Indie Book Club discussion

This seems to be a pretty common concern that occurs for authors wanting to take advantage of Amazon's customer base, but having to fight their system of not allowing self pub authors to set their price to free.

In order to make things easier for everyone please use the basic format of:

Link(s) where your book is free

Amazon link where we can report the lower price

Any other info that is relevant.

Also use common courtesy and if you are asking other people to do this for you take a minute and do it for others as well.

Hello, all!
I would love some help getting Ring of Destiny free on the UK Amazon site!
Go to the Amazon UK Ring of Destiny here
and report this link:
http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/ring-of-des...

Taken care of Eric:

I've got two shorts I'd like to see reduced to zero.

Bobo

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Bobo-ebook/dp/B...

Report Links

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bobo-...

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Bobo/b...


Music of the Gods

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Music-of-the-Go...

Report Links

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/music...

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Music-...


Thanks for any help

Thanks, Richard! I reported both sets of links for yours.

Thanks Eric.

Both of your books reported. If you wouldn't mind, Wind-Scarred could use a little help getting down to free in the UK...

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wind-Scarred-...

B&N: http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/wind-scarre...

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Sky, yours has been taken care of.

Thanks, Sky! I reported yours as well.

I don't know why The Prophecy slipped off the free list in the UK, but I could use some help putting it back on!

Here's the link to the UK listing.

Here's the link to the free listing on Barnes & Noble!

Thanks to any who report the lower link!

Big J

For that matter, could I ask for a little more help? I'd like to get The Prophecy free in Canada's stores as well.

Amazon Canada link

Barnes & Noble's free link

Thanks everyone!

I reported the UK and Canada for you, Jeffrey.

Thanks, Eric! I appreciate it!

Took care of UK and Canada Jeffery.

Thank you, Richard!

One of my books stopped being free on Amazon UK, then two days later it was free again. I didn't do anything. Maybe the same thing will happen to you.

Here's hoping! Thanks, Mona!

I've noticed mine 'falls off' free in the UK every 60 days. So far no luck getting it free in Canada =(

I've had my first book available for free in the UK for over a year. Then out of the blue the downloads abruptly ceased. I checked it out and learned the price had reverted to normal. Phooey.

But...

The sales picked up again. I'm thinking its about time, Amazon. However, the price wasn't free. I was/am making sales on book 1. Do I pursue the price drop? Logic says yes, but I sure as heck don't mind the actual sales of book 1. Crazy!

Why not let it ride for a month, Jeffrey? See how it goes? You may have enough momentum that you dont have to rely on first-one-free.

I need help!! I have two short stories published for free on Smashwords (and elsewhere) that are still not free on Amazon.

Smashwords
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...

http://www.amazon.com/Mining-Games-eb...

Steve, give us the B&N and Kobo links instead. From what I understand Amazon pretty much ignores the smashwords links.

Thanks, Richard.
Okay, here we go for Original Strand.

Kobo
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Origin...

It is still not on B&N even though I published on November 27th. Hmm.

I will have to wait for Mining Games since it's only on Smashwords at the moment.

Steve, Original strand was coming up as free when I clicked on the link.

I've reported all of the links here today! Good luck to everyone trying to get their stuff made free on Amazon, as it seems like such an arbitrary choice on their part.

I've also got a book that I'm trying to get made free on Amazon. I'm going to start with the UK and if that works, move onto Canada. *lol* Any help would be appreciated.

"Cameron's Law" at Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006QETJUG

"Cameron's Law" at Barnes & Noble UK:

http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/camerons-la...

Mia, here are your iBooks and WH Smith links for Great Britain as well.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/came...

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/EProducts/Ca...

Richard, Amazon still charges for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Original-Strand...

But it's for free everywhere else.

Kobo
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Origin...

Mia, I just reported Cameron's Law.

I reported Cameron's Law for you, Mia.

Amazon.uk just made Boltman Part One free, and I wasn't even reporting that one! I guess their bots catch up eventually. I wish Amazon would embrace the permanently-free strategy, already.

Very strange Steve, just went back and it was .99. Submitted the lower price link for you.

Mia: I've reported yours as well.

Update:

My one short story, Bobo, has gone free. Thanks for everyone's help.

Ok, another try.

On amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Original-Strand...

Everywhere else (free):
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/origi...
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Origin...
https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/ste...

Getting it free is harder than I thought...

Went to report it for you, Steve, but it's already free. Congrats!

Jeffrey, if we want to publicize that our book is free for a given period of time, besides posting the link to the freebie here (linking out to our blog, for instance, where the actual link to the manuscript could be), I'm wondering what format is best. I have Scrivener, so I could convert to epub format, but I have been told that a pdf tends to have less issues with it. What's your advice?

Jeffrey, I don't understand what Amazon is doing, but their price matching thing isn't working very well. Original Strand is still not free.

I just checked Original Strand and it was free for me. I used the link you provided above.

Just checked myself, Amazon is listing Original Strand as free.

Steve, Original Strand isn't showing as free for you because your country on Amazon is set to Canada. It wouldn't be free for those whose country is set to Canada, because you have Amazon Canada. For those of us who have to use Amazon.com, people from the US and other countries like Australia (me) we get the book for free. In your KDP dashboard, you should see free downloads under Amazon.com. It's currently ranked about 8,000 free in the Kindle store.

Oh, thanks Mona, that makes sense.

Can you also check Mining Games, to see if it's free?

http://www.amazon.com/Mining-Games-eb...

That one is showing as not free. I'm in the USA.

I'll have to sort this out. I'm in Canada and nothing shows free for me, which is bizarre. I must be doing something wrong.

Mining Games on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Mining-Games-eb...

And elsewhere:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/minin...
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Mining...

You're not doing anything wrong, Steve - Amazon won't let you have the books for free from Amazon.com, because your country is Canada. The only way you could get a free book is if it's free on Amazon Canada. As far as I know KDP books were only recently placed on there, so perhaps this restriction is only a recent thing. I can provide a method for you to switch the country on Amazon to USA, but it's a bit of a pain. But it will let you see if the book's free and the sales ranking. Let me know if you want the info :)

Mona, I'd love the info. You seem to have done your homework about all this and I certainly could use the help.

Steve, I'm in Canada and have my book free everywhere but there. You just have to report the local links so for UK you need itunes for Great Britain, whsmith, etc. for US use itunes, sony, kobo books. It takes a bit of digging to find the right links for the right area but otherwise they do it no problem. You have to watch though, some areas seem to put it up free for a couple of months then back to reporting the links again. Specifically for Canada they don't appear to be price matching anything yet.

Here's the method for looking at Amazon.com and picking another country:

1. Sign out. It will ask you to sign in straight away, but just go to the home page of Amazon.

2. In the "Shop by department" menu, go to "Kindle" then pick "Kindle books."

3. It says "Your country or region" on the top left. Pick whatever country you want from the list and click "Go."

You can then search for any book and see the prices that people of that country would have to pay.

Note: as soon as you log back in to Amazon it undoes this. You'd have to go through the process again to set it back up.

Hello! Could use some help making my book free on Amazon.

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A...

Free on:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rise-...

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Rise-o...

Thanks so much!!

I reported the free price to Amazon for you, Kira.

Big J

Reported Kira.

Thank you!

Reported as well.

It took months to get Amazon UK to pricematch Boltman Part One and the price has already reverted. Jeez.
Would love some help getting it back to zero.

Boltman link on Amazon UK
UK B&N link to report: http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/boltman-par...

Thanks!