Bookshelf | Reports | Community | KDP Select

Home » Amazon KDP Support » Ask the Community » General Questions

Thread: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?


This question is answered. Helpful answers available: 1. Correct answers available: 1.

Reply to this Thread Reply to this Thread Search Forum Search Forum Back to Thread List Back to Thread List

Permlink Replies: 11 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: Oct 20, 2017 5:22 PM Last Post By: Larissa Brown
Larissa Brown

Posts: 9
Registered: 06/22/14
What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 8:45 AM
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
Hi there, community. I am planning to put my novella out for free for 5 to 7 days. I have been part of select before, but this time, I do not want to take it down from the 7 other platforms where I currently sell it (e.g., b&n, apple, smashwords, etc.) Therefore, I'm not interested in kdp select.

I believe amazon adjusts prices based on sales elsewhere; is that right? Does anyone know what amazon would do, in the case that I offer my book for free everywhere else for five days? Thanks for any advice or knowledge you can share.

Edited by: Larissa Brown on Oct 19, 2017 8:45 AM
Emily Veinglory

Posts: 3,577
Registered: 04/25/13
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 8:52 AM   in response to: Larissa Brown in response to: Larissa Brown
Helpful
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
They may or may not price match the Amazon version to free, and then they may or may not adjust it back.

As a customer I'd be kind of pissed if I found I had paid for a book the authors was simultaneously giving away free elsewhere. And it is people who discover that who tend to make the report that causes the price matching.
Larissa Brown

Posts: 9
Registered: 06/22/14
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 9:04 AM   in response to: Emily Veinglory in response to: Emily Veinglory
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
Thank you, this is helpful. I hope they will price match it, so that I can get the result I wanted in the first place, to give away my book for a few days. Understanding that amazon is a business that might not see the $ value in offering the book that way, I don't think there's any other way. The silly thing is that this book is a very slow seller, and the difference to amazon would be a drop in the bucket.

I do appreciate your point about the customer's POV, though. It makes me think I could do a giveaway instead, like on smashwords and goodreads perhaps. Places that allow me to give customers a coupon or list several free copies. Such a pain to not be able to have a simple sale, but perhaps this is the only way around to make everyone happy.
Emily Veinglory

Posts: 3,577
Registered: 04/25/13
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 9:57 AM   in response to: Larissa Brown in response to: Larissa Brown
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
If you want a price match, the kboards forums have threads to report books for matching. But this is more for a perma-free situation. The response is too slow for promotions-matching just for a few days.
Salamander Mall...

Posts: 895
Registered: 10/16/17
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 10:51 AM   in response to: Larissa Brown in response to: Larissa Brown
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
In your contract, you agree not to underprice KDP in any venue, including your own website. In the past, price matching was almost automatic, hence the permafree tsunami. These days, KDP seems more prone to force a price change by the publisher, block the book or delete the account. If you have a specific goal, it might be better to ask KDP directly, using the Contact Us button at the bottom of the page, rather than being outed by a bot.
Emily Veinglory

Posts: 3,577
Registered: 04/25/13
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 12:02 PM   in response to: Salamander Mall... in response to: Salamander Mall...
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
I have heard reports that permafree is harder to get, but the people on kboards who do it as a matter of routine don't seem to be finding it difficult.
Salamander Mall...

Posts: 895
Registered: 10/16/17
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 3:37 PM   in response to: Emily Veinglory in response to: Emily Veinglory
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
Emily Veinglory wrote:
I have heard reports that permafree is harder to get, but the people on kboards who do it as a matter of routine don't seem to be finding it difficult.

Perhaps they work it out with KDP rather than leaving it to chance.
Larissa Brown

Posts: 9
Registered: 06/22/14
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 19, 2017 4:25 PM   in response to: Salamander Mall... in response to: Salamander Mall...
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
I will do that and see what they say. It's hard to imagine I'd be given some kind of special dispensation for my little sale, but it's worth trying. I really can't think of a way this will work, which is too bad. The option is to unpublish the book on the 7 other platforms, so that I can join kdp select. Then republish it everywhere else after my select obligation ends. I know it's geared to get authors to publish exclusively on amazon.
Notjohn

Posts: 23,805
Registered: 02/27/13
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 20, 2017 8:51 AM   in response to: Larissa Brown in response to: Larissa Brown
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
The only way to do this is to use the Report A Lower Price option that you will find on every Amazon store page. You'll send the url of the free book on B&N or Apple, and Amazon may or may not price-match it. I have two free teaser books. One is shown as free on Amazon, the other is priced at $1, which is what it was before I made it free elsewhere.

On another occasion I raised the price of several books by a dollar. I missed one, so it was $3.99 on Amazon and $2.99 elsewhere. I got an email from Amazon instructing me to raise the price elsewhere or lower it on Amazon, or they would remove it from sale. (I raised it elsewhere.)

A couple years ago someone was whining on the other Kindle forum that a book had been blocked from sale because of this issue. So the only conclusion is that you can't be sure of what will happen.

Anyhow, it scarcely matters. As others have pointed out, it's just not feasible to play this game for five days or a week. The time lag is just too great, and the result not certain.

Nor has it ever been proven to me that a price reduction increases sales. Certainly it never has done so for me.

(Don't trust KDP to publish a print edition. Don't trust CreateSpace to publish an ebook.)

Good luck! -- NJ

Notjohn's Guide to E-Book & Print Formatting

The blog:
http://notjohnkdp.blogspot.com
Emily Veinglory

Posts: 3,577
Registered: 04/25/13
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 20, 2017 8:55 AM   in response to: Salamander Mall... in response to: Salamander Mall...
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
No, they just ask other authors to make the price report on their book's sales page. This still seems to always work if you get enough reports.
Larissa Brown

Posts: 9
Registered: 06/22/14
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 20, 2017 5:20 PM   in response to: Notjohn in response to: Notjohn
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
Thank you! I will just have to decide whether to unpublish elsewhere or unpublish on amazon if I want to give this book away. I don't even want to increase sales through this promo. It's for fun. However, I have seen a major increase in sales on my most popular book whenever I drop the price. I did a 99 cent sale and increased from about 10 copies a day to 30 - 50. In conjunction with a bookbub ad I sold over 1K in a day, which requires a sale, but I am just a sample size of one. I appreciate your note. Thanks for your help.
Larissa Brown

Posts: 9
Registered: 06/22/14
Re: What happens if my book is free on other platforms?
Posted: Oct 20, 2017 5:22 PM   in response to: Salamander Mall... in response to: Salamander Mall...
 
Click to report abuse...   Click to reply to this thread Reply
Help says sorry, you have to join kdp select. I will soon give up this idea, but it's been educational. I did not know what permafree was before asking my question about a short promo. Thanks for your help.
Legend
Helpful Answer
Correct Answer

Point your RSS reader here for a feed of the latest messages in all forums
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=1832679
kdp.amazon.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-05
66119
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:OK2SC3OH4LARHIK6UEAOKLPYBCFOKEWV
<urn:uuid:223d2a35-409f-46eb-8f70-9447f05de130>
2018-01-23T23:41:31Z
52.94.224.233
text/html
sha1:RSEEKSHOAJLCTSYVWMIYIV7KOFBTCX2N
<urn:uuid:539fdbb4-db79-4ce7-b443-9612a285753b>
https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=1832679
length
response
<urn:uuid:7150747d-4db9-40b6-ab69-def0b0d3d814>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-146-219-137.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-05
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for January 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf