Free for the Last Time? No Good Deed: Book One of the Mark Taylor Series

Some of you may have heard about the letter Amazon sent their associates. There are some other changes, but this is the one that has many worried and wondering about the future of free Kindle books.

"“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS: (a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and (b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.”"

I'm actually an Associate, although I've never paid much attention to it. I think I received one payment for about ten bucks, a year and a half ago. I have $4 sitting there waiting for me to make enough to qualify for another payment. I would be shocked if I ever reach that threshold. lol. So, have it people. If I post a free book here, let people know because I don't care about my associate status. I never did figure out how to use the links and stuff. 

Free 2/27 and 2/28

I'm going to get the word out right now that I am planning on making No Good Deed free on 2/27 and 2/28. If I pull it from Select, which I am leaning towards, it will be the last time it will be free--barring any new Select developments. Normally, I don't advertise in advance when I will make a book free, but I've made an exception this time. I want as many people to get it free as possible. 

So, what does the above letter mean for readers? I wish I knew. Not everyone uses the free sites to get their books noticed, so there will probably still be hundreds of free books every day, but the difference is, there will be fewer sites that will showcase them. That means wading through the store and trying to find them yourselves. There will still be the Top 100 free, but I have a feeling that it will start being populated with more of the permanently free books. Those are either classics, such as Pride and Prejudice or books that are free on other sites, and Amazon is price-matching. Some sites may continue to showcase free books with paid advertising. However, as an author, that will be difficult for me to do every time. I have paid few sites for some guaranteed mentions--usually just a few bucks--but most sites you fill out a form and hope for a mention. If your book is highly rated, with a minimum number of reviews, the chances were good. I've been fortunate with No Good Deed that it has received some nice mentions over the last year. 

I had been pretty happy with Select and all but Deeds of Mercy have been it from the moment it went into effect. I took Deeds of Mercy out for about five months to offer it on Barnes&Noble to a few readers who had bought the first two books. I put it back in Select around Christmas so that all of my book would be available for borrowing. 

I don't know exactly what is in store for indie books, but I'm optimistic that something good will come of this. For instance, boxed sets. Many of us have them but they are harder to advertise than single books because they cost more--even though they save readers money in the long run (that is, if they like the series and end up buying it anyway). 

Also, audio books! Have I mentioned that I have someone producing my books for audio? I do!  And hope to have them available very soon. In fact, I'm hoping to have a teaser sample of No Good Deed posted by the time the ebook is free.