Wondering if book promotion sites could help you market your book? Do you want passive promotion? To free up your time spent in marketing and actually get back to writing?
You’re not alone. As writers, we often spend weeks or months of the year promoting our books, taking away from precious writing time. The good news?
We’ve taught over 8,000 authors how to write, publish, and market their books over the last 10 years. Today, we turn our attention to book promotion sites and how you can use them to bring in more sales.
In this post, we share how to use specific sites to promote your book and free up your marketing time to write!
Book promotion sites: what’s covered
- What are book promotion sites?
- What’s the best way to promote a book?
- How do I get my books noticed?
What are book promotion sites?
Book promotion sites do exactly what they say: they promote books. Some do so for a fee while others do so for free. Strategically using these sites can produce short bursts of higher sales.
Book promotion sites can have an impactful place in your marketing strategy, if you take the time to do the research to find the right promotions for your books. (Pst: we did the research for you!)
Most book promotion sites require that your eBook is free or cheap, and many have a screening process to ensure quality in their book recommendations.
A screening process might sound inconvenient, but it’s better to have your book amongst carefully selected publications than to toss it into a pile of garbage!
Plus, the more selective websites have better reputations with their readers, and often a much larger readership, making them more valuable for you to pursue.
Below are a few ways these sites work:
- Some promotion sites are site-based only, meaning they’ll list your book amongst others on their actual websites
- Some send out daily or weekly newsletters to their mailing list with book deals.
- Some post to their social media accounts.
- Some do a mix of these and more (I’ve seen several websites that even write full reviews for selected books)
Book promotion sites want to recommend quality books to keep their readers’ trust, and they want bargain or free books to provide their readers with value.
What’s the best way to promote a book?
The best way to promote your book to such sites is by learning how to pitch your book to them in a way that gets your book in the door! How you apply to have your book featured on a book promotion site will depend on the site, but there are some trends to expect when pitching.
Take note of these trends to heighten your chance of success getting in and promoting your book:
- Most sites require your book to be listed as free or at a significant discount. Like I said, the value they provide for their readers is book deals. Showing their audience books at full price isn’t adding anything that they couldn’t get at a bookstore.
- Many sites, particularly the sites that charge a fee, require your book to meet certain quality standards. This builds trust with their readership and helps you! If you pay to have your book listed amongst books that lack quality, this suggests your book also lacks quality.
- Most sites have a no-tolerance policy for erotica, hateful content, or anything that might be controversial.
- Niche sites require your book to fall into their specific categories or genres. Finding your niche makes, rather than a general one, makes it much easier to rack up sales. Finding specific promotional sites for your genre can turn over more sales than a less specific site.
Each site will have a sign-up form with basic contact, author, and book information for you to fill in. Most promotion sites will at least want your basic author and book information, but every site is different. You should find a guideline on or near the submission page for each site.
How do I get my books noticed?
You can get your book noticed by successfully pitching paid or free sites. Now it’s time to look at some options. We’ve broken them into free and paid, but many of these sites offer both options, just via different packages.
Free book promotion sites
While many book promotion sites will charge a fee to promote your books, there are some free options. There aren’t monetary barriers to entry for these sites, but many of them have quality barriers. This is good!
You’re better off submitting to websites that have some kind of screening process, because that means readers will take their including your book as a sign of endorsement.
Here are a few free book promotion sites to check out:
- It’s Write Now has free and premium options (from $10 to $20). They require your book to be $3 or under, available on Kindle or Audible, with family friendly cover content.
- Indies Unlimited has free and paid options for book promotion. You can list your free or 99 cent eBooks by submitting your book information and a download link.
- Bookangel requires books to be under one euro for all readers, but it is free to submit.
- Freebooksy requires your books to be free, but their affiliate, Bargain Booksy, accepts book submissions between 99 cents and $5. Both sites offer free submission, but you can also pay to guarantee a spot.
Paid book promotion sites
If you’re looking for a more prestigious company, larger audiences, longer features, or other services, you might be ready to invest in book promotion. Here are a few sites that charge for their services, though many offer a free version as well.
BookBub
BookBub is probably one of the most popular book promotion sites, and they have some of the stricter guidelines you’ll see. They want the best deals, error-free content, and for your book to be free or listed at a 50% discount. This chart can give you an idea of pricing, but it varies depending on genre and price of your book. The higher your book’s price, the higher BookBub’s promotional fees.
Bookdealio
Bookdealio is a newsletter for eBook deals. They look for free books or big discounts, so if your book is always a low price, this one probably isn’t the best option for you.
ManyBooks
ManyBooks requires your book to be free or at a 50% discount, they have quality control, and they offer three tiers of promotion. For a spot in their daily newsletter, you’ll pay around $29. To publish your book to the site is $39, and to get a professional review and inclusion in their blog and monthly newsletter is $79.
CraveBooks
CraveBooks has options for free and bargain priced eBooks: $25 will get your book promoted to fifteen sites.
Goodkindles
Goodkindles has options from $25 to $45 with promotional services like blog posts, social media content, newsletter spots, and more.
ENT
eReader News Today (ENT) requires your books be free or on sale, available on Amazon, and full-length (meaning no children’s, nonfiction, cookbooks, or other books under 125 pages). They look at reviews, cover design, and content to ensure quality and lack of controversial matter.
ExciteSteam
ExciteSteam is a newsletter for romance novels with at least a 4-star review average. Their prices range from $15 to $75 for different newsletter packages.
Red Roses Romance
Red Roses Romance is another romance newsletter option. They obviously only accept books in the romance genre, and they only accept books that are free or listed for at least a 50% discount.
Robin Reads
Robin Reads requires your books to be free or 99 cents, error-free, and a full-length book. Robin Reads stands out from the others by the information they give concerning their readership. You’ll find download rates broken down by genre and lots of other illuminating data on their website.
eBook Deals Today
eBook Deals Today charges between $5 and $10 depending on which service you choose. They will post your book on their website and several social media accounts. Again, your book has to be free to be eligible.
LitRing
LitRing offers much more involved services, like ad training and other marketing assistance. Their prices have a wide range, as do their services and promotional packages.
Book Basset
Book Basset provides promotional services for authors: Featured Authors Posts, Guaranteed Freebie Posts, and eReaderIQ Daily Deals & Steals Promotion (this is a slot in their newsletter).
BookDoggy
BookDoggy offers a lot of bang for your buck with a newsletter spot, indefinite feature on their website, personalized Facebook posts, book trailer promo on their YouTube channel, and full book buy links for around $20.
BookAdrenalie
BookAdrenaline is for my mystery and thriller writer pals. They want books in those genres only, free or at a 50% discount, and they require it to be professionally done and highly rated.
An extra requirement for BookAdrenaline is that your book is a standalone or the first in a series. They will not promote sequels. As with other services, the cheaper your book, the lower the fee.
Book promotion sites: take your next step today
Do any of these book promotion sites stand out as a good fit for you and your books? Check them out! See their guidelines, restrictions, and success rates, then give it a shot! It might be just what your book sales have been waiting for. Then, take your next step today by using our free resource below!
