Yesterday, I contacted kdp’s support and reported that The Priest was free on iTunes and Barnes & Noble. A few moments later a representative answered, telling me they had already matched the price of the title to $0.00. At last, The Priest is officially free everywhere, and since yesterday downloads are trickling in. Below are the results I recorded as soon as the rank appeared. Hopefully, they won’t plateau as they have done on Smashwords, where there’s barely a download a day. Well aware I have a niche product, I am not expecting the thousands of downloads other titles experience, but I’m hoping this is the first step in the right direction to have the series noticed by readers who might be interested in my flare of dystopian.
I should have written down the time of day the changes in the rank happened, but I’m in writing mode and only had time to copy paste from the Amazon page.
TLDR: At the moment, 10:00 pm, The Priest has been downloaded on Amazon.com 576 times and has reached #5 in the free science fiction bestseller list.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,660 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,252 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #72 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,241 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,024 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #50 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #56 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,372 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #50 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,368 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #50 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,927 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #31 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,560 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,517 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,635 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #642 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #570 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
- #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
Monica La Porta 
Congratulations Monica! Great News for your readers, and hope you make many more new fans too. Smashwords is never as popular as Amazon, and also, once you’ve made some inroads into Amazon’s charts, your titles achieve greater visibility, and so more readers download – (the reverse is true, less visibility = less downloads = less visibility). Wish you every success with your Ginecean Chronicles, they deserve a huge fan base.
Thank you so much, Julia! Sometimes, it feels like climbing mountains while wearing a blindfold, but I’ll make it work 🙂
Well done! I have failed to persuade Amazon to make ‘Lemon and Lace’ free even though it is free on Smashwords etc. They asked me today NOT to contact them again about it – feel as if I am back at school! I asked at the Amazon section in the London Book Fair too and they said they didn’t know why my request was refused and then gave me a very nice tee shirt saying “amazon – we love authors.” The irony was not lost on me…
I’ll try to fill the form for you. Let’s see if it works…
Thank you so much Monica! Perhaps they were getting fed up of just hearing from me?
I believe the problem was that they don’t care for Smashwords, but if you mention iTunes and Barnes & Noble they listen and act almost immediately. Let’s cross fingers!
A word of caution: Watch Amazon around the end of the month, when perma frees tend to revert back to paid, for some reason & you may have to re-report. Advise your readers to always check that it IS free, and ask them to report both to you, and Amazon, if it isn’t.
Good tip! Thank you, Julia! I didn’t know that.
Neither did I – until it happened! Btw, as the initial freebie frenzy slackens off, I like to think that the slower download rates indicate that the freebie is only being downloaded by readers who intend to read, rather than just fill their kindles.
And that indeed is good to know too 🙂