Amazon has released a new feature called “ Kindle Countdown Deal ” that allows readers and writers to take advantage of Kindle books that have been placed on sale from their original price.
Thus far, a Google search result shows “about 40 results” from placing the following search string in Google exactly like the following in order to sniff out those books on sale:
"Kindle Countdown Deal" "Price goes up to" -forum site:amazon.com
The Kindle Countdown Deal promotions can run for up to 7 days, and it’s a great way to not only find books on sale to read, but for authors to use the new promotion tactic in order to increase sales to customers looking for a great deal.
As witnessed by the above Google search results, writers have been setting up their promotions as soon as Amazon announced the new feature. To run a price promotion for your book on Amazon, you must create a new promotion by selecting “Manage Benefits” from the Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard.
Then you are allowed to sign your book up for one of the following promotional programs -- either the Kindle Countdown Deals or free book promotion via KDP Select. Only one promotional program can be enabled per enrollment period, but Amazon will provide the date of the soonest time authors can run the promotion, for instances, they’ll tell you if your promotion “Must be after December 01, 2013” or your next date.
Also, books must be in the range of price for the promotion on both the Amazon.com and Amazon UK stores, the only two allowing the deal right now. For example, my “Amazon Kindle Books Self-Publishing” book returned the following response: “Book Price is Outside Allowed Range Your book price must be priced between £1.93 and £14.99 in order to schedule a promotion in this marketplace. Your book is currently priced at £1.85. To change the price of your book click Rights & Pricing. Original list price £1.93.”
Others made the cut-off price point.
To run a Kindle Countdown Deal, books are required to be enrolled in KDP Select and to have had no price changes for 30 days
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/kindle-countdown-deal-launches-kindle-books-go-on-sale?cid=roadrunner