I hope I can help your marketing efforts by sharing this alphabetized list of book marketing sites. It’s a continuous work in progress – I update it regularly with new sites and my personal results in promoting my Isa Maxwell Escapades:
Even if you don’t want to advertise a book, the sites below are excellent resources to find free or bargain-priced books.
Follow me on Twitter: @spokeana for live updates complete with snapshots of sales charts.
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Addicted to eBooks: Can post a free or low price ($5.99 or less) ebook only for free. The catch is that you will not know when it is posted on the front page, but at a cost of nothing, why not? They don’t accept erotica and you have to have at least 5 reviews. You can only submit your book once.
My experience: I have applied for an account on 25 September and got approved on 28 September. Created a profile and Shizzle, Inc ad on 28 September. Considering paying $15 for a week-long sidebar ad and a Facebook post, although the profile by itself has not made any impact on the sales.
CURRENTLY IGNORING
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Armadillo eBooks: can submit a free book for free, or pay an optional $35 to submit to 45 free sites.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc on 24 June. There was a small uptick of maybe 20 extra copies the next day, but I don’t know when they actually added it. Submitted again on 16 September, but have not received a confirmation.
CURRENTLY IGNORING
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Ask David: They have 43,900 Twitter followers as of October 2015. Free ads for free Kindle Select books or a $15 promo package. Schedule free days up to 30 days in advance.
My experience: used them on 14 April 2016, hard to say of the result, as I had other promos at the same time. Tried again with permafree Shizzle, Inc on 10 May. There was a bit of an uptick, but not much. The nice thing is that they have an automated service for you to create tweets yourself, so you get extra tweets you can use for a year after the fact. Submitted again on 17 September, and the daily tweets accounted for perhaps 1-5 free downloads per day.
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Author Marketing Club: subscribe to get marketing tips. 25K+ subscribers. Free subscription or optional premium membership. Very flashy website, and it kept sending me to the premium membership form – I almost gave up, but luckily found the Free Membership Form eventually.
My experience: I have signed up to try some of the tools, but quickly lost interest.
CURRENTLY IGNORING
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Awesome Gang: Appears to be run by the same person that runs the Discount Book Man. They say their newsletter goes to 7,500 subscribers, and they have almost 55K Facebook fans. The same person runs five promo sites.
My experience: I submitted Shizzle for a promo on 10 October for a $10 USD. Hard to say what the results were, as I had another promo on the day.
Submitted again as a freebie (for free) on 21 June, but didn’t hear back from them. Submitted again for free on 18 September and did not hear back. Submitted as a freebie on 31 October.
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Bargain Book Angel: FREE service, sister site of Book Angel. UK website for $0.99 books. Submitted Indiot on 18 September (on sale for 1 week). There was no sales on 18th, and only 2 sales over the next week.
Submitted both books for consideration on 1-5 November 2016.
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BargainBooksy – see FreeBooksy.
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Bargain eBook Hunter – is now Hot Zippy
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Best Indie Books: Claim to have over 25,000 Twitter followers and get over 1,500 clicks per week. The network comprises @SnicksList, @YourBookAuthors, @BestIndieBooks1, and @IndieEbookSTORE. Promo packages are $8-30.
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Betty Book Freak: several options from $12 to $30. Don’t say how many subscribers they have.
My experience: Ran one $0.99 promo, sold nothing at all. To give them credit, I asked for and got a full refund.
Applied for a $30 opt-in promo with Shizzle, Inc as a permafree, which means anyone who signs up during October will be directed to the book listing. There was an uptick of 19 downloads on 1 October and a trickle of 1-3 downloads per day. Not worth it.
CURRENTLY IGNORING
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BitTorrent: this is a bit “out there” idea, as this is the site often blamed for piracy. It has over 200 MILLION users. This seems great if you have a series – just give away the first book in the series for free, to build a fan base which will come back to buy the rest.
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BKnights via Fiverr: only $5, mixed reviews.
My experience: When Shizzle, Inc was $0.99, got 4 sales for $5 promo. Permafree Shizzle, Inc on 29 July had 234 downloads, with 43 downloads the next day – cost $5.50. Permafree Shizzle had a promo+newsletter for $11 on 25 October and got 226 downloads with 29 downloads the next day.
