The way Amazon displays books when you are surfing is based on their sales. You can sell some and move up the line a bit but when you aren't selling, you are less and less likely to be seen as you can go from say #120,000 to #490,000 and probably beyond surprisingly fast.
Reviews could help but so many of the sites like GoodReads publicize books from publishing houses or with ISPNs and a paperback copy possible to buy. People can't review you-- thumbs up or down-- if they can't find you
So the indie writer looks at ideas from writers who have succeeded. Sometimes they succeed because they are in a genre that is hot. You can't really change that if it's not your thing-- but a tip, if you think zombie, it is one of the ones that appears to be hot.
One of the suggested tools for getting more sales and hence moving your book up the line is changing prices. I did that with one book which I had put in Select, but this book I didn't want to do that. I am still not sure how well that worked anyway for increasing eventual sales-- although it felt good to know that a lot of people did download it.
Too many free books or even reduced for a special could end up a drawback if people figure you will always be doing specials or giveaways and they decide they'll just wait until you do it for a book they might've otherwise bought. Still if a book is not seen at all, it sure won't garner any sales.
When I began putting these stories out, I wanted to keep them as cheap as possible for potential readers-- because I like cheap myself. What I learned was if I made them $.98, Amazon got 70% leaving me with 30%; but if I priced them between $2.99 and 9.99, the percentages were reversed. It doesn't take much genius to figure out that's a better deal for the writer. I don't actually think readers will reject a book for being $2.99 or buy it because it's $.99. I know that price wouldn't stop me.
BUT what does it take to put the books out there for a reader to even see? That's what we are experimenting with. Hence Golden Chains will drop in price for a week because it was simply getting no activity. Will a price reduction change that? I sure don't know the answer to that. I am still experimenting with this new aspect to my writing. Click on the link below to buy the book for $.99.
Golden Chains is one of what I call my hybrid romances in that they are a love story but also a lot of something else (in this one, art, Greek mythology, mystery and suspense).
David Bannister (a character from an earlier book of mine) has worked for both government and private secret agencies for quite a few years. His newest assignment sends him undercover to find a murderer at the college where his ex-wife teaches art. His secret purpose in taking this job is a deep yearning to reconnect with Raven. What he doesn't know about this job is his pose as a model for her life drawing class-- something she only reluctantly agrees to let him do-- will have him under less cover than he's ever been. This at $.99 for a week or so
