LATEST RESULTS OF A GIVEAWAY

Last week I put KINDLE CREATION FOR CONTROL FREAKS on the free pile for three days at Amazon. The results were a little different than I'm used to.

Generally, books in multiple-day giveaways see the most action on the first day. By far. Like 80 or 90%.

Maybe it's the time of year—the shopping season—but this time the downloads were a lot more evenly distributed.

First day: 43.75%

Second day: 31.25%

Third day: 25%

First two day combined: 75%

The three-day giveaway did not quite equal the first (one-day) session, back on November 15th. Again, probably the result of the hectic holiday season. (Be interesting to see if matters reset to "normal" after the first of the year.)

Even so, my advice concerning free promotions remains the same:
For maximum downloads, schedule no more than two days at a time.

And one day at a time would be best. It's just a lot of extra work, and you'll have to stagger your use of promotion sites, which like to see at least 30 days between promotions of the same title.

On the other hand, if you messed around and forgot to put up any promotions and the end of your 90 day Select period is approaching, there's no particular penalty for throwing all five days at the public at once. It's not optimum, but you'll still get some downloads on the last three days. And at least you didn't leave those days on the table.

FREE BOOK ALERT

KINDLE CREATION FOR CONTROL FREAKS will be free on Amazon for three days this week: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (December 10-12).

Starts at midnight tonight.

Snap one up!

MORE GIVEAWAY NUMBERS

During the latest one-day giveaway for KINDLE CREATION (unpromoted, like the last one), there were far fewer downloads: just 34.2% of the previous session.

I suspect that's a result of timing. Last time, it was the 15th of November. This time: the day after Black Friday.

Now, it may be folks WERE online at the Kindle store looking for gifts—but felt a bit squeamish sending someone a free book for the holidays.

Or maybe fiction is the better choice for gifts.

On the other hand, if you knew some budding writer who was curious about Kindle making, you might think of sending a copy of a Kindle manual his/her way. But still: a free book for a gift...

Just seems tacky, somehow.

By the way, the free session was supposed to end at midnight, Pacific Standard Time. But I noticed the book was still free an hour or so after midnight, prompting nearly 14% additional downloads from the American site. (I never check foreign sites for price, but there were no after-hours downloads from any of them.)

Is Amazon losing its grip?