$0.99 Indiot promo on 1 November for $6.
GOOD VALUE
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Black Caviar Book Club: doesn’t look promising – they want $15-25 to reach 29K Twitter and 5K Pinterest followers, which is nothing in social media. Offer a permanent promo page, which in my experience does nothing for sales.
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Book Angel: UK site, listing is free and the book appears on their website within 15 minutes. Looks like you can resubmit indefinitely, up to 5 days at a time.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc on 25 June. There was an uptick that day, of about 20 books over average, but I was submitting to multiple small sites during that week. Submitted Shizzle, inc again on 16 September and there was a very small uptick of 1-2 books per day for the next couple of days.
CURRENTLY IGNORING.
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Book Barbarian: SF and FANTASY ONLY. 17,000 email subscribers. Pro website. Claims 1,800 average free downloads and 39 average discounted books sold per promo.
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Book Basset: seems to be only Facebook and Twitter-based. Sister company with eReaderIQ. Cheap. Shizzle, Inc was advertised with eReaderIQ $15 promo and a $2 add-on of a link to Indiot on 23 September – 143 free downloads on the first day and 16 on the second day, and just 1 paid copy sold.
WORKS BUT OVERPRICED
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BookBear: claim to have over 170,000 followers on social media and over 5,000 newsletter subscribers. Pretty pricey at $30 minimum for the newsletter.
My experience: googled reviews, some people have complained. Not sure if I will try them, as I find that Twitter alone is not a good platform for book promos.
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BookBlast: now called Booksends (below).
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Book Bongo: free service, but they add you to the mailing list. Also have optional paid services, of which $10 Blast looks interesting – they submit your book to 50-100 Facebook sites with the total reach of 500,000 followers.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc on 25 June for a free service, which didn’t have an impact. May try Blast next.
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BookBub: you will need to set up an account, after that you can go straight to Submit a New Deal. The prices are quite high, but everyone says they’ve made their money back and then some. The sale price has to be the lowest of the last 90 days. It’s so popular that it’s difficult to get selected, despite the cost. There’s an excellent series of articles by an author Nicholas Rossis, which describe tips and tricks on how to get selected. Will feature the same book only once in any 6 months, and the same author only once every 30 days.
My experience: After applying nearly every month for about 18 months, I have finally been selected for the International feature (excluding the US). I was in Humor category with 200,000 subscribers, and the ad cost $36USD. The estimated number of downloads was 2,500, however, I had over 5,000 downloads after just three days. Next will be applying for the US feature, which seems more likely, now that I have my foot in the door.
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Book Butterfly – expensive, but they provide a guarantee of a certain number of downloads, so at least you know what you’re getting. HOWEVER, once you apply, you find out that the pro-rata refund is given only in form of the store credit, and it is waved if the book has previously been free, even for a few days, or if the book previously had a BookBub promo.
My experience: applied with Shizzle and Indiot for the 2016 #ComedyBookWeek period. Very poor performance – I have received a partial refund, but it was still not worth it.
CURRENTLY IGNORING
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Book Circle: free listing for free books, with optional paid services. Looks small, but worth a try for a free option.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc with start date of 28 June. No impact on downloads.
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Book Club Reading List: same as Novel Finds, a “network” claiming 100K fans. Newsletter goes to 10K+ readers. If you’re interested, you have to suffer through a seemingly endless slide resentation to get to FAQs and pricing.
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Book Daily: free to sign up, and to post a sample chapter, but to be properly promoted, they want a $49 MONTHLY fee.
NO
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Book Deal Hunter: for free books only, and very easy to submit, but you must be subscribed to their daily email list to submit your book, and not all submissions are included. Not sure why, the home page and FAQ were blank when I last checked.
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Book Goodies: post your book for free, but only once, and you have to fill in an author interview (answer questions). So, you first have to complete the interview, then wait 2-3 weeks for it to be approved, then list your book. A free-days listing is $7.50, with special features $5-$299, yet no mention of the size of the mailing list.
My experience: I have answered interview questions and it was live just a week later on Book Goodies website. I received an email notification of the interview being posted on 5 October and it already had 3 Facebook and 4 Twitter shares. On 8 October it had 14 Twitter shares, but that number has not increased since.
