So how did that free thing go?

 

"Soooo, Jimmy, how did your free day go?"

"It was swell!"

Not sure why I picture myself as a Leave it to Beaver era paperboy when I think of things like "Free Day", but there you go.

Last Friday was my first foray into the land of the free via the Kindle Select Program (KDP). I really had no idea what to expect. I read a lot of discussion forums, and blog posts, and online articles about publishing, and I have learned one simple thing:

No one agrees.

There you go - simple, profound, you can take it to the bank. You are welcome.

I have seen KDP posed as the savior of the author (and the publishing industry in general) - and just as many times heard it referred to as the spawn of the devil, the root of all general badness in the world, and just plain icky. How can Amazon demand exclusivity?!!! I want to be free to sell my books anywhere and anyhow and to anywho in whoville that's who.

I digress. In a Seussian fashion.

So I thought, what the hell, I'll give it a shot. I signed up and in 90 days, I can cancel and go onto Smashwords, or ibooks, or selling copies out of my van at the Walmart. My choice. All the gnashing of teeth and minds over something that the author can simply cancel. Go figure.

I knew that I couldn't just throw it up for free (not going to add a drinking story here) and do nothing else. So I shouted about it on twitter and facebook, and a couple other places I hang out. Kind of last minute, I found some places where I could advertise the upcoming free day. I knew that next time, I needed to give it a bit more forethought - but like I said, what the hell, it's free, give it a shot.

"Then what happened, Jimmy?"

"Well, I went to bed."

The KDP free days start at midnight PST - and since I can see no oceans for a few thousand miles, kilometres, or cubits (I always forget) - I knew it was a helluva lot later here. I tried to stay up, but a few martinis, some reruns on the Food Network, and several pages of reading, and zzzzz. 

Next morning, I checked the numbers. Warning - this is a harbinger of things to come. Side note - how cool is the word, harbinger? Even if I used it redunandtly. Anyway, the number thing...

I expected to see maybe 1 download, I'd be happy with several, ecstatic with more than ten. I saw the number, 40. Whoa. That's something - I better keep an "eye" on this. (harbinger alert).

Over my morning yoghurt and hi-test brew, the numbers started clicking. I mean, I didn't have an odometer setting on the KDP, but let's just say I started to check a little more often. By 9:00 am, I had a 100. Most were in North America, but hey some in the UK, and even one fom Italy. Now that's cool - the book is really out there. I phoned the wife, and said, hey, guess what?

That's when I noticed the little numbers showing the ranking of the book in the literary category, and the suspense category. You can pick two categories for your book. Hmm, I was like in the top 500 (or something), wonder if I could go higher than that?

Rather than draw out this already too long of a tale - it was a crazy roller coaster of a day. Yes, I did get a bit addicted to those numbers (no, I didn't shake if I waited too long between checking - well, not too many times). But here was the thing: every download was a new reader (or a new potential reader - as I know some will download anything and everything that is free. And then never read it.)

I didn't care that the books were going out free. I became a writer to be read (well, and to feed my soul, which without trying to be all spacey and crystal-like, it does). The side-buzz was watching it climbing the charts. It hit top 100 in Literary and then in Suspense. So I made it to the pages of top free downloads.

I tweeted like a madman that day - caught in the frenzy - and threw "soft marketing" right out the fucking door. Hey - you want a book? - it's free! Go get it! Aiieee!

And as if throwing a good juicy chop to a pack of wild Bichons - after I tweeted, the numbers started coming in quicker.

At the end of it - and I stayed up right until the end, 2:00 AM my time. I hit just over 800 downloads, peaked at #16 in literary and #17 in suspense. I made it to the first page of the free downloads for those categories. And also to the first page of a advertising site for free promos (which brought the book up the charts based on how many views the ad had.) I also found the book mentioned on some forums - and some well known writer friends were nice enough to tweet about it. (Thank you NYT best selling author, Lisa McMann!) I even scored a retweet from one of my writing heroes Joe Lansdale. I tried to get George Strombolopolous to tweet about it, but he didn't bite.

"Well what now, Jimmy? How do you feel?"

Invariably, after the high of free day - I came down. Not too hard, though. After your free promotion is done, you do disappear from those charts. And the numbers sloooooow right down. Stop actually.

But the book is out there. Add to that, the druid-like mysticism of Amazon's popularity ranking (and "People who bought this also bought..." feature) and I have heard that the free day promo has an effect on sales. Except for those who say it doesn't. See above for my profound thought on agreement.

And those numbers have started ticking again - slowly, but they are ticking. I delight in the fact that I have found some new readers - across the globe too, as Germany chimed in with Italy and a few dozen more in the UK.

I know that others have probably posted a lot higher numbers (I've heard 2000 from some, but for longer promotions). But for me, this exceeded my expectations in a huge way. The post below is a screen cap from the day. Just to see Correction Line next to classic books in a list gave this paperboy a surreal thrill.

"That sounds wonderful, Jimmy."

"Yeah, it was, mom."

"No go finish your route."

"Awww."