Hey authors! So, you’ve written a book? First, congratulations. That’s a huge accomplishment. Now it’s time to get your work out into the world. The best way to get your book in front of people is by featuring it with a book promotion company. Their job is to spread the word about what you’ve written!
By using a book promotion company’s services, you are paying to reserve an advertising slot with them. This slot might be on their website, newsletter, or both. Some companies will even advertise your book in social media posts on their Facebook page and more.
By advertising this way, you will tap into an entirely new reader audience simply by utilizing that company’s email list.
Email lists are made up of subscribers. Subscribers are people who choose to receive certain emails. You’re likely on email lists for all your favorite restaurants, venues, and stores. By tapping into an email list, companies have the power to advertise specific material that their subscribers are very interested in and are likely to purchase or learn more about.
Readers, for example, may sign up for the Freebooksy newsletter because they want more free eBooks. This gives you the perfect opportunity to promote your free eBook to that ready-to-read audience!
Our short answer… YES! We have found that promoting your book with one of these services is an effective strategy used by countless authors to build their reader audience.
Promo sites, like ours at Written Word Media, can help authors drive book sales, reviews, and increase in rank on retailers like Amazon. They are one of the most effective ways for indie authors to boost their business.
Before beginning to market your book, it always helps to make sure it is set up for success. Having a high quality cover, a well-written description and a call to action in your backmatter will all make any promo more successful.
Once you have your book ready to promote, you’ll need to decide where you’ll run your promos.
As you’ll see below, there are many reputable book promotion sites that each have their own requirements for authors. Some sites will require a limited number of Amazon reviews, while others may be more inclusive and will only need basic information like a live Amazon link for consideration. Our rule of thumb is to carefully read each site’s requirements before making your booking. Have questions about a particular site? Their customer service team should be able to give you specifics on how to get promoted by them.
What is promo stacking? It is one of the most powerful marketing tactics for authors. It is essentially the act of combining several book marketing tactics within a specific timeframe to amplify their impact.
Promo stacking goes beyond a single marketing push and instead focuses on a coordinated approach across various platforms and audiences. The key benefit? Promo stacking helps your book’s retailer rank stay higher, for longer. This means you get all the sales from your promos AND more sales as readers happen across your book on the retailer charts. You can learn more about this popular strategy here.
As discussed in the previous section, running a multi-day promo stack is one of the most effective ways to build your book’s rank on retailer sites. Written Word Media’s ready-made Promo Stacks makes this process simple by offering a range of curated stacks that include the Written Word Media portfolio of brands and a growing list of popular partner sites.
This means less work for you changing between promo sites and filling out forms, but the same great results.
Promo Stacks are available for both free and $0.99 eBooks in a variety of genres. Click here to learn more about ready-made promo stacks.
Free or discounted promos are a great way to drive a lot of readers to your book pages. Free promos, where you make your book free permanently or for a limited time, don’t drive immediate revenue, but they result in a surge in downloads and attention that can drive sales of your other titles.
Discounted promos, where a book is priced $4.99 or below, will drive immediate revenue, but will result in less of a rank increase.
Different strategies work for different authors, so testing to see what has the biggest impact on your author business is always a great idea.
Most interested in new readers? Making your book free is the right move. If your book is free and more than 50 pages in length, Freebooksy is the book promotion site for you. With over 539,000 registered readers in mystery, romance, fantasy, nonfiction, literary, and kids and teens genres, you’re guaranteed to find new readers. Each promotion includes a post on the Freebooksy homepage that includes your book cover and a short description, placement in our daily email, and promotion on social media outlets.
Freebooksy also offers series promos, which drive readers to your series page on retailers. These promos tend to perform quite well and are popular with authors.
BookBub is a book promotion site that offers email placement, but at a higher price point and with a much higher editorial threshold than many of the other options on this list. With millions of subscribers, BookBub offers incredible exposure for authors. Plus, their books and a feature with them can catapult you into bestselling lists. Unfortunately, their editorial standards may result in rejection, so it is hard to rely on them to be a consistent part of your marketing plan.