Applied for 1-day featured free book on 19 July with Shizzle, Inc for $10. There was NO IMPACT on downloads (23 vs average 15). Have asked for a refund, but didn’t get it.
BLACKLIST
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Book Gorilla: seems a cheaper option, while still being quite popular and famous. This explains why they are BOOKED UP TO 2 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Once again, the price of advertising depends on the book price – $4 to $50. You can also ask to be “starred”, although they will decide if they want to do it, based on your book quality – that would be an additional $100. They themselves say that it’s not likely to make much difference.
My experience: Not a great customer service. Correction – simply crappy customer service, don’t expect them to answer emails. I’ve paid $50 for a promo on 28 November and got 46 sales on the day. It was Thanksgiving, so I will give them another go in the future.
August 27 and 28 – Shizzle, Inc and Indiot, respectively. Permafree got 535 downloads over 3 days and $0.99 Indiot got 25 sales over 3 days at a total cost of $100.
WORKS, BUT OVERPRICED
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BookHearts – subsidiary of Choosy Bookworm (see below).
My experience: booked a “guaranteed” deal for 12 December at a cost of $5. Did not impress me, with 6 sales on the day at a cost of $5. They had a second chance on 9 January, but something went wrong and I only got 2 sales. I’d contacted them and they agreed to run the promo (whether the first time or again, not sure) on 18 January. I got 5 sales. The cost was $5, which is not much, but the result is still disappointing. What was even more dissapointing is that I’ve tried to contact Jay from Choosy Bookworm/BookHearts a number of times, and never got a response of any kind.
BLACKLISTED
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Book Hippo: Submit ONLY every 90 days. You have to subscribe to submit an offer. It’s free, with a voluntary donation. Not sure of the subscriber reach or social media following. UK-based company, so they judge your book based on UK Amazon ratings.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc and Indiot on 15 June. Didn’t hear back from them, but then was surprised to get a tweet that Shizzle, Inc was promoted on 2 July. Got 190 downloads over two days as a result. Submitted twice before realising it was not yet 90 days lapsed and did not get promoted.
Was chosen as a “featured author” on 24 October and got 102 free downloads for FREE. Submitted Indiot for $0.99 consideration on 1-7 November.
GREAT VALUE
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Booklife: you can submit your book to be considered for a free review (in Publishers Weekly) or opt for a $149 advertisement.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc for a free review consideration on 28 April 2016, it was not chosen for a review. Submitted Indiot on 10 July and also did not get picked.
IGNORING FOR NOW
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Book Marketing Tools: will submit your book to over 30 free advertising sites.Cost is $14.99.
My experience: used the tool on 10 July. It’s semi-automated, you still need to click to submit on each of the 30 sites – check each application, as not all fields get filled in. Overall it took about 10 minutes to supply the info and then go through 30 applications, 1 of which did not work. THERE WAS NO IMPACT on the free downloads. Some of the 30 sites no longer accept submissions without a cost (such as Freebooksy).
POOR VALUE
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Book of the Day: free service for free books. Looks like it’s automatically posted in just a few hours.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc on 27 June 2016. Not sure if or when it was run – I sometimes get unexpected spikes, though.
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Book Partners in Crime Promotions: pretty pricey without stating their mailing list size. Emailed to ask about their subscription list. No response after several days.
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Bookperk: HarperCollins own site – appears that indie authors can’t advertise with them.
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Book Pinning: pin your book cover with link to any site for free. Can pin once every 30 days. For Book of The Day requests, can also contact info@bookpinning.com – can post every 60 days. Does not state how much this feature is, only that it’s paid.
My experience: pinned both Shizzle and Indiot on 7 July. Asked how much is the paid Book of the Day is, but got no reply.
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Book Praiser: Offer multiple services, free and paid. Seems to be web and Twitter-based. Partners with Zourla. Requires a free registration to submit your book.
My experience: submitted permafree Shizzle, Inc on 27 June and bargain Indiot to start on 16 July 2016. Not sure if it had an impact, as I had a paid promo on 16 July. There was no spike in Shizzle, Inc downloads for several days afterwards.
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Bookraid: requires you to create an account – makes re-advertising EASY. It used to be free, but is now in cost-per-click mode. Can advertise every 8 weeks.
My experience: promoted on 8 June, got 62 free downloads of Shizzle, Inc that day (up from average unadvertised of 10-20.
HAVE NOT TRIED THE PAID VERSION
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Bookreader Magazine: top featured title was in top ranking within its category, which got me excited right away. Some eh titles, too. They have 23,000 Twitter followers and around 730 Facebook fans. The submission page looks just like the one for Pretty-Hot.Cost to be featured is $20. Use coupon code Awesome Save $10. They are very strict on your book pricing – you can’t advertise at a price that is higher than the lowest price within the last 30 days. Also, can’t advertise more often than once every 2 weeks.
My experience: I’ve only done a free author interview. No apparent impact on sales.
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Book Review Directory: a book review blog, in October 2015 it has 95 reviewers and 1,383 followers. They offer a sidebar ad for $20.
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Book Scream: currently in beta stage, so accepts “book hints” for free, but requires you to sign up for their newsletter.
My experience: signed up and added Shizzle, Inc on 16 June.
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Booksends: claim that big-name publishers advertise with them. NOTE: the promo price has to be the lowest of any within the previous 90-day range.
My experience: Dissapointing. Paid $30 for 15 December 2015 promo, which resulted in 22 sales on the day, 5 sales the next day. I was out of Kindle Select at that time, so no KENP pages read. Emailed them on 24 January asking why, they replied right away, but it was sort of “nothing we can do”. In May 2016 wasted $125 on another promo with minimal results.
POOR VALUE.
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Book Star Daily: $15-30 for services, not clear how big is the list.
My experience: contacted on 7 July, asking how many downloads I could expect for the price. No reply.
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Booktastic: reasonable prices, at $5-10, but no mention of the subscriber list size. Does not accept permafree or books that are at the same low price for more than 2 months.
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Book Tweeters: Twitter side of eBook Habit website. Claim to have 475,000 followers across 4 accounts (@eBooksHabit,@TheBookTweeters & @BookDealsToday & @Deals4Readers).
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Bostick Communications: they have approached me on the blog and offered to e-mail a press release about my book to their “proprietary database of reviewers and media contacts” for $85. I have googled them and the reviews have been mixed – looks like they will be sending your request for reviews to bloggers and other small fish willing to review a book for a free copy. Some people were happy with the result, because they got reviews, others unhappy because sending out books cost them so much and they got poor reviews. I would suggest doing your own research on this one.
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Buck Books – the link is to their policies, but to apply to advertise you actually need to contact Cherub (he’s a dude) directly on thatcherub@gmail.com. Claim to have 42,000 subscribers. Don’t advertise free books.
My experience: paid $12 to be advertised on 19 January. Screwed up and ran an eReader News promo on the same day, so will have to re-test them in July (they advertise only once every 6 months).
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Cheap Kindle Daily: free listing of your book at any price, but only 96 followers and they require that you put their badge on your site.
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Choosy Bookworm: a blog, no info on the followers or subscribers. They review submissions and schedule once a week on Sundays, keep that in mind – apply at least a week or two before your promo date.
My experience: Advertised on 16 January – pathetic results, 11 sales for $19 spent. Emailed to ask why, several times, no response.
DO NOT USE.
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Digital Book Today: a blog with 20-24 thousand visits per week. Lots of options for promotions, quite confusing, actually – some of the buttons link to an image, rather than a submission form. I’ve contacted them about the issue of missing links, no reply.
My experience: scheduled on 17 December. $30 for “Deal of the Day”. Pathetic 8 copies sold. Complained about low sales and got $15 partial refund.
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Discount Book Man: appears to be run by the same person as Awesome Gang. Submit your book for free, or opt for a $15 “featured” promo. I’ve looked at their featured list – the books with professional-looking covers had really good rankings.
My experience: I submitted Shizzle, Inc on 27 September (for free). No apparent impact on sales.
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eBookasaurus: advertise your free book for free. Or list your bargain book – a premium listing is just $10. Could not find any mention of the number of subscribers or followers.
My experience: Applied with permafree Shizzle, Inc on 10 May and scheduled for 11 May, at no cost. Unfortunately, no visible effect on free downloads, either.
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eBook Booster: claims to boost your book to up to 45 promotional websites with one fee.
