Book Marketing... Why Free?

Click the picture to get your free ebook

Since telling people last week that one of my books will be free for two days, some people have asked why I am giving away my book for free.  So today, I thought I would explain why.  The most obvious reason is that I know that Jesus loves when I give (for more on that please check out my other book Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time).  The other reason is that it is also a marketing strategy (please forgive me for not being truly altruistic in my motives).  . 

Basically, the more people that download my book over the next few days, the better the sale of my book should be over the next month.  One of my author friends, Susette Williams, explains it better than me in her book Self-Publishing Tips & Marketing Resources.    Susette has a novel, Maid for Murder: Deadly Business.  She offered the book free for three days and had over twenty-nine thousand free copies downloaded.  Maid for Murder: Deadly Business went on to be #2 in Christian Romance category and Christian Fiction. In the months that followed her free days, she made over $ 5,500 from sales of that book.  Due to several changes that Amazon made to their affiliates program, it is harder to spread the word about the fact a book is free.  However, I still decided to give it a try.  Over the last month, I have contacted over 40 sites in hopes they will let others know about my book. 

So my ultimate goal is to get My Journey with Jesus Christ in the top #50 free Kindle downloads so that I will have a better chance of experiencing the sales boost during the month of November.  Based on Susette’s experience, if I reach my goal of being and staying in the top #50, I should sale an average of 3.5%-5% of whatever my free downloads were over the next thirty days.

So what happens if I don’t meet this goal?  Well… I guess the Christian in me would just have to settle for knowing that I have helped some young souls along their journey, and the psychologist in me would have to settle for knowing I have helped some children strengthen their attachment with a loving adult. 

 For more marketing strategies, check out Self-Publishing Tips & Marketing Resources books.  I highly recommend it.  If you haven't already, click the picture to be directed to amazon to get your free kindle version of My Journey with Jesus Christ. 

As always, please pray for me as I pray for you. 

Corine

P.S. Apparently neither of my books has quite made it to Zoar

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