-06-08

There are free Kindle books out there and they seem to be a strategy to draw readers to a new series or introduce a new author. Two of these are short stories. One is book 1 of a new vampire series and another is book 1 of a Star Wars book series. What do you think of this strategy? Is it a good way to build interest and a following or is it setting a precedent that free is a good price for an ebook? These are recent amazon Kindle sales rankings. If you notice the #2 Kindle book is $9.99.

#1. Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch (Kindle Edition - May 7, 2009) - Kindle Book

Buy: $0.00

#2. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin (Kindle Edition - Mar 24, 2009) - Kindle Book

Buy: $9.99

#14. Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian (Kindle Edition - May 1, 2007) - Kindle Book

Buy: $0.00

#23. Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1: Precipice by JOHN JACKSON MILLER (Kindle Edition - May 26, 2009) - Kindle Book

Buy: $0.00

http:DTPollard.com

They did that for a while with Amazon Shorts. Many classics and a few new stories were free. They may still be doing it for all I know.
I suppose giving a few things away is a smart promotion but it would only work if you have a Kindle.

I think it's more of marketing effort to sell Kindles than introduce authors!!

Admin Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK

Hi DT,

Check out this link to see how giving away free PDF files worked for one author:

http://my.nowpublic.com/culture/self-published-published-author-and-vice-versa-0

Four Star Member Number of posts : 636 Registration date : 2008-06-08

You know Shelia, there is probably something to doing it the right way so that it does not damage the value of the product. The market is vast and a few thousand downloads allow Jeff to demonstrate his ability to reach a market and build name recognition. I will think about how something like this could be used to boost an overall larger goal and I think that I have come up with something.

It sounds like that might work the same way for you, DT.

Four Star Member Number of posts : 636 Registration date : 2008-06-08

This is my idea of how I will use this. I couldn't get to free due to the standard pricing required. I will look into other ways to do that. Don't miss the video at the bottom of the page.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CVV1GM/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

Free Kindle Books – Is It A Good Strategy? Sampler_Platter_Cover

An unusual and interesting idea. Liked the video. Let us know how it works out.