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eBooks Habit: accept books under $2.99. Can submit for free (placement is not guaranteed) or as low as $10. Claim to have nearly half a million Twitter followers and thousands of subscribers. Also own Book Tweeters.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc for free consideration on 24 November. Didn’t get it. Submitted again for 13-15 April 2016 and didn’t receive a reply/didn’t get it. Applied with the permafree Shizzle, Inc on 10 May. Didn’t receive a reply.
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eBook Lister: paid promo is $25. Claims to have 41,900 subscribers.
My experience: scheduled a promo (email mailout) on 14 December. I have contacted them to complain that the $25 payment only got me 3 sales. No response.
DO NOT USE.
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eBooks for Free: cost is $12-40, depending on the feature. Super annoying pop-up banners on each page, but no mention of the subscriber list.
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eBook Soda: claim to have “12,000+ subscribers, and receive around 5,000 unique active visitors to their website per month”. Cost starts at $15.
My experience: Got 1 sale on 2 February for $15. Emailed and asked why – got a prompt apology and full refund.
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eReaderIQ: must check later – very professional-looking website. Would cost $30 to email 17,000 readers of Women’s Fiction.
Now partnering with BookSends and Book Bassett. I have emailed with questions about the $150 Free Book of the Day on 10 May. No response. Submitted Shizzle, Inc to eReaderIQ for a $15 promo, with a $2 add-on of a link to Indiot on 23 September via Book Bassett- 143 free downloads on the first day and 16 on the second day, and just 1 paid copy sold.
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Ereader News Today: I LOVE THEM! Scroll all the way to the bottom to find “authors, submit your free or bargain book here”. The cost is $25. Takes a few days to set up, get approved, and pay the invoice – allow a few working days before your promo date.
My experience: DID I MENTION I LOVE THEM? Paid $25 to advertise a $0.99 sale of Shizzle, Inc on 10 October. The promo resulted in 63 sales, so it has just paid back the investment. On top of it, several books appear to have been downloaded as part of the KU – two days of 800-plus pages read.
$30 option to send to Humor list with permafree Shizzle, Inc on 10 May resulted in 1,228 downloads on first day and over 600 on the second.
Submitted for $35 Action and Adventure promo on 24-25 September, but got rejected – better stick with Humor category. Submitted again on 27 September.
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eReader Utopia: DO NOT USE: after you create an account, you get a message that they’re shutting the website down.
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Flurries of Words: just a $5 donation for a listing, but the site has only 424 followers. Also, clicking on the cover image of featured books does NOT take you to their sale site.
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Free Book Dude: list your free book for free or choose from various paid options, from a $10 sidebar ad to a $100 for a 5-week promo. I was concerned that it looks like there’s only 285 members and no mention of traffic stats or the number of subscribers, so I’ve opted for a guest blog. If the guest blog gets much traffic (without me reblogging it), I will consider paid offers.
My experience: I have not received a reply after 2 weeks, so pass.
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Free Books Hub: packages are $10-20 and they claim to have 50K+ Twitter Users
and 1000+ eBook Subscribers (that’s a very small list for free book promos).
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FreeBooksy: you can advertise free and bargain books. BargainBooksy – $70 to reach 104,000 subscribers to the Chicklit genre. For some reason, it was $100 to promote a free book in the same category! It had testimonials from a few real people, but I have not yet committed to buying any promos.
My experience: Advertised on 31 October – $25 to reach 60,000 YA subscribers. The result was disappointing, only in 10 sales. What was amazing, though, that when I’ve emailed them to ask why I got so few, they apologized (what??) and offered to credit my $25 towards another promo, with Chicklit/Romance audience. Advertised again on 5 December for $70. Another disappointing run, with 19 sales. Emailed them with just polite feedback and they’ve REFUNDED all of my money. Amazing!
Advertised again on 4 June 2016 with permafree Shizzle, Inc – YA feature for $75.
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Free eBooks Daily: $3-$6, only Twitter and Facebook-based: 20,000 Twitter followers and over 4,700 Facebook fans. I find social media in general doesn’t work well for selling books, but they are cheap.
My experience: A $3 listing on 22 June got me very few downloads – I’d credit them with 10, max.
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Free eBooks for Young Adults: free services, although it looks like a baby blog. I’m not sure if it’s suitable for Shizzle, Inc, but it may be perfect for your novel.
