Readers:
Q: Isn't getting free books bad for the authors? Shouldn't I buy the books?A: Contrary to logic, downloading free eBooks helps authors. The reason is on Amazon.com, they have a feature commonly referred to as "also-boughts". Under a title you find on Amazon.com, there is a list of books that other customers bought as well as buying the book you're currently viewing. The more times a book is downloaded for free, the more times the title ends up on the "also-bought" screens. This drives readers to purchase the books you see listed on our site after the book returns to regular price.
This feature is especially important to indie authors -authors without publishers. Indie authors have a harder time getting notice for their titles. The free promotion levels the playing field some-what so readers can find their books.
Q: Why isn't <title> free?
A: Sometimes a title we've posted on the blog isn't free when you've looked it up. There are a few reasons this might happen. First, the author can change the price of their book at any time. If the author ends their free promotion early, we're out of luck. Another possibility is that Amazon.com's program hiccuped. The book sometimes should be free, but for whatever reason, the website didn't process the price change. Third, all the free dates are reported to us by the authors. We try to check each title and make sure it's free when it's supposed to be free. If we set up a post ahead of time, we sometimes can't get back to the blog and verify each title. If you see a title that isn't free, feel free to post a comment on our website or facebook post.
Q: How can I read these free books without a Kindle device?
A: You can read Amazon.com books many different ways. When you click on the "Buy Now" button for any book, that title is sent to Amazon's online bookshelf for you. You can read the book online through Amazon's website. You can download Amazon.com's program and read your book offline, on your computer. If you have a smartphone, look in your phone's app store. You probably have access to Amazon's smart phone reading program. That means you can download books and read them on your smart phone. If you have Apple products like an iPad or iPod, there are apps to read Amazon books on those devices as well.
Authors:
Q: Why didn't you post about my book?A: There are several reasons we don't post books. First, check to see if your title meets our guidelines. Does your book contain explicit sex scenes? Is the book's topic offensive? Is the book about spreading hate? Those are a few reasons we might not post your title.
Second, when was your last free promotion? If we've posted the title in the last 3 months, we probably won't post about your title again any time soon. The only exception to that rule is if you purchase a guaranteed post or a featured post.
Third, does your title have reviews? We are keenly aware that getting reviews on books is difficult and time consuming. However, it gives our readers a better idea about the quality of your book when there are existing reviews. Without reviews, we aren't likely to post your title. The exception to that rule is if you buy a guaranteed post or featured post. If you pay for a guarantee or feature, we'll post your title even if there are no reviews.
Fourth, what is your review average? If you have one bad review, that doesn't mean we won't post about your title. We understand that any book in the hands of the wrong reader can get a negative review. (See the Harry Potter book reviews!) If you have several reviews and your average is around 3 Stars or below, that typically signifies that your book needs some work. This is an opportunity for you, as an author, however. Because the title is electronic, you can edit your title and re-upload it at any time. Negative reviews can be valuable information for honing your writing skills.
Fifth, did you enter your information correctly? If you entered your free dates with the day first then month then year, (DD/MM/YYYY), your book will not appear where you meant it to when we sort the database. The correct format is Month, Day, Year (MM/DD/YYYY) Also, did you enter the amazon.com ASIN number for your digital book? You can tell it's for the digital copy because it starts with a letter. "B" is currently the first letter of the ASINs. If you enter the print version, which begins with a number, we will bypass your title. Our program only works with the digital copy and we simply don't have enough time to hunt for the correct numbers. *We have an automatic responder that sends an email to you with all the information you listed in our database. Please ensure the information is entered correctly. If you find an error, we are more than happy to correct your information. Simply send us an email with the right information and we'll correct your entry in the database.*
Q: What is the difference between a guaranteed post and a featured post.
A: Think of it like a basic package and the deluxe package. A guaranteed post means you will be included in one post on one of the days your title is free. You will be included in a facebook post with at least 3 other titles that directs readers to our blog and you will have one tweet with your book title that points people to our blog.
A featured post means you get a dedicated facebook post for your title, a facebook post dedicated to your title that points directly to your sale page on Amazon.com as well as several tweets during the day directing readers to your sale page on Amazon.com.
We've been tracking the download rates and titles with a featured post our readers download six to ten times the downloads as a regular post. As an example, a regular post title might have 60 downloads where the featured titles have 600 downloads. (These numbers are affected by several factors such as genre, cover image, book description, etc.)
Please note, just because you buy a guarantee or a feature, that doesn't mean we will post titles that do not meet our guidelines. No soft porn, hard-core porn, erotica, explicit sex scenes, literature that spreads hate, deemed particularly offensive or otherwise deemed inappropriate by our staff.
Q: Will you host a paperback give-away?
A: We've asked our readers and they seem interested! Watch the blog for information on when we'll start this feature.
