Recently, Amazon added another promotional perk to its Kindle Select program – Kindle Countdown Deals. Authors and publishers can lower the price of their e-books for a short promotional period, and still retain the 70% royalty rate. Amazon helps “promote” books by listing the specially priced books on a special webpage. Consumers see the “regular” digital price crossed out with an advisory about the “limited time” sale when they come across the book.

The reason I thought this would help me sell my novel, Loisaida, is because in the past when I’d lowered the price for my own “promotion” I’d seen sales increases. During those previous promos word got out without my doing very much. There used to be tons of sites and blogs on the look out for 99 cent books, and Loisaida would get listed pretty quickly without my contacting those sites.

Sales spikes are good things for authors, not just for whatever small revenue they bring in, but because the way that Amazon works, the more books you sell, the more books you will sell. Their mysterious algorithm means that every sale leads to a book appearing to more customers through various recommendation widgets that show up when consumers sign in to Amazon. Even a few sales in a short time can Continue reading My “Better Than Free” Experiment →

Hi All,

My novel, Loisaida is now back at its regular $3.99 Kindle Price. Anyone who wrote in prior to 3:00 am EST (12:00 PST) and sent a screensaver proof of purchase will get the promised rebate. Thanks for playing. I’ll have an update by Wednesday on how this little experiment worked.

So the Guardian UK has been doing this serious series on self-publishing, including talking to actual self-published authors and not just to make fun of them. A few weeks ago, they featured an awesome column written by Year Zero founder, award-winning spoken-word artist, publishing superhero, and geriatric-rat rescuer, Dan Holloway.  Today, the series features an interview with Larry Harrison, author of the excellent Glimpses of a Floating World.  Readers keep saying they want a filter for self-published books. Seems to me The Guardian is beginning to provide one. We can only hope other respectable newspapers and magazines will follow. And there’s some delicious (personal) icing on that cake — guess who gets a shout-out?

Regarding, Glimpses, I can’t say enough good things, though I tried in a review. For whatever reason, it never seemed to catch on in the United States, which given how crazy some of us are for British television, I don’t quite get. All I can do is recommend you check out the interview AND sample the book.