PART II: THE LIST || PART III: HOW TO USE THE LIST || PART IV: MY RESULTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I have an impression that indie authors usually detest marketing. We all know it’s the necessary process of publishing a book, but many of us enjoy writing much, much more than marketing.
I am not an exception. I feel like I have no time for it! I could write more instead of promoting my books! Marketing frustrates me and overwhelms me… But it’s a necessary evil.
I have no brand, no expert knowledge. I’m starting from scratch. I have no marketing budget. Frankly, I don’t know what to do.
I discovered that the free KDP promo is the way to promote your books in such circumstances. I’m improving my tactics and my results. During the first 4 months of my career as an author I gave away for free about 1000 copies of my books. Last month I gave away 2000 copies.

Facebook

I found that announcing your free KDP promo on Facebook freebies groups is the tactic that gives the best ROI (Return On Investment). It’s the time best spent when you are promoting your book. I developed this method because I barely have time for writing; promoting just doesn’t fit into my schedule.
If you have more resources (time and/or budget to promote your books) feel free to accelerate your promo using them, but I’m convinced that promoting on FB groups is the number one tool.

The groups I found

I’ve run a few promos lately and I gathered a modest list of Facebook freebies groups. Now I will share it with you. The number of group members is valid as of the {24th of April in the curly brackets 2014}, 19th of November 2013 without brackets, (and 31st of October 2013 in the normal brackets). It gives you some idea how the group is expanding. If any number is omitted it means that the number of members hasn’t changed significantly or I didn’t know about the group at that time.

Order

In order to make it easier for authors to use this list, I arranged it starting with the groups with no rules and most users and leading up to the groups with strict posting guidelines. If you only post your free promo info, you don’t need to worry about the rules up to 18th group.

Rules and remarks

I also post the abbreviated information about each group’s rules. It is important to abide by them or you could get banned. And sometimes I give remarks about the specific characteristics of the group and how they can have an impact on your promo.
Remember that you need an approval from the group admin first in order to post in Closed and Secret groups.
OK, I know you are more interested in those groups than my ruminations, so let’s go to it.
back to top || PART III: HOW TO USE THE LIST || PART IV: MY RESULTS
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PART II: THE LIST

1

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204546223/

members: {>16.7k}

status: open

rules: No rules.

2

https://www.facebook.com/groups/571135069563269/

members: {>15.7k} 7.8k

status: open

rules: No rules

3

https://www.facebook.com/groups/397758770282542/

members: {>15.4k}

status: open

rules: No rules.

4

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookPromotion/

members: {>13.9k}

status: closed

rules: No rules.

5

https://www.facebook.com/groups/apablog/

members: {>11.9k}

status: open

rules: No rules.

6

https://www.facebook.com/groups/294455560643884/

members: {>8.1k) 3.6k (3.2k)

status: closed

rules: No rules

7

https://www.facebook.com/groups/freeebooks/

members: {>7.9k} 3.4k (3k)

status: open

rules: No rules

8

https://www.facebook.com/groups/freetoday/

members: {>5.7k} 2.6k (2.2k)

status: open

rules: No rules

9

https://www.facebook.com/groups/borntowrite/

members: {>5.3k}

status: closed

rules: No rules.

10

https://www.facebook.com/groups/boomdom/

members: {>2.9k} 1.4k (1.3k)

status: open

rules: No rules

11

https://www.facebook.com/groups/220918084664122/

members: {1k} 500

status: open

rules: No rules

12

https://www.facebook.com/groups/542211125791552/

members: {>300} 100

status: open

rules: No rules

13

https://www.facebook.com/groups/512098985483106/

members: {>3.7k}

status: open

rules: No affiliate links.

14

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeTodayOnAmazon/

members: {>10k} 4.6k (3.8k)

status: open

rules: Free books only

15

https://www.facebook.com/groups/270558336379692/

members: {>8k} 3.5k (3k)

status: open

rules: Discounted books are allowed

16

https://www.facebook.com/groups/236927589749427/

members: {>1.1k} 1.1k

status: secret

rules: discounted books are allowed

17

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179494068820033/

members: {>17.2k}

status: open

rules: no spam

be careful when posting links to other websites [read: don’t do it]

18

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeEbooksNow/

members: {>400} 200

status: open

rules: only free books, no other communications

19

https://www.facebook.com/groups/126168734223817/

members: {>28.1k} 14.3k (13.2k)

status: closed

rules:

—– Only free books

—– No erotica

—– Four books per person per day is the limit

Remarks:

It’s the biggest and most buoyant group I found. Definitely my no. 1 for the free promo.

