Busted by Amazon Price Match!

The Kindle store policy is: competing venues cannot undercut Amazon on price. If a lower price gets posted, Amazon will eventually detect it (or someone narcs about it) and then they'll price match on the Kindle store. 

Some authors actually exploit this policy to get Amazon to drop the price of their Kindle book below the minimum allowed. As in, making it free, which an author can't do when they upload and price their book; free is not allowed. I didn't intentionally pursue this, but I figured it was bound to happen.

About a year ago, I posted a version of Game Over on the Kindle store. This was a special edition I intended just for Kindle owners in that I added another scene amounting to 2,000 additional words. I labeled it an Extended Edition and put a 99 cent price on it. Over on Smashwords, I had the original, shorter version of Game Over for sale at no charge. I was thinking I might get a month or two before Amazon price matching kicked in. It ended up being 10 months, and no, I didn't assist the process.

But there are a healthy number of Kindle owners taking advantage of the $0.00 price since it changed last month.

I'm good with that.

What's good about giving away your book?

Easy answer: to make new friends and fans.

Which (hopefully) brings about more friends and fans.

To be followed by yet more. And more after that. Rinse. Repeat.

Giveaways are goodwill and good business. I tried one this past weekend. I offered Dark Doses for free on Amazon for 24 hours over New Year's Day.

I figured some folks would use the day to try out the nifty new Kindle they got for Christmas. Others would be taking it easy and browsing the Kindle store in a semi sleep-deprived state. Still others love jumping on freebies because it's a no-risk way to discover new escapes and diversions (not counting any time invested for the download and actual read through). Perhaps the severely hung over folks would be punching the download button in sync with the throb within their skull.

The result for my book: over 250 downloads spread across 4 countries. Not stupendous and colossal, but I like that outcome very much. Because I'm hoping 1% to 2% of those downloads turn into reviews and ratings.

Because reviews and ratings are what leads to new friends and fans. Which then provide more reviews and ratings. Which leads to more...

You get the idea.