KDP Select--Take Two

It's getting close to the time for those of us who first jumped into KDP Select to decide if we want to renew or not.  For me, the pros outweigh the cons for at least one of my books, No Good Deed, so I'll stay in with that one. It's done well as a freebie and has the lion's share of the borrows.

I haven't decided whether to renew the second book in my series. On Feb 15th and 16th, I made it free to less than overwhelming results. However, I'm not sure how much that had to do with KDP and how much it had to do with it being the second book in the series? I took a risk to see what would happen. My sales of my first book had a little bump in the U.K., so that was good. The same thing did not happen here in the U.S, which I found kind of odd. So, since it didn't do well as a freebie and only gets a few dozen borrows a month, if I'm lucky, is it worth it to keep in Select? Probably not, except it won't do much good to have it at other sites since I can't put the first book at the other sites.  That leaves me having to choose between having both in or both out. Looking at it that way, having the first in Select outweighs the advantages of having the second book not in Select, so I might as well keep it in and get whatever borrows I can on it. I probably won't ever make it free again.

The real dilemma involves my third book, Deeds of Mercy. I won't be making it free because, well, it's the third book in a series, and even though it could read as a stand alone, it does reference things that happened in the two previous books. Readers are rightly hesitant to snag a third book in a series. Even if they like it without reading the first two, it kind of spoils the first two a little bit. I had that problem as a reader when I accidentally read a series out of order. The book that should have been read first, suffered in comparison to the first I'd read because I knew how it would end.   

I could look at it from the KOLL angle and hope it might get some borrows, but since I'll be selling it at a $3.99 introductory price, and possibly raising that to $4.49, getting borrows might cannibalize sales . I could keep it out and offer it on B&N for the few people who already bought my other two books there. Also, it would allow my dad and sisters to get the book if they want, since they all have Nooks. I can always make it Select in a month or so. Decisions, decisions!

Totally unrelated, but I'm making progress on my unrelated romantic suspense that is trying to turn into a thriller with some romance. lol. Up to 36k on it.