Looking for a boost in sales? You can make your book more appealing to readers by discounting it, and Bargain Booksy promotes eBooks priced between $0.99 and $5.00. As long as your book is more than 50 pages long, Bargain Booksy is the book promotion site for you. With over 317,000 registered readers in mystery, romance, fantasy, nonfiction, literary, and kids and teens genres, you’re guaranteed to find a boost in sales. Each promotion includes a post on the Bargain Booksy homepage that includes your book cover and a short description, placement in our daily email, and promotion on social media outlets.
Hello Books wide-reaching reader network spans a diverse audience of book enthusiasts in multiple countries, allowing authors to connect with readers through its weekly promotions. This site promotes both free and $0.99 eBooks.
Want to promote a bargain or free eBook? Then The Fussy Librarian might be right for you. While they strongly suggest that books be priced at $0.99 or $2.99 for a bargain promotion, the only real limitation to one of these features is that it must be listed below $5.99. For both their bargain and free newsletters, promotions include a slot in their email. Freebies are listed on their website.
Ereader News Today (ENT) has been delivering highly rated free and bargain ebook deals to avid readers since 2010. Every day, ENT subscribers receive an email with books that have been hand-picked and tailored to each subscriber’s individual reading preferences.
Another highly-regarded book promotion site is Robin Reads. This service promotes free or $0.99 books that are full-length. They currently have around 190,000 subscribers signed up for their daily newsletter and also include daily deals on their website for reader consumption. It’s of note that Robin Reads cannot promote books listed within the last 90 days, so be sure to double-check your promotional calendar before scheduling this ad!
If you have a book listed on Amazon, Apple, Nook, Kobo, or Google Play, then it can be promoted on BookRaid as a freebie or deal book. One particularly interesting feature of BookRaid is that they charge you per click. Instead of a flat fee, you only pay for clicks that your book earns in its newsletter – plus, they’ve got a maximum spend of $60 so you won’t blow your budget. BookRaid has over 30,000 active subscribers.
eReaderIQ’s Daily Deals & Steals email list has over 47,000 active readers and promotes eBooks priced between free and $2.99. This is one of the more affordable options available for authors with a starting promo price of just $5 and goes up to $40.
List building sites are a great way for authors to add readers to their email lists. If you have an email list on an email service provider (like MailerLite for example), you can run a promo with one of these sites as a way to add new readers to your email list.
Subscriber Surge Giveaways is designed specifically to help authors quickly grow their newsletter subscriber base with engaged readers via the power of eBook giveaways. The Subscriber Surge Giveaways team does all the heavy lifting, from prize logistics (they buy your book and gift it to the winner) to advertising and subscriber email list delivery.
BookFunnel is an author service that specializes in ebook and audio distribution, sending ARCs, and creating tools that save indie authors time and sanity. One of the most popular ways authors use BookFunnel is by using its landing page to offer a free reader magnet. In exchange for giving away a free eBook, readers give their email address to the author.
BookSweeps helps authors instantly grow their email list, social media following, and more with a powerful suite of book marketing tools. Its multi-author email list-building promos are a great way for authors to grow their subscriber base.
Have a new release coming up? These sites are equipped to get your newest title out into the world with a bang.
Releasing a book soon? Or maybe you’ve released one in the past 90 days? NewInBooks is a book promotion site that exclusively promotes new releases. Book Launch Packages include placement in the weekly new release email, an SEO-optimized Book Recommendation List, social media promotion, an author interview, and an in-depth report outlining promotional activity and engagement. This is for you if you’re seeking sales, reviews, publicity, and buzz!
BookBub offers a couple of promo options for authors looking to get their new release in front of readers. The first is a New Release Alerts dedicated email which can be sent to an author’s BookBub follower list. The other option is its New Releases for Less email that sends a curated list of lower-priced new releases to readers.
If you’ve written a romance book that would make your family blush, Red Feather Romance is right for you. Whether you’re looking for readers or sales, you’ll find the best way to promote your eBook since Red Feather Romance promotes both free and priced eBooks and audiobooks. Each promotion includes covers featured on the Red Feather Romance homepage, placement in one of their highly curated emails, and promotion on social media outlets.
