My indie publishing guru, Nicole Loughlin of littlespotforstories.com, told me that it’s important to boost your Kindle/Amazon ratings in the run-up to Christmas in order to capture the interest of the many millions of shoppers who receive Amazon gift vouchers for Christmas. Once your books drops out of the top 100,000, you lose a lot of visibility vis-a-vis other books. (i.e. when someone searches “cozy mysteries”, I want A Murder in Mount Moriah to pop up in their search, and when they buy a cozy, I want AMiMM to pop up in Amazon’s “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” suggestion bar). I’ve only sold 3 copies this week (!), so my book is lurking dangerously near that 100,000 mark. I therefore had to decide whether to run another $0.99 promotion or to do a few days’ giveaway. I’ve had modest success with both methods in the past. My book wasn’t eligible for another discount promo until January 20th, which I feared might be too late for that post-Christmas bounce, so I opted for a few freebie days. Ideally, this will generate a few post-Christmas sales and/or a boost in my visibility. It may also generate some new reviews, which are another big part of improving visibility. I’ll let you know what happens.
p.s. I’ve had 175 people register for my Goodreads giveaway during the first few days. Woot!
Mindy Quigley 