Not everyone does Kindle Countdown Deals, or KDP Select. But if you are among those who do, there’s one little thing that could make a big difference in your efforts to get the most out of a Kindle Countdown Deal.
When you set up a Kindle Countdown deal, the KDP system allows you to set a beginning date on a screen that looks like this one:
It’s easy to miss the fact that this screen’s default starting time is 8 am Pacific Standard Time.
And if you are trying to coordinate a promotion campaign that starts on the same day as your Kindle Countdown Deal, that 8 am Pacific time could be a disaster. As an example, promotions at BookGorilla and Kindle Nation generally have a copy and pricing deadline of 6 am Eastern, which translates (for the time-zone challenged) to 3 am Pacific Standard Time. (And we’ve heard that the folks at BookBub try to get up early, too.)
One thing you can do, of course, is to have coordinate your promotion so that it starts on the second day of your Kindle Countdown Deal. But you may feel like you’re giving up critical promotional time if you delay your promotion that way.
But here’s how to fix it:
There’s an easy to miss time-of-day pulldown menu on that same screen that we showed you above. Just click on the default time and the pulldown will appear, as in the screenshot below. Select 12 am Pacific and you should be fine for all purposes … as long as the KDP gremlins cooperate!