20

https://www.facebook.com/groups/370900356880/

members: {>5.4k} 2.2k

status: open

rules:

— Intended for new authors with low-priced books.

— One promo post per day.

21

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeEbooksGroup/

members: {>2.8k} 3k

status: open

rules:

—– NO POSTS about books that are FREE only to Amazon prime members

—– include the following information in your post:

* The dates the ebook will be free (list a date, not just “today” or “soon”).

* A direct link to the page where readers can download the free ebook.

—– You may also want to include a link to your website and your Facebook page.

 

Remarks: Permission to include a link to your website is a very nice gesture. Consider adding the link to your blog or page to every post, where it is allowed (“No rules” groups, too). I did post the link to this blog only during the last promo and 16% of visitors in November came via links on Facebook groups.

The rule about dates is generally not enforced.

22

https://www.facebook.com/groups/426282137432533/

members: {>8.4k}

rules:

No ‘paid’ or ‘prime’ books

Links only to the Amazon website are allowed. If you post a Bit.ly or other link your post will be deleted. Amazon’s URL Shortener is now allowed.

No links to websites or blogs

Post your link only once.

Don’t post discussions, views or opinions.

23

https://www.facebook.com/groups/freebkrus/

members: {>5.9k} 2.9k (2.7k)

status: open

rules:

— Your post must start with the phrase – Free book –

— Next, tell when the book is free.

— Then the link to where people can get the book. And we prefer links that go directly to the buy site rather than to a blog.

— no POSTS about contests or giveaways of books.

— NO POSTS about books from the http://freebookoftheday.com/ website.

— no POSTS about books that are FREE to Amazon prime members.

— no POSTS about books that are FREE by subscribing to a newsletter.

— no SPAM

 

Remarks: You may (or may not) get away with giving imprecise dates, but no spam will be tolerated. Moderated!

24

https://www.facebook.com/groups/293618244055941/

members: {>11.4l} 5.4k (4.6k)

status: closed

rules:

—–NO spam.

—–ONLY FREE EBOOKS are allowed to be posted. It needs to be FREE to ALL readers/customers. This also means that giveaways are NOT allowed.

—–Authors can post a few days ahead of time for their free day, but can only post their free book ONCE during that week. Because of this, we suggest only posting the day of the free deal. Please be CLEAR in posting which day(s) the book is free.

—–Please be aware that commenting on a post to *bump* = spam = ban

—–You CAN post a buy one, get one free, or ‘check out the free books listed in this article, or link’ or something along those lines as long as there is/are free book(s) being given away, we will allow those.

—–DO NOT SPAM looking for reviews.

—–One ad per promo is the limit.

 

Remarks:

This is the most strictly moderated group I found. Don’t count on sneaking past the moderators with additional post, no way! Even if you run a 5 day promo, you can post only once about it.

On the other hand it means a great browsing experience for the readers. They are more likely to pay attention to your promo, they know they have only a single chance to read it before it gets lost in the feed. You can use this fact twofold:

– put your ad here on the first day of your promo to get momentum

– put your ad in the middle of your promo to keep momentum

Those are my own thoughts on the subject, I have no numbers to support them; I didn’t track the links posted in individual groups.

back to top || PART II: THE LIST || PART IV: MY RESULTS
———————

PART III: HOW TO USE THE LIST

This list is the simple, easy and the most time-saving tool to run your free KDP promo.
How to utilize it?

1. Set your promo date.

2. Prepare a short ad for the freebies groups.

Important points about the ad:
a) State that the book is free
b) Give a date range
c) Include just a few sentences
d) Provide a link to your book on Amazon. If you provide several of them, make sure that the first one targets your basic market (for me: USA). The preview will link to it and I believe many people click on the previewed cover image, not the links.
I’m not sure if it’s worth putting the links to additional markets, I’ve got just about 50 downloads on them. Anyway, it doesn’t cost you much to add a few more of them once and then post the info many times. It has no impact on your later workload whatsoever.
e) Put a link to your blog/website at the end. Several groups allow only free book info, so you will skip this link posting there.

