My Kindle Select Update

So I put one of my e-books in Kindle Select to see if this would work to market niche books. I offered the book for free 01-14 and 01-15.

The theory is you give one book away for free and this will increase sales on your other books. This has worked for a lot of my indie publishing friends. I wasn't sure this would work for a niche books like mine that cater to a certain population (small equine people)

I gave away 100 e-books for "Buying Miniature Horses & Shetland Ponies"

Now most said you have to give it a couple weeks to see the sales increase. So now it is Feb 1st.

I have to say I didn't see a big increase in sales. They are actually pretty much what they were before the two free promotion days. I did promote it on Facebook and Twitter etc. Have ads running on horse forums.

Unfortunately it did not get me any reviews either which is what I was hoping for. But I don't think that people new to Kindle even know they can give reviews.

So while it was not a total bust, as I thought it is not a great marketing tool for niche e-books. Would I do it again? No. Not unless I write a book that is more universal and sells to a wider audience.

My problem now is I would like to offer all 3 books in a bundle but because one book is in select I cannot offer that bundle. In hindsight I should have done a bundle and skipped the Kindle Select Program.

I do think it can be a great marketing strategy for more mainstream books. Niche books? Not so much.