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Free Kindle Books and Tips: Kindle only. Claim to have 675,000 subscribers. Apparently run by an author who has sold over 1 million Kindle copies. Your book MUST have an average 5 stars from at least 8 reviews on Amazon (unless it’s a new release). Very picky – rejects 75% of author submissions. The cost is $25 for a regular post for a book priced at $1 or less, plus various other options. They have a free app – with very mixed reviews (on Amazon).
My experience: Paid $25 for a promo on 9 December. 18 sales on the day and 6 sales the day after. Not terribly impressive at the cost of $25, but I might try them again.
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Free Online Novels: for free novels only. I assume they have to be free permanently, not just temporary giveaways.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc via email on 10 May. Got a response on 25 May that it was “linked” to by FON.
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Frugal Freebies: this is a site for all freebies, which accepts books as well. Claims to have more than 3.5 million views (I assume in total). Also has 89K Facebook fans and multiple free book sites. Free service and a super-easy submission form. NOTE: they do not let you know when the book is posted.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc for 15 July.
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Genre Crave: Freebie subscriber list is 20,000, but at $50 is too pricey for the 405-1,051 clicks it may get. Lower prices for genre lists, which are much smaller.
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Genre Pulse: claim to have worked with hundreds of bestselling authors since inception in 2014 and delivering “150,000 clicks” via a total of 60,000 email recipients. Per-genre promos are just $16.
My experience: booked Shizzle, Inc on 23 July, but was supposed to get 25% off and the email with coupon did not come through..
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Genre Reader: looks like a newish site, not sure of how many subscribers they have, Appears to be free.
My experience: contacted them via email on 25 May. No reply.
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Get Free Books: very straightforward submission for permafree ebooks.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc on 10 May. Did not get a reply. Emailed on 27 June, asking if they accept Amazon permafree listings, or only self-hosted books.
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Good Kindles: $10-$20 to permanently feature your book on their site, with options to “bump it up”. This one is different from most big sites in that they do not require your book to be discounted. The site has 88K Twitter followers, and I’ve checked some of the promoted books – they have decent ratings.
My experience: I’ve bought a $9.95 promo for a weekend of 3 October, when Shizzle is priced at $2.99, which was a real test of the site’s services, as $2.99 is a regular price. This is what my page looks like. As of 8 October, there has been no impact on sales – I’m not sure if I will try again for a $0.99 sale.
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GoodReads: Great for everything, except (in my opinion), paid advertising.
My experience: I have paid $20 and tried every combination of keywords, tagline, and target audience. I have started with 10 cents per click, then 20, then 30, and finally 40 cents. As of 8 October, after a month, not a single click. I think my $20 will sit in that account indefinitely…UPDATE: six months later, I managed to get 14 clicks total.
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Hot Zippy: parent company for Bargain eBook Hunter, PixelScroll and Romance eBook Deals. Starts at $23 and completely automated purchase. They require a 3-30 day notice. Actually have a humor category.
My experience: applied for a 2-day PixelScroll promo on 23 June.
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iAuthor: a UK site, professional-looking, with quality-looking titles in collection. Advertise your book for free.
My experience: created a profile and a free advert on 28 September 2015. It looks fantastic, and my embedded sample is displayed right under the title, so it draws attention (no need to click on a link). No impact on sales whatsoever by 8 October.
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I Crave Freebies: freebie website that accepts books.
My experience: emailed them about Shizzle, Inc on 9 July.
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Ignite Your Book: very straightforward submission, free service, for free books only.
My experience: submitted Shizzle, Inc for 17-31 May period.
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Indie Book of the Day: submit your free and “soon to be free” books 7-30 days prior to sale. Pretty pricey at $30-50, but they also offer free blog tours and free reviews.
My experience: applied for a free book review on 7 April 2016. Have not heard from them as of 11 May 2016.
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Indie Book Promo: claim to have over 250K Twitter followers, 15,000 Facebook Fans, just over 20,000 Goodreads subscribers, and a “huge number” of Google+ followers. I’ve clicked on a few titles that are at the top of current display – their rankings were from great to terrible. Advertising prices start at $25 for a month.
My experience: I have bought a month-long sidebar ad, starting on 27 November, for $25. I’ve also provided an author interview. No impact on sales whatsoever.
