KDP Select and Amazon Advantage

[Richard Long]

I'm about to take the leap with these two services and was wondering what everyone's thoughts and experiences were. Discuss!

[Virginia Llorca]

I had a little over 8,000 downloads in four different countries.  I have had 34 sales since then of four different books, and that is just on Amazon.  If you promo relentlessly and in the right place, you DO NOT have to pay money.  I was featured on an Amazon "this book of free" site and did not pay for it. My sales are small but my royalties are larger each month.

[Richard Long]

Thanks Virginia. Unfortunately my downloads from this 3 day extravaganza total a whopping 815! Aboiut one tenth of your totals. But I didn't do any thing is support, and frankly, didn't know what to do to support it. Pretty much a waste I imagine if you netted 34 sales out to that much exposure.

[Richard Long]

Thanks Rolando, I love the concept of paying to advertise your free book. Ridiculous but sensible. Unfortunately My promo ends today and I did nothing other than click on the best seller lists every few minutes to check my rankings. Total giveaway is paltry but your standards -- 800 and rolling. Live and learn.

[Rolando Garcia]

I have found that paying for advertisement in high visibility blogs is critical, and others have reported the same thing. This is specially true now that Amazon changed the algos and free books do not get as much visibility as before. For things to work out you need to reach the top 100 (better the top 10) of the free Kindle store and the top slot of your book's categories.