Recently, Jinx Schwartz and Polly Iyer shared their experiences as authors using free e-books through Amazon's KDP Select program. (Click on their names to read those posts.) About a year ago, the BBT Cafe authors put together a short story collection, The Corner Cafe , as an author sampler and to test Amazon's KDPS free days. As a result of that project, I've watched other authors and publishers implement their assorted approaches to this marketing method. I'm signed up for three e-letters hawking free and inexpensive Kindle books, and review them daily, and also occasionally use NetGalley . Here are some thoughts (based largely from a reader and reviewer perspective) on how I view the free e-book marketing tactic and its evolution: 1. Giveaways and samplers work as well as they have since the idea was first conceived (which historically probably goes way back). If the product is good, the experience pleasant, and the customer has a reason to come back and sp...

Thanks for hosting me today, Dani. I'd like to share with you today my FREE day results over the past year, but first here's how I got there: Wrote some books, self-published them, got picked up by a small publishing house, then decided to go indie. Simple, huh? Not so much. Back before Kindle Direct Publishing and Createspace , self-pubbing wasn't all that easy. Sure you ended up with a book to show off, but without good distribution and a publisher to help successfully hawk your wares (thus the split with my publisher) all you end up with is a closet full of books you lug around to book signings. But then a miracle occurred: Kindle Direct Publishing Select, and with it a chance to get your books out there. Of course by now I had re-re-re-edited my books into what many consider a good read, so that helps. No matter how much you spend on publicity, or how much social media you ascribe to, if you don't have a well-written and edited book to offer your read...