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Post by beaker on Oct 2, 2018 22:31:53 GMT
While browsing in the Amazon store this morning, I found a pre-order book that had another book with the same cover, except it said, "book title sneak peak." It was three chapters long (41 pages) and free. It had eight 5-star reviews on it. I looked online to see if that was a KDP thing, but I didn't find anything about it. I think the pre-order book would have to be 410 pages long for this not to be against the TOS.
I saw something similar a while back, but it was a book with just the sample chapters, and the pre-order book wasn't there yet. It didn't tell you it was a sample until you downloaded it, if I remember right. Then the author explained that he wanted people to read it and let him know if they thought he should write the full book or not. He also asked people to sign up as beta and ARC reviewers. There were some quite negative reviews on that sneak peak book. I also didn't think he should write the full book, but I didn't leave a review.
Anyway, I'm thinking about trying it for my next pre-order - which won't be ready anytime soon.
Has anyone ever done this, or do you think this is a good idea for pre-orders? Or a good way to see if people like your book before you write the whole thing? (ha ha) |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Oct 2, 2018 22:49:21 GMT
Could you link to the book you saw?
I wasn't aware you could download anything from a pre-order until it was released. Are they advertising one book and then releasing it as a sample for a different book?
Anything meant to deceive readers is going to get the author in trouble with amazon.
I have seen trad publishers offer book samples as permafrees, that wouldn't get you in trouble, but I'm not sure how much good it would do. I can envision tons of angry reviews from readers who didn't read carefully (assuming you very clearly mark what they're getting) who still thought they were getting a full book.
You could also write a short prequel and put that up for free or very cheap to whet people's appetite for the novel. If you make it short but a complete story you won't piss as many people off and won't put your account in jeopardy.
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Post by beaker on Oct 2, 2018 23:31:31 GMT
Wow! I know I saw it this morning, but it was gone when I looked for it just now. I'm not going to be paranoid and decide they read my post and then took it down. Maybe Amazon found it and didn't like it. Sometimes I think people underestimate what AZ is aware of. Anyway, that one was clearly marked as a free preview of the pre-order book. I think the idea might be a way to give people a preview since pre-orders don't have Look Inside. Then hopefully more people will buy the pre-order. If anyone tries this, let us know what happens  |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Oct 2, 2018 23:59:11 GMT
Ohhh, so it was a free book advertising a book that was on pre-order? Interesting. Yeah, I think amazon would see that as rank manipulation, likely why it was taken down. My best guess, anyway.  |
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Post by writeway on Oct 11, 2018 19:43:20 GMT
Yeah, it's a thing. Trade publishers started it and now indies are trying it out. I just decided to try it today but only going to upload the free sample to retailers outside Amazon to help pre-orders and just for some buzz. I decided not to do it for Amazon because I don't wanna deal with price-matching and authors have claimed to get negative reviews and complaints from Amazon readers. I don't get the Amazon readers. They complain about everything even when it's free.
So I will use previews as a way to boost sales on other sites and see how it goes.
I don't believe Amazon has an issue with this at all because they have been allowing trade publishers to do this for a while.
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Post by thatwritergal on Oct 13, 2018 12:18:49 GMT
Huh, I wondered if this was a thing because I saw some of my writer acquaintances books pop up but they were super short and on pre-order. I guess this is what they were doing. Seems kind of like a cool idea but I agree about Amazon readers. They seem much more pickier than readers on the other vendors. I wouldn't mind trying it but I'd probably do it on my own website or on the other vendors.
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Post by possiblyderanged on Oct 15, 2018 14:10:24 GMT
Trad publishing can do a lot of things Amazon won't allow us to do. Technically, I believe "part" books are against TOS, so they could be nasty and block the account altogether. That would be bad. I'm seeing more and more of this, but I think it's just too risky, the way Amazon will terminate accounts.
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Post by writeway on Nov 4, 2018 2:41:02 GMT
Here is my report card after trying this: C+
Meh. I gave it a C because it did bring "some" interest and I do think it helps get some sales but not enough to where I find it beneficial to do this. Yes it can help you move copies during pre-order and even afterward but I'm not seeing the sneak peeks doing enough to warrant me to keep going through the trouble every time I have a release.
Not saying others shouldn't try it if they want. From what I've heard from indies who've tried this, no one is impressed and it didn't do much for them either. Maybe it works best for trade published books.
Once again, I didn't put my sneak peek on Amazon because it would've been too much trouble price matching, etc. Maybe people have better luck on Amazon with these though the other indies complaining about this not working had theirs on Amazon so...
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Post by davidvandyke on Nov 6, 2018 19:36:33 GMT
Did they really spell it "Sneak peak?" (Sic)
Or were they trying to surprise a mountain?
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