Red Roses Romance offers amazing deals and freebies for romance and erotic eBooks to over 46,000 email subscribers every day.
Book Barbarian delivers free and discounted eBook deals in the science fiction and fantasy genre to over 55,000 email subscribers in a daily newsletter.
If you are a mystery & thriller author, Book Adrenaline is a great tool to get your free or discounted eBook in front of a list of over 41,000 readers in a daily email promo.
Reader Reach helps authors find a new audience of eager readers across Facebook, Instagram, or Amazon. Reader Reach transforms the daunting task of running Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram) and Amazon ads into a stress-free, hands-off experience, allowing you to focus on what you do best – crafting incredible stories.
Have an audiobook that needs to be promoted? You’ve come to the right place. Audio Thicket, one of the child sites of Written Word Media, drives sales of audiobooks on Audible, Apple, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, Nook Audiobooks, and Kobo Audio through their newsletters and website. With several types of email options targeting specific listener audiences, you’ll be able to find the right audience for your content.
Chirp is an audiobook retailer powered by BookBub that highlights discounts on audiobooks. This platform is a little different, as it doesn’t promote your audiobook deal on retailers like Audible, Apple, Google Play etc. Because they are a retailer, authors must sign up for a BookBub partner account and submit their audiobook for approval to sell on the platform.
And there you have it! Now you have a host of promotion site options to kickstart your book launch! Free or discounted, new or old, just pick the site that best fits your title and get your stories into the hands of new readers!
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Thanks for the big list.
It really mean a lot for me as an author for promoting a book.
Glad you found it helpful Durgesh!
How in the world can an author make money by an e book been totally free? By the weekend I will have four books available as an e book and paperback on line. I have also printed my own books with linen hard covers and dust jackets and the three latest ones are very tough, attractive, large font, spiral with plastic covered exteriors. So how does one make any money by giving it away? OK so the author's name becomes visible and then who will pay for any book if it given away? Explain please if it possible.
Hello, free promotions are most effective for authors with multiple books or books in a series. If a reader downloads the free book and likes it, they'll be more likely to pay for the other books. Free promos can also generate reviews and boost the book up the charts even after it is no longer free.
It seems none of the sites are free.
Hey Alexander, I was referring to running a promotion where the book is priced as free.
You're absolutely right Clayton. Free promotion works. I haven't experienced it, but I still set up my books for free, according to advice given by most experts.
I also love Artisan Book Reviews and Chick Lit Cafe. They are both great book review and promotion websites that get great results for me and other authors.
Good information to help new ebook author
I have nine novels on a UK site called Feed-A-Read. They( the publisher) do nothing other than display the book and make it visible for sale. So, I am stuck unless I move to another Vanity (Self) Publisher. I can't afford a website so it's cobwebs all round. (I do get plenty of partnership publishing proposals but ... once bitten. Sad story, ain't it.
While these sites mentioned do work, I feel they should be used as part of an overall strategy when it comes to ebook marketing.
Using Amazons free or even countdown feature with these book sites could also work well.
Thanks Craig for listing these ones but there are many more book marketing sites out there that deserve a mention I believe.
I’ve been too busy writing for the last few years and now I’m going to concentrate on promotion. Thanks to everyone who mentioned different promo sites. I agree with the “freebee” arguments. Authors deserve to get paid for their work. We are not like some huge corporation who can afford to constantly be giving away our work. We need to get paid. When I was just an avid reader, I bought books from my favorite authors. Keyword being “bought,” I would rather pay for a good book than get a bad one for free. So, I wonder, are these freebee readers worth it?
Thanks for these amazing resources, the only problem was the way your linking work. you may consider the different way it is somehow annoying sorry
Useful resources, thanks.
Could I mention Profilecritics.com ? It's completely free for indie authors and enables them to be seen alongside more established writers
I also suggest that Amazon Kindle is worthy of Mention here. It is free and you still get paid for pages read even if you're struggling to make sale