When is a freebie, not a freebie?

When it needs a review. 

During the month of January this year, Kobo promoted two of my novels; Eagles Hunt Wolves; and, The Road of a Thousand Tigers for free download on their platform. I put them up for this primarily as something readers could enjoy during the bleakest month in the grips of a pandemic. Two fast-paced page-turners always help take your mind off things. And, on a more mercenary level, I hoped to get some reviews on the back of these.

Indie authors need customer feedback; good, bad, or indifferent, it helps the ebook algorithms and pushes them up the platform rankings. I did in this instance, draw up a plan particularly for EHW, which hasn't taken off - so after a year of its publication, a giveaway isn't a bad idea to raise awareness. I created a small video and back-linked it into my website and pinned it to my Twitter feed. I retweeted this pin 3 times a day for the month.

By the end of the month, both titles were downloaded 282 times. (which is very, very good). TROATT did better, but I deliberately tagged in on social media to #NoTimeToDie as it was announced that the release date had moved to October 2021, which gave me some play on #OctoberIsTooLateToDie and linked my book there.

Indies need to get more creative and treat social media almost as business hoardings onto which you paste your books. Like the old Band posters on every kind of wall.

and I got the results I needed: both titles appeared high on the platform rankings (row 3 on the main page) and a five-star review on TROATT:

Is it a good idea to put your work up free? If the title is over a year old, then yes, in the long run, it was worth it, coupling (or building) the wave with my new release in March of A KIND OF DROWNING, is a tactical ploy that will hopefully have dividends.

to find out more about me & my writing journey, here's my website below:

https://www.robert-cravenauthor.ie/