I'm an Indie Author

I sit at my desk at least 6 hours a day, 7 days a week
My neighbors know how I write a sex scene
I live inside my head for at least half of the day
I smell my own print books
I wake up at 5 a.m. with an idea and have to get to my laptop
My kids eat frozen pizza and microwaved lasagna when I write
I disguise begging to ask friends to review my book
Some months I pay out more in promo than I make
I fret about self promotion and appearing brash
I take rejection on the chin and keep going
Favorite words are "BookBub said yes" & "I just typed The End"
I have a to-do list with the words Mail Chimp and Pic Monkey
I tweet, post, promote, review, blog, design, and dialogue in my head
My friends mostly read the NY Times Bestseller List
My enemy is formatting
My husband doesn't read books
My kids have no idea
Strangers have written nasty reviews about my heartfelt work
I don't watch TV unless it helps my writing
I stop to think if it's "its" or "it's"
I'm getting fatter every year and don't really care
I have to do this or go slightly crazy
Commas drive me crazy, frustrated, and mad
I was just horrified to see "crazy" on consecutive lines
When I wake, I remember my latest book and smile
Some of my favorite peeps, I've never met in person
I go to workshops titled "How to Brand Yourself"
I give workshops called "How to Survive Your Virgin Year in Publishing"
I put together box sets of books and give proceeds to charity
At a writer conference, I have a room of 300 friends
A 5 star review is like a present at the door
Pictures of cozy reading corners make me happy
Getting a box of my books in the mail is heaven
I make enough money to help with groceries
My critique group understands me
I organize writer retreats in gorgeous houses in the woods
A few neighbors think I'm a bit of a celebrity
Writing this made me feel good
I have somewhere to go every day, even if it's just in my head

I'm an Indie Author

Kim Hornsby is the Bestselling Author of THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE.
Find more about Kim at www.kimhornsbyauthor.net

Kindle Select - FREE BOOKS!

Why would anyone want to give something away that they spent years creating? Aside from blatant benevolence, the answer could be to eventually direct you to something that does cost money. Like your second book. If you are a new author, building a reader base is extremely important. More important than money, unfortunately. Especially if you are in this for the duration and hoping to build a career. Getting in people's faces and heads is everything for a new author. visibility. Exposure.

And that is why Amazon Kindle has a program called SELECT where you can give away downloads of your book 5 days out of the 90 day program--free downloads of a book that you might have spent years writing. It seems like a terrible idea when what you want is to make money from writing books. However, if you can see ahead a year, the free days can help your ranking on Amazon, which helps to sell books. On Amazon, (the biggest book sellers in the world), ranking is everything. If you get yourself in the top 100 on the paid list, you can look forward to some sales that are generated purely by being on that list. No advertising necessary. Unless you want to keep the momentum and propel it farther up the list. Which you should. It's not a great idea to sit back and watch your success. Marketing is an ongoing process.
Unless you're Nicholas Sparks and wrote Safe Haven. Then you can sit back and rake in the money because your book reached #1 and stayed there for a long time.

Kindle Select gives you the opportunity to get exposure, but it's up to you to advertise your free days and get on lists with your generous offering. Over the last few months, I've compiled a secret list of forty publications who will announce your free days and direct traffic to download your novel. The higher your ranking gets, the more likelihood that when free days ends, you will maintain sales for a while if you play your cards right. And it's good to have a marketing plan for after free days like cheap ads, keeping the cost of the book low and good reviews to keep sales coming in.
Should you do all 5 days together or split them up? I've done both and I'm not sure what is best. When my Romantic Suspense did all 5 together it garnered 35,000 downloads and got some kick-ass sales for six weeks after. Then the publisher raised the price and things are not going as well. My Paranormal Romance has only ever split up the free days. Because it's self pubbed, I can choose and it does well enough with 3 days in a row. I would never do one day because you need the momentum to build. And five days feels like too much. I want to save two free days to give the book another shot in the arm next month. The Dream Jumper's Promise was free May 26-28 and after the first 24 hours, had 12,000 downloads, reaching #4 in the Kindle store FREE and  #1 in paranormal romance. The FREE lists are way different than the paid lists but still a good indication of how the public likes your cover and blurb. At the point of writing this, in my free days, I'm just hoping, that with another 40 hours to go, I can maintain my position or even reach #1 in the Free Store (above that dad-burned 160 calorie cookbook!)
Free Days has helped us self pubbed or newbie authors gain a fighting chance in this market. Since ebooks and self pubs have opened to writers who used to spend years trying to get an agent, editor, publisher and readers, there is now a lot of floatsum and jetsam out there and the discerning reader must sift through it to find a good read. But, if they like your cover, your blurb, you reviews, your name, anything, they might 'buy' it for free, read it, review and tell their friends to read it when it costs money.
Granted, many of the readers who buy your free book will never read it and those who do will probably never write a review or refer someone to your book but some might. There are millions of readers out there in the world, buying books, downloads, entertainment, and even if there is a slight chance of a hundred real sales and 2 reviews, it's worth it to do free days.
Even though it's hard to giveaway something that you value greatly, the idea behind free days is that you have to 'spend money to make money'. Give something away for the reward later. Readership. So go ahead and get writing that second book while free days are on because you know they're going to ask for it. And you'll probably have to offer that one free at the beginning too.
Good luck Writers and don't forget to check your SELECT actions on KDP to make decide if you want to re-enroll in SELECT when your 90 days ends. Otherwise it automatically gets re-enrolled for you.

Kim Hornsby is the author of NECESSARY DETOUR, published by The Wild Rose Press and
THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE
as well as a contributing author to SWEET SUMMERTIME LOVE