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IndieReader: I had a look, and the look of the site turned me off – it just looks like a blog full of ads. It doesn’t say anything about the subscriber list, or how many followers it has, but it does invite you to pay $25 for a day of advertising your free book. It’s a “nah” for me.
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Inspired Reads: turned out to be a Christian Kindle book site (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Not for the foul-mouthed Isa, though…
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Just Kindle Books: partner/same as eReader Nation. Currently have a 17,500 mail list and lots of social media. Cost is $15-35.
My experience: booked the basic $15 package on 15 June.
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KBoards: you must register with Kindle Boards first. They do not accept erotica. Cost is $20.
My experience: bought the $20 promo for Indiot on 16 July – MUST HAVE 3 reviews by then.
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Kickstarter: this is not a book advertising site, per se, but I am toying with an idea to do a fundraiser to help me write the second one (I desperately need to take some time off work). Something like “donate $25 and get an autographed copy of the second book in Isa Maxwell series” or “donate $3 and get a free ebook.”
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Kindle Nation Daily: appears to be run by the same people as BookGorilla (based on the payment info). They claim to reach 174,000 subscribers, but the cheapest “sponsorship” option is $29 and is fully automated – after reading the description I was a little worried that I might pay and end up with a technical error.
My experience: was sold out in January, so I’ve booked for 12 April, a $99 (sale) deal with slideover to BookGorilla (Option G). Shizzle, Inc was free and I got almost a thousand free downloads on the day, but was dissapointed with the value.
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Kindle on the Cheap: a baby blog with 204 followers, but a free service.
My experience: nothing to lose, so I’ve submitted Shizzle, Inc on 27 September. No impact on sales as of 8 October.
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Many Books: claim to have 130,000 subscribers – the basic promo is just $25. The book must have at least 10 reviews on Amazon with an average of at least 4 stars. A book can be featured only once in any 3 month period. They claim that a $35 promo of a free book is guaranteed to get you at least 1,000 downloads.
My experience: Advertised on 13 April at a cost of $25 and got 879 downloads, but I had two other promos in previous days. Advertising again on 20 July.
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Masquerade Crew: Twitter-based, so I’m not sure about results. Cheap ($10-25), so may try when I have a spot without any promos going. Submitted the book for a free review listing (not guaranteed).
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Mobile Read: a discussion forum that allows self-promotion.
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My Book Cave: FREE advertising for a limited time. Must be new, because there’s no mention of the size of subscriber list or social media reach. Requires you to rate your book in terms of sex, violence, swearing, drug use, etc.
My experience: free Shizzle, Inc got 117 downloads for FREE. Indiot on sale for $0.99 will be featured on 4 November.
GREAT VALUE
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NetGalley: I would love for someone to tell me if they’ve had success with this one. The site suggests that I may be able to connect with professional readers and media, but at the $399 just to list, or $599 for a six-month listing and one promo, it seems steep. However, you can always join a NetGalley co-op, such as Patchwork Press Author Services, and advertise for a fraction of that price.
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Novel List: claims to have 100K fans across its network, but if it’s on social media, it’s not that impressive. Costs start at $40 for a “blast” and to list the book with reviewers. Kind of vague, not sure about it.
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One Hundred Free Books: $75 minimum promo, or you can notify them for free (I’ve done that a few times, never got a spot).
My experience: never got a spot when it was free. Not so sure about paying $75.
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People Reads: have a few testimonials, but no information on followers or size of the subscriber list.
My experience: applied for a fee Freebie promo after 17 June.
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Pixel of Ink: might as well go straight to Pixel of Ink Author’s Corner, which will inform you that apparently advertising with them is very limited (or sold out) and is available through BookSends.
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Pretty-Hot: top free promoted books had amateur covers and “ugh” rankings on Amazon. They have 7500 Twitter followers and around 5690 Facebook fans. It’s free (with an optional $25 featured promo). Use coupon code Pretty to save $10 on featured ad.
My experience: I listed Shizzle, Inc on 27 September 2015 for free (no featured ad) – no increase in sales as of 8 October.
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PixelScroll: see HotZippy.
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Publishers Weekly: see Booklife.
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Readers in the Know: free trial for 60 days, after which it’s 20 pounds/year. Does not mention the follower reach.
