Kindle Nation

Kindle Nation has been a friend of this blog for a long time. Stephen Windwalker is tireless in his efforts to promote the Kindle and ebooks, and he's graciously featured and showcased many of my titles over the past two years.

Many authors have asked me what they can do in order to promote their ebooks. I can testify that appearing on Kindle Nation has helped boost my sales.

Here's Steve to explain what I'm talking about:

Over Two-Thirds of Our Kindle Nation Sponsors Climb into the Top 3,000 Overall, and Sponsorships Are Available

By Steve Windwalker, editor of indieKindle and Kindle Nation

The peak annual period for shopping in the Kindle Store begins at around 5 pm Eastern on December 24 and continues for the next two weeks, and as it approaches we've been paying close attention to the results that Kindle Nation Daily sponsors have been getting in their efforts to connect with more Kindle readers. Our December 2010 Kindle Nation Sponsorship Results spreadsheet is available for all to see and has now been updated through December 20. Here are some of the benchmarks:

• 14 out of 55 sponsoring titles overall have climbed into the top 1,000 in Kindle Store sales rankings
• 29 out of 55 sponsoring titles overall have climbed into the top 2,000 in Kindle Store sales rankings
• 37 out of 55 sponsoring titles overall have climbed into the top 3,000 in Kindle Store sales rankings, including
  
  
• 8 out of 8 Free Kindle Nation Shorts sponsors/excerpts
• 18 out of 21 daily Free Book Alert sponsoring titles
  
  
• Among titles priced at $3.79 and up, 4 out of 9 have climbed into the top 5,000
• Among titles priced at $0.99, 15 out of 17 have climbed into the top 2,100
• Among titles priced at $1.99, 2 out of 2 have climbed into the top 1,500
• Among titles priced at $2.99, 18 out of 29 have climbed into the top 3,000

Finally, 10 out of 18 of our newer and less expensive Ebook of the Day sponsoring titles have climbed into the top 10,000, but we're working to strengthen the presentation on this and we see progress: 3 of the last 4 have climbed into the top 5,000, 2 of them into the top 2,000.

I personally don't believe much in advertising, but I do believe in connecting, and I see these sponsorships as a way of connecting with readers who are engaged and responsive.

What might an author or publisher get from sponsoring Kindle Nation, other than a warm fuzzy feeling for helping a hard-working guy like me?

There's never a guarantee of success, and definitions of success can vary widely among authors and publishers. But if you have written or published a book of real distinction and you want to increase exposure and connect with more readers, we work hard to help you in that effort. We have over 10,000 regular readers between our several platforms, and we often refer to Kindle Nation readers as the greatest readers in the world. If I had to describe their reading habits, I couldn't do it, but I can tell you that as readers they are prolific, savvy, price-conscious, ecumenical with respect to genre, and they don't care for trashy books, trashy covers, and trashy reviews (I know, because I've written a few!).

I hope that helps.

Currently there is availability in early March for daily Free Book Alert sponsorships and Free Kindle Nation Shorts excerpt sponsorships, and in January for eBook of the Day sponsorships. We continue to offer a Silver package that knocks $10 off the price of a combo of the daily Free Book Alert sponsorship and the Free Kindle Nation Shorts excerpt sponsorship. See our sponsorship info page for more information and sign-up.