KPD Promos: All You Need to Know About Advertising Your Book Deals

In recent years, Amazon has captured the majority of market share in the self-publishing industry when it comes to online sales. We’ve discussed how to choose the right keywords to ensure your book gets the best possible Amazon ranking in a previous blog post [include the link to previous blog post when published], but how about advertising your book deals when your book has already started to gain some traction? This article will walk you through the book deals available on Amazon, the best strategies to promote them, and the ways in which you can make the most out of KDP deals. If you’d still like some help from our professional and friendly marketing team here at Rowanvale, make sure to check out our Amazon Analysis service. But for now, let us guide you through the basics.

What are KDP deals? 
Before we teach you how to promote your book deals, it’s good to have an overview of the services offered by KDP. If you’re already familiar with KDP Select and promo programmes, you can skip to the section on how to promote them.  
 
Amazon KDP offers a programme called KDP Select that grants them the exclusive right to sell your eBooks in exchange for a few perks. These are:

• Kindle Countdown Deal – This is a promotion which allows you to put your book for sale in the Kindle store at a discounted price for a limited timeframe that you will select. At the end of the period you selected, the price will rise again, which will convince customers to buy your book while the price is lower.  
   

• Free promotion - KDP Select also gives you the opportunity to set your book to free for a limited time. Anyone who downloads the book during the promotion period can leave a verified review, which boosts your ranking in the Kindle store.  
   
• Kindle Unlimited (KU) – KU lets readers download unlimited free eBooks for a monthly fee. KU books aren’t given any preferential treatment and don’t necessarily have more visibility in the Kindle store, but KU readers are more likely to choose KU books (free) as opposed to non-KU books (paid). For authors, every KU download has the same impact on rankings as a sale. 
  
  Now that you know what KDP deals and promos are, let’s look at how to promote them!​

Advertising KDP deals 
There are different ways in which you can advertise your KDP deals to get the most out of them and let your audience know you have an ongoing promotion. Here are a few strategies that might help: 
 

• Set up a Facebook group - This can be a great way to put yourself out there, especially if you’re an emerging author. You can create a space for like-minded fans and writers in your genre to come together and discuss common interests/what they expect from you and your writing. It’s a nice means of two-way communication, as opposed to the one-sided nature of a Facebook page, which is more suited for marketing purposes if you’re already a fairly established writer. A group has more chances of being always up-to-date because members will post frequently, which will always attract new readers. However, it will require a lot more time because as the founder author, you’ll need to mediate and keep the group clean and on target. Groups can be useful to advertise KDP deals whenever you have an ongoing promotion, as members (unless they decide otherwise) are automatically notified of any new post. If you think managing a group will detract too much from the time you spend writing, you can always join existing Facebook groups and advertise your promotions there (but be mindful of each group’s rules on advertising and spamming!) 
   
• Mailing list – You can also add a section to your mailing list [possibly link to previous blog post on mailing lists] highlighting any ongoing promotions, or send out a special email every time you have a promotion going, but again, be careful not to spam and annoy your readers! 
   
• Newsletter swaps with other authors – Promote another author’s book in your newsletter and agree for them to do the same with your book in return. This applies to ongoing KDP deals too, as most readers will be looking to purchasing from the Kindle store anyway. If you need a place to start, here’s a nice Facebook group for newsletter swaps. 
   

• Facebook ads – Whatever your opinion on Facebook marketing, it is undeniable that the ads are a writer’s dream. To start with, Facebook has about 1.4 billion users across the world, so even the smallest audience or niche market will be there. Secondly, every Facebook user gives away information about their likes and dislikes, which makes for the most targeted advertising that has ever existed and is a goldmine for fiction authors especially. To create Facebook ads, you need to have a Facebook page, but you do not need to have an author website [possibly link to previous blog post about mailing lists and author websites]. This can be particularly useful as there’s a feature on Facebook ads that allows you to get your readers’ email addresses when they click on the advert and automatically add them to your mailing list, if they give consent. We’d recommend spending some time exploring Facebook advertising tools to find the one that works best for you! 
   
• Amazon ads – Many book marketers contend that Amazon has taken over Facebook for advertising in the past few years. The greatest advantage with Amazon ads, compared to Facebook ads, is that you only have to pay when you get a click. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when setting up your book ads on Amazon, such as your target, your bid (the maximum amount you’re ready to pay for each click – your ads won’t show up if that’s too low!) and your ads’ performance. Here is a useful step-by-step guide to Amazon ads for authors. If you’re still in doubt, our Amazon Analysis service can help you make an informed choice.  
   
• Backlist – And of course, don’t forget your backlist! In online stores, there is unlimited space for your books, and the more books you have, the more doors your readers have to get to you. When you plan and advertise your KDP deals, don’t forget about your older books, and if one of them is particularly successful, ride the wave to promote your new book! 

These are all great strategies to promote your KDP deals that will hopefully keep you out of trouble. You should be aware that Amazon treats sudden spikes in sales as suspicious and will penalise you if you try to advertise your KDP deals in ways they deem unfair. For example, you should avoid ‘book bombs’, i.e. asking your Twitter followers to buy your promoted book at a particular time on a particular day. Amazon will detect the spike in sales and might cut off your promotions. Whatever (fair) strategy you choose, just remember that here at Rowanvale we care about our authors and aim to offer the best services. Check out our Amazon Analysis service within our KDP Publishing package as well as our Marketing and Aftercare service for more advice from our marketing experts.