The Start of an Interesting Experiment

I’ll be honest. When KDP Select first debuted, I didn’t think much about it. It seemed like a lot to give up for what might not be any kind of return at all. “Leery” does a good job of describing my attitude about it, though “unimpressed” also works pretty well. However, after a few writers I know found it moderately useful (in CERTAIN WAYS), I thought – why the hell not? So, I enrolled At the Edge of the World in the program, took it down from Smashwords (it hadn’t been approved for Premium Dist. yet, so I didn’t have the same headaches as a lot of other writers).

KPD Select has one really interesting feature – it lets you market your work as free for 5 days. I thought about it, and the conventional wisdom said, “Wait. Use each day wisely. Make it count. Each day can be a tool unto itself”. Well, I’ve never been one to listen to conventional wisdom, so I let those words go right out of my head and set the free promotion to run for 5 days right out of the gate. It’ll be free through the 18th of April.

That’s the grand experiment – how well it does during those 5 days. I’m interested in how well it does through the entire 90-day period, of course, but I have no high hopes for the lending program (though I hope I’m proven wrong). So far, it’s off to a good start. As of right now, this is where it sits after less than 12 hours:

Amazon US – Historical Fantasy #15

Amazon UK- Historical Fantasy #10

For someone who’s never charted at all, that really knocked me for a loop! On top of that, Gods of Sand and Stone has been creeping slowly up the UK Historical Fantasy list as well – it hit 38 today, before dropping back down to 70 (still in the Top 100! Woot!)

Anyway, I’m really interested in charting the progress of the free book over the 5 day free promotion, and I’ll be interested to see what (if any) impact it has on the sales of Gods of Sand and Stone or Blood and Brass, neither of which is enrolled in KDPS.

So… I’ll keep you posted!

P.S. You can check out At the Edge of the World here for the US version and here for the UK version if you’re interested. It’s an odd little story that I really enjoyed writing concerning the first invasion of Britain by Caesar in 55 BC .