Amazon recently introduced Kindle Countdown Deals. For awhile now, authors have been wondering how they could put their Kindle ebooks on sale for a short period of time. Before this, the only thing you could do was offer them for free, or jigger around with pricing on other sites so Amazon would price match. If you just lowered the price, it wouldn’t show as a strikethrough ($4.99 $2.99), like you would see when you offered it free.
Now with Kindle Countdown Deals, you can do just that.
Kindle Countdown Deals Pre-Requisites
* Your book has to be enrolled in KDP Select for at least 30 days. This means your ebook is exclusive to Amazon. It’s free to enroll, but just know the trade-offs you’re making.
* Your book has to be priced at no less than $2.99 and no more than $24.99.
* Your book has to have had the same price for the past 30 days.
* You can’t also offer a Free Book Promotion in the same enrollment period. You have to pick one or the other.
The KDP Select period is 3 months. At the end of the 3 months, you can decide to switch to Free Book Promotion, or unenroll from KDP Select entirely.
Kindle Countdown Deals Particulars
* You can set the discount price from $0.99 to anything up to $1.00 less than your list price.
* You can set it to increase in increments. So, say you run the discount on your regularly-priced $3.99 book for 3 days. For the first day, it can be $0.99, the second day $1.99, and the third day $2.99.
* It ‘counts down’. Amazon customers can see that it’s on sale right now, but in X number of hours, the price is going to go up. It adds that bit of urgency to their shopping experience.
* The maximum duration for the discount is 7 days.
* You can’t change the regular list price for 14 days after the promotion ends.
Kindle Countdown Deals Benefits
* You earn your regular royalty rate. That means if your royalty rate is 70%, it’ll still be 70%, though 70% of the discounted price, not your list price.
* Potential buyers/readers can see that your book is on sale and that the sale will be ending soon.
* Your book will be listed at Kindle Countdown Deals.
That’s the basics, really. Since it’s new, I don’t yet have any details on how well it might do compared to Free Promotion Days, but I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
