Keep it Fresh

It’s important to freshen things up every once in a while. It’s why we redecorate, change our wardrobes, and so on. Nobody wants to eat the same thing for every meal day after day!

This is true for books, too. It’s why I refreshed some of my book covers last year. (Ex: NEIGHBOURS 1 AND 2) It’s also why I look at my marketing strategy and try to make tweaks when I can.

One thing that has had good results for me in terms of getting book reviews on Amazon is getting a book set to ‘perma-free’. In order to do this, the book must be free everywhere else before Amazon will consider it as a candidate for perma-free. For indie authors, this is a simple matter, especially if you use a distribution service like ‘Draft2digital’. (Which I highly recommend.) Once you can prove that the book is free elsewhere, you can contact Amazon and they might make your book free as well.

What is the advantage of giving away free books, you might wonder? The simple answer: REVIEWS.

I had good success getting reviews for a couple of my books without really having to try, simply by offering them free on Amazon. CONSPIRACY OF BONES and THREE STRAND CORD got most of their reviews this way. I since removed them from ‘perma-free’ (I can’t give EVERYTHING  away!) and am about to try a couple of other books: NEIGHBOURS SERIES 1 and PLAY IT AGAIN.

Now, one would think that PLAY IT AGAIN would already have lots of reviews since it was my longtime ‘giveaway’ incentive for signing up for my email newsletter. Alas, people who get free books don’t always leave reviews… It’s strange to me that this strategy really only works on Amazon.

Because of this, I refreshed my newsletter giveaway, too. If you go to the homepage right here on my website, you’ll see that CONSPIRACY OF BONES is now the giveaway incentive. Since it already has more reviews, I’m hoping this will translate into more sign-ups as well as better review results for PLAY IT AGAIN if it becomes perma-free.

Small changes like these can make a big difference when it comes to exposure. Hopefully, this will then translate into reviews, and ultimately book sales.

Look for announcements about these and other changes on my social media. Oh… and if you’ve read any of my books and haven’t reviewed them yet, please do a girl a favour! It really does make a difference.