Ask PZM Dec '12: KDP Select Listing Sites

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means! Yes! It’s Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group. It’s our time to cry, sob, share, whine, and help. Today my very special guest Phyllis Nimbler Miller will answer some questions about KDP. Enjoy.

We’ll be serving gluten free cookies and refreshments in the parlour.

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Q: Where can I post my free KDP Select book days (and as a reader find free ebooks to download)?

This is an excellent question without an easy answer. (And even if you are not yet an author, as a reader who would like to download free ebooks you may find this information very worthwhile.)

Let’s step back a minute and remind people that KDP Select is an Amazon exclusive 90-day period for your ebook (physical books are NOT included in the exclusive requirement). As an author, you can do only one 90-day period or automatically roll over to additional 90-day periods.

Full disclosure: I am only talking about Kindle free books although some of the sites I mention might also allow promotion of free ebooks on other online retail sites as well as low-priced ebooks.

To clarify, I will be talking about where to post announcements of your free KDP Select days. (Each 90-day period allows five free days in any combination.) Yes, you have to invest the time to tell people about your free ebook. You can’t expect people to miraculously find this out for themselves.

Now here is the complicated part. To the best of my knowledge there is no one answer about where to list free Kindle ebooks. I personally use a hodgepodge of sites that I have gleaned over the last few months – and many of the sites on the various lists I use are no longer active.

Another clarification:

Many of the sites where you can list your free books for free (some sites charge for the listing) require you post at least x days (depends on site) before the free days.

Other places such as http://snickslist.com/ only allow you to post when the ebook is actually free. (Snickslist calls the listing an ad, but it is free.)

What I have learned from my own experiences is that you can only do so much ahead of time. Then on the day (or days) your book is free, you must devote several hours to tweeting and updating on Facebook on the sites that allow you to list your free book.

Of course, there is etiquette. First you have to follow the requirements of the individual sites. (I am often bewildered when asked to assign a movie rating to my book – I usually put PG13 to be safe. And note that some sites do not allow erotica listings.)

Second, you should only post once a day (or maybe only once if your book is free over consecutive days) on Facebook sites.

Even on Twitter I believe you should only tweet once to a specific Kindle free site.

An example? I found this Twitter account — https://twitter.com/No1KindleSource

I can’t vouch for it but it looks good. So I might tweet from my Twitter account on the day a book is free (and include the link to the ebook on Amazon):

To @No1KindleSource Spy story CIA FALL GUY free today Dec 11 on #Kindle at http://amzn.to/L38eiP

Note: I use bit.ly to shorten any Amazon book links because bit.ly automatically shortens an Amazon link to include amzn, which in theory gives people more confidence about clicking on the shortened link.)

And why do I put the “to” in front of the account to which I am tweeting? It is a workaround for Twitter’s supposed control of who sees a tweet directed at another Twitter user.

A tip about who to tweet about your free days: If your fiction or nonfiction book is about a specific topic, you can tweet (and post updates on Facebook) to a related account. For example, when my Navy thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS is free on KDP Select, I tweet the U.S. Navy on Twitter and post the info on the Navy’s Facebook Page.

Now here is a site with a list of where to post: https://katrinaparkerwilliams.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/kdp-select-free-days-promo-sites/

Just remember I cannot verify that this information is correct. You have to do what I do. When I am posting, I click on each link and read the info on the site.

Some more shoutouts:

Here is a site I recently found that is very interesting: www.facebook.com/JumpSeatBookClub

Another site that I like and have used several times: www.freebooksy.com

And a new discovery I like: www.facebook.com/Ebookdealoftheday

As either an author or reader, as you begin to research these sites you will develop your own lists. And whenever you get a chance to promote these sites, do so. It’s good karma.

FREE DAYS:

I have two KDP Select free days coming up this month:

Romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY will be free on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at http://amzn.to/Sp29TC

2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist MRS. LIEUTENANT will be free on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at http://amzn.to/TKTk4B

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books. Her newest fiction books are the cozy mystery novel CAST THE FIRST STONE: A REBECCA STONE MYSTERY at http://amzn.to/SLYBJY and the short story ebook TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: REBECCA STONE MYSTERY SHORT STORIES at http://amzn.to/UWeFsa