I distilled my ad from the book description on Amazon. It looked like this:

Free till 23th of November.
You don’t need to become a fitness encyclopedia to lose weight. On the contrary – the more you search on the Internet the more confused you can get.
What you really need to lose weight is:
– an incentive to start
– a mindset to persevere
– creativity to tune your tactics
– a way to get it done daily
And this book provides you just that… and a real weight loss story (pictures included).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DWIL6F0/ – USA
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DWIL6F0/ – UK
http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00DWIL6F0/ – Australia
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00DWIL6F0/ – Canada

http://www.expandbeyondyourself.com – author’s blog

3. On the day of the promo visit this post.

Make sure you are logged into your Facebook account. Copy your ad’s text into the clipboard. Go through the list from the top to the bottom and submit the info to the FB groups:
a) Read the group rules (don’t bother till group 19).
b) Open the link to the group in the background tab.
c) Paste the promo ad from the clipboard into the “Write Post” field. Hit the “Post” button.
d) Adjust the text if necessary (e.g. add the text “free book” when posting in group 23 or delete the link to your blog for any group with the “only free books announcements” policy).
e) Close the tab. You don’t want to post multiple times in the same group.
f) Rinse and repeat steps a) to e) with each group on the list.
Go back to the list every day of the promo and replicate the process. Caution: read the rules! Some groups consider multiple ads of the same promo as spam.

The above process is the same I used to get 929 downloads. I got 66% of them during the first 2 days of the promo. So you may consider posting the ad just twice and saving your time for other activities. One course through the list takes no more than 30 minutes and it can be the only time you spend on promoting your book.
This way of running the promo is extremely handy if you didn’t plan it in advance. For example, if you realized that there are just 4 days left of your 90 days KDP period and you want to use them.
back to top || PART II: THE LIST || PART III: HOW TO USE THE LIST
———————

PART IV: MY RESULTS

My sales before the first promo were just below 1 sale per day threshold.
The promo was 5 days long (30X-3.XI.2013). I bought a gig on Fiverr to spread the word. 30 freebies pages, several Twitts and 5 FB messages. It didn’t work very well for me. But my time spend on uploading the info about the promo to the freebies sites would cost a similar amount ($35). So I don’t consider this money totally wasted.
I also posted in about a dozen freebies groups on FB (about 30k members put together). My ugly, Fiverr-made cover was used for the promo.

I’m sure it affected the number of free downloads. After the promo I was provided with the better cover and immediately changed it, so actual sales were done with the new one.

The results: 871 downloads at amazon.com, 76 on different markets and surprise, surprise – 144 on amazon.co.jp. It went “viral” there, I guess 😉
And I’ve got five more subscribers.
The first 2 days after the promo I sold 4 my other books and not even 1 of the book which has been promoted. Well, I sold 2 on co.jp.
days 3-4: 5 more books sold and 3 more on co.jp
day 5: 7 books sold! My record
day 6: 6 books sold
day 7: 3 books sold
day 8: 2 books sold
day 9: 1 books sold
day 10: 4 books sold
day 11: 15 books sold! Another daily record
day 12: 4 books sold
day 13: 4 books sold
day 14: 3 books sold
day 15: 5 books sold
day 16: 1 book sold
I also sold 30 more books on co.jp (almost exclusively the promoted title) and about 10 more on different markets

Another promo

Then I launched a second promo using only 14 Facebook freebies groups (and a single freebie site to be precise). I didn’t spend a dime on it. The cover for this book was cute.

The promo was 5 days long (19.XI-24.XI.2013). I published The Fitness Expert Next Door in the middle of July and the sales were very low – just 17 copies up to this free promo.
I posted the info about the promo in the FB groups numerated above. I did repeat putting the info about it 3 times during the 5 day period. I also sent a broadcast to my modest (around 25 subscribers at that time) mailing list.
The results: 939 downloads at amazon.com, 70 on different markets.
Sales after the promo:
day 1: 7 books sold
day 2: 1 books sold
days 3 4 books sold
day 4: 8 books sold
day 5: 3 books sold
day 6: 6 books sold
day 7: 5 books sold
day 8: 1 books sold
day 9: 6 books sold
day 10: 5 books sold
day 11: 6 books sold

I’ve sold only 11 more copies of the fitness book, but it is still a much better result (within 11 days) than its past performance. And my overall sales stabilized at about 4 per day, which is about 400% better than the sales before November.
My list grew more than 100% in November.

CONCLUSION

The results of my promos suggest that FB groups from my list are occupied mainly by American buyers. When I promoted via freebie websites I got 3 times more downloads on other markets than when using Facebook only promotion.
Free KDP select promos are not totally dead yet and they are a great tool for beginners without their own audience.

PS

The info about the groups is correct as of the 24th of April 2014. If you find any discrepancies – broken links or change of the rules – please send me a message or just comment below. If you know any other FB group for promoting free books, please let me know about it.
I’m also very interested in your results after using my method to spread the word about the free KDP promotion. Please share in the comments section if you will.