Book Promo Sites That Work

Book Promo PicEverybody wants to know which book promo sites get the job done. Now it’s time to share your experiences with book promo sites and which ones worked the best for you.

Some sites do better with free books than paid or discount books. Some sites do better with moving certain genres, so tell us about who did best for you and be sure to include whether the book you promoted was free or discounted, and what genre it was. Tell us the name of the site and give us a link! We’ll try to contact the ones everybody likes to see if they’ll do an interview!

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46 thoughts on “Book Promo Sites That Work”

    1. Thanks for the tip, Melinda. Can’t believe I never heard of them. One thing seems odd there… why would they charge more for free books than 99 centers? But they look good.

          1. Hi Jeanette – I’ve never done free, but I do set mine at $0.99. The first time I used them (I think in October or November) I sold hundreds during the promo and the spike remained for weeks. My books have all cycled through at this point and I’m about to start a second round (you can only list one book per month), so it’ll be interesting to see how they do a second time through.

    2. I just learned about Book Sends last week and have scheduled a promo with them. Glad to hear you had good sales after using them. I had a big jump after using BookBub.

      1. Good luck, Helen! From what I hear, you won’t see nearly as many sales with Book Sends as you do with BookBub, because they don’t have nearly as many subscribers. On the plus side, they’re MUCH cheaper than BookBub. And they accept my books, whereas BookBub has rejected all of my books too many times to count.

        1. Thanks, Melinda. You’re right, Book Sends is a lot cheaper than BookBub. I’ve been rejected by BookBub also, so I was really glad to hear about Book Sends.

      1. A little late to the party here, but I have contacted BB twice for a promo and both times was told that “my book was not for them.” WTH???

  4. E-reader news today has the fairest ad prices anywhere. They are my favorite. That’s about it. Bookbub is too expensive to take a chance on and most of the others I have tried don’t work well enough to be worth the entry price.

  5. I had great luck with BookBub last year. Huge jump in sales, more than made my money back on the ad. Book has to be on sale at least 50%, it has to have several reviews attached already, and at least 3 star average (from what I remember).

    1. I agree with Stacy. Thus far I’ve been fortunate to get two books on FREE on Bookbub. Both times I’ve seen a ROI when the book went back to priced. However, when I promote a title I start with Crosbie’s list on the drop menu here on IU. It’s golden.

      JackieWeger

    1. Hi Lockard, thanks for your comment. We’re looking for the sites with which you have had the greatest success promoting your books – if Susan’s site has garnered you the most sales, that’s great, but please let us know that and in what genres.

    1. Hi Tim, that’s great to hear, but we’re looking for the sites with which you have had the greatest success promoting your books – if Susan’s site has garnered you the most sales, that’s great, but please let us know that and in what genres.

      1. I’m sorry – I misunderstood.
        Truth be told – I don’t use book promotion sites for two reasons;
        First – the free ones are usually full of authors promoting themselves, but no readers.
        Second – the sites that cost money never deliver enough sales to offset their (outrageous, in my opinion) prices.
        Good luck with your search.

        1. Hi Tim – I suggest you read some of the other entries here – ENT, BookBub, and some of the others are not full of authors and do garner authors excellent sales. If you’re not familiar with these sites, I highly suggest you look into them.

    1. Hi Chris, we’re looking for the sites with which you have had the greatest success promoting your books – if Susa’s site has garnered you the most sales, that’s great, but please let us know that and in what genres.

  11. ENT has worked best for me. Best bang for the buck for someone who can’t afford Bookbub.
    The Fussy Librarian has also gotten me some good results with 99 cent promotions, but not with regularly priced books. It appears their clients are bargain hunters.
    Ones that I felt were NOT worth the money were Book Gorilla and Ebook Soda. Ebook Soda used to be free, but recently started charging a fee. The paid ad generated fewer returns than any of the free ones I previously ran with them.

  12. Through great promotion comes great sales. I haven’t garnered “the most” sales from Susan’s site, but I have seen a great increase in my sales as a result of what she does for authors. While her site is not a “direct sale site”, it is helping to draw people to the links where I do sell. That is what book promotion and cross-promotion is all about. So in effect, Susan’s site does get the job done for me.

  13. I just had excellent luck with eBookLister.net with a freebie I ran. It didn’t cost anything, either. Not a ton of downloads, but it is one of the only sites that will take a new book with no reviews, and for free. And, of course, there are always the free features right here at Indies Unlimited.

  14. The Fussy Librarian has been the best for me so far. I like their prices and the way they are working towards becoming a top place for readers and authors.

    I do intend to try Bookbub one day.

  15. At the risk of sounding like an ongoing commercial for Mike Gallagher’s site – Free Kindle Books and Tips has been as effective as ENT for my promotions. I prefer the lower priced, $25 level. I’m running a 99 cent sale on a Christmas book right now and I earned back my investment early afternoon and since then I’ve been on the positive side. It won’t give me Bookbub kind of numbers but it’s a small outlay and always produces, and once my pricing kicks back to retail I usually enjoy a good run.

  19. While we’re on the subject, the only print books sales I’ve had this year so far are a result of the Indies Unlimited print book promotions. Thanks Indies Unlimited!

  20. For contemporary fiction and women’s fiction, definitely ENT and Kindle Fire Department. Also had some great sales from Thecheapebook.com. Kindle Books & Tips didn’t work for me. Received a nice little bump from Indies Unlimited as well. Hope this helps. Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences.

  22. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

    I tried promotions on two sites: Digital Book Today and The Kindle Book Review. Neither of them did anything for me. Could be because I didn’t discount the book. Could be because I’m not very good at all the other support stuff, like social media. So I pretty much gave up on it.

    Instead I put money into entering various awards. I won one, but it wasn’t any of the ones I really cared about, so I’ll have another look at the idea of promotions on the sites you’ve all suggested.

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