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Read Cheaply: require your book to be high quality – edited, proofread and have good reviews. I might try this a bit later, when I have a paperback version on Amazon. Will not feature the same book more than once every 4 months.
My experience: to be tested in January.
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Read Free: advertise your free or discounted book for free. Also holds a contest of 50 Best Indie Books of the year.
My experience: Advertised for free on 7 December. Got 4 sales on the day, great for a free deal :-), plus 3 sales the next day. Applied again on 16 May with free Shizzle and discounted Indiot. Did not receive a reply and emailed again on 23 May.
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Reading Deals: Kindle and all other platforms. 80,000 twitter followers. Can submit your book for free, but a spot is not guaranteed – a $15 guarantees a promo.
My experience: applied in June, for free, and was accepted. Ad was live on 22 June.
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Robin Reads: claims over 120,000 “members”, but when you apply, it says a newsletter goes to 30,000 subscribes (still very good). Selective with their book choices – I was pleased to see that all of their promoted books were currently ranked very high in their categories! They promote only free or $0.99 books, and you can only list once every 3 months. Interestingly, they publish their average downloads – highest numbers are in Mystery category, with an average 1,300 free or 65 paid downloads. The service is reasonably priced – $15 for Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, and Dystopia genres, and $30 for Romance, Steamy/Erotic, Thriller, Mystery, and Nonfiction.
My experience: Promo on 26 November at a cost of $30. Sales on the day – 19. Might give them a second chance, Thanksgiving could have been a bad choice.
I tried again with new Featured Ad for Shizzle, Inc and left the date flexible. Only 1% of these ads get accepted. Mine did not get accepted. Tried again on 23 June. Did not get accepted. Can try every 7 days.
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Romance eBook Deals: see HotZippy.
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Snickslist: list a free giveaway once it’s actually free. No erotica.
My experience: placed a $5 permafree ad (good for one year) on 16 May 2016. Shizzle, Inc is listed, but I doubt it has done anything for the sales (unless you count the daily dribble of about 10 free downloads, which I seem to get anyway, with just social media and staying at the top of free charts).
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Story Finds: they have 4,000 Twitter followers. It’s actually not that much in Twitterverse. 6,320 newsletter subscribers is a bit better, and they have 900 new visitors to website per day. Still, for $50-60 spotlights, I’m not sure I will make my money back.
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Sweet Free Books: doesn’t say how many email subscribers or site visitors, claims 141,000+ Twitter followers and 13,000+ Facebook fans. Only $7 to list. Can list every 60 days. Amazon and Barnes&Noble listings.
My experience: scheduled an Action-adventure promo on 1 June.
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The Books Machine: sells a membership for $10 per month. I’m not yet clear on how it works or if it’s worth it. Requires authors to give away free copies.
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The eReader Cafe: free for free books, or $35 for $0.99 books.
My experience: Booked for 18 August 2017.
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The Indie View: everything on this site is free. However, to be able to sign up as an author, you need at least one 4-star review from one of their reviewers. They publish the list of their reviewers.
My experience: I have emailed them asking to have Shizzle, Inc reviwed, but the email to “admin” bounced back.
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The Midlist – has been bought by HarperCollins in October 2015 and will be folded into Bookperk (see Bookperk above).
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Totally Free Stuff: a freebie stuff that lists books.
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Zourla: partners with Book Praiser.
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Zwoodle Books: advertise your free book for free, or donate $5 to a charity. The promoted books’ ratings varied from good to eh, but I really liked that the site requires the author to pledge not to ever buy paid reviews. In this day and age, this just might make Zwoodle a more trusted resource for readers. Will definitely use for the future free promotion.
My experience: I have completed a pledge to never buy book reviews: http://truereviewpledge.com/members/anaspoke/
Applied for 13-15 April promo. Never heard from them.
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Poll from KDP on the most effective promo sites
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HASHTAGS:
- #ComedyBookWeek
- #eBook
- #BookBuzzr
- #BookGiveaway
- #BookMarketing
- #Kindle
- #KindleBargain
- #FreeKindle
- #FreeKindleReads
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TIPS ON BUILDING A PROMOTION STRATEGY:
Maximise your KDP Select promo days
Ana Spoke, author 