Kindle Countdown Deals, try it!

I was just about to opt out of the KDP Select when I received an email from Amazon, informing me that they had started a new promotion tool called the Kindle Coundown Deals. I immediately went for it, and I urge that any author/publisher who meets their stringent rules gives it a try. Why? Here is what I found based on my experience and observations in the publishing world:

Any new promotional program will work when it’s first launched. None of them will work forever.

This is what happened with the KDP-S free promotion tool. Giving away freebies generated sales after the promotional period and customer reviews, well, in the past! Now readers are used to free books and they don’t read most of them. They hardly finish any novel. Whenever they are bored by a book, they jump to the next one. Too many freebies, too many deals. Bad reading habit. Spoiled! The strategy hardly works anymore.

It’s not the fault of KDP-S. It’s just there are way too many books now! I’m glad to see that Amazon learned its lesson now: you have to meet several criteria before you could enroll in this Countdown program, such as

1. Your book has been enrolled in KDP Select for 30 days or more (This is okay.)

2. The digital list price for your book has not been changed for 30 days or more (This is a bummer! Many books will not meet this criterion.)

3. The latest end time for your Kindle Countdown Deals promotion is 14 days before your KDP Select period ends. However, if you renew your book in KDP Select for another consecutive 90-day period, the latest end time of your Kindle Countdown Deals may be the last day of your current KDP Select period.

Alright, now, each Select period is 90 days. Rule 1 tells you that you’ll have to be inside KDP-S for >30 days, and rule 3 tells you <90-14=76 days. This way Amazon controls the number and optimizes the effect. And I can imagine that many authors will be tempted to renew the Select. Good job, Amazon!

A trick: The first time I tried to enroll in the program, something weird happened and the system wouldn't let me do it. I contacted Amazon and they told me to delete the cache and cookies to see if this resolves the problem.

I just enrolled my military science fiction from Nov 3 to Nov 10. I’m eager to find out how it goes (I’ll post a report here on Nov 11. I promise!)