Amazon has a feature called “Give as a Gift,” which you can use to send someone a Kindle book via email. For authors, this can be a handy way to promote your book. Though it initially may not sound like a good idea to give away the book you’re working so hard to sell, think about it this way: If you can drive more sales to your Kindle edition by getting others to give it as a gift, the rank for your book’s sales page will improve and will ultimately lead to more visibility on Amazon, thus increasing your overall sales.
Here’s an example of how to make it work: let’s say you agree to speak at an event or conference. You can ask the event host if they would be willing to give attendees a copy of your book in Kindle format. If they agree, the host would then go to Amazon and use the Give as a Gift feature, which will allow them to email a redemption code to each attendee, one at a time. Their attendees get a bonus, while you gain new readers, increase your sales, and improve your overall sales rank on Amazon!
Incidentally, for printed books, you can also use a feature called “eGift this Item,” which will send a gift card via email to the recipient and suggest that they purchase the book. However, if you want to gift copies of your printed book through Amazon, a better option is simply to purchase the book and ship it to the recipient directly.
Remember that greater exposure leads to greater opportunities for sales, speaking engagements, and more!
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This will work for me very well. Thanks so much.
This is a great idea. I think not just authors but business owners, in general, should be accepting of the idea to give away your product. There’s nothing wrong with giving away your product in the short term to achieve long term benefits.