As everyone knows, an ebook is an author's best marketing tool. You can trade a free ebook for a mailing list signup, or drop the price and rack up a lot of sales.
But in order to do that, you'll need to get your ebook in front of potential readers, and that is where paid and free ebook sites come in.
The following lists are a compilation of promotion sites, both free and paid. I have not used them all, but I have filtered out the more disreputable companies (Inkitt, for example) as well as any site that couldn't pass the smell test. I also skipped sites that offered no info on how you could join and promote your work (you would be surprised how often that happened).
Update: The list was updated on 10 December 2018. Dead sites were removed at that time, and new links were added.
The sites vary from forums where you can mention an ebook deal to services you can use to trade an ebook for emails. Each site has their own requirements, and so to help you out I did a little digging on each site, wrote a quick description, and then sorted the site into the appropriate list(s).
I initially started with just two lists, much like what Kindlepreneur published 3 years ago, but once I started classifying the sites I found had at least four different categories:
- sites for building a mailing list
- sites for building/managing an audience, and
- free & paid book promotion sites
I have 70 sites listed in this post, but I would love to add more - especially for the first two categories. So if you have a site you'd like me to add to this list, please fill out the form at the end of this post.
Let's start with the services that can grow your mailing list. This is a short list, but these sites can be incredibly valuable in the long run because they give you a chance not to just give away an ebook but to connect with readers.
Mailing Lists, Ho!
| Site | Cost | Erotica allowed? | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| author's website | free | yes | An author's website should be your first choice for giving away a free ebook in exchange for signing up for your mailing list. |
| Book Funnel | $20 to $250 a year | yes | BookFunnel is a little pricy but on the upside it makes it incredibly easy for a reader to download your ebook. |
| InstaFreebie (aka Prolific Works) | free to $50 a year | yes | InstaFreebie is a slightly cheaper alternative to BookFunnel. There's an ongoing debate as to which is better. |
Those three sites are great if you want to build your mailing list long-term, but what if you want to promote your career and build an audience?
Author Promotion Sites
| Site | Cost | Erotica allowed? | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book Sprout | free to $20 | unknown | NetGalley lite. This service lets you distribute ARCs to fans, bloggers, etc. |
| eReader Girl | $100 | unknown | "Author of the Week" featured post |
| Indie Author News | unknown | unknown | Site promises author interviews and banner ads but does not give specifics. |
| Book Praiser | free to $180 | unknown | Not a deals site so much as an author and book promotion service. |
Do you just want to give away an ebook today?
There are hundreds of sites that can help in a wide variety of ways. Some just list your ebook deal on their site, while others have an email newsletter. Some are free, while others charge fees.
Let's start with the free sites (in no particular order).
Free Book Promotion Sites
| Site | Cost | Erotica allowed? | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Books and More | free | yes | The ebooks can be either free or paid, but they must have at least 10 reviews, a minimum 3.5 star rating, and be at least 100 pages long. |
| MobileRead Forums | free | yes | This is less a book promotion site than an online community that keeps a section just for ebook deals |
| Awesome Gang | free or $10 | yes | AG promotes ebook deals to its 55,200 FB and its 14,500 Twitter followers. It also has a newsletter, and for $10 you can be featured for two days. |
| eBookasaurus | free or $10 | no | All books accepted and promoted on its site and in its newsletter. The $10 is for featured promotion. |
| Book Sliced | free | unknown | Both paid and free accepted and promoted in newsletter and on its site. |
| Reading Deals | free or $29 | no | Content quality standards, and at least 5 reviews with a 4 star average. |
| People Reads | free to $30 | yes | No typos, good covers, and at least 10 reviews with a 3.9 star average. |
| The Book Circle | free to $19 | no | At the free tier, you might get your ebook listed on their deals page and promoted on social media. The paid tiers guarantee promotion. |
| eBook Stage | free to $50 | unknown | Must have a quality book cover, and a an average review of 0.0 stars or higher. |
| Ask David | free to $10 | unknown | Newsletter promotion is free, but if you want Tweets that will cost $10. |
| Free Today on Kindle & Beyond | free | unknown | Facebook group only |
| Book Hippo | free | unknown | UK-focused service, free account is required |
| Free Kindle Books | free* | unknown | No restrictions on price or free book, but placement is only guaranteed with a donation. |
| Totally Free Stuff | free | unknown | A site with links to lots of free stuff, including ebooks. |
| Zwoodle Books | free | no | Hate, religious, and sexual books discouraged. 4+ star ratings preferred |
| I Crave Freebies | free (paid?) | unknown | Free books only. There may be a paid tier but you will have to inquire. |
| eReaderIQ | free to $40 | yes | This site scrapes the Kindle Store, and will find your ebook when it goes on sale. You can also pay for extra promotion. |
| New Free Kindle Books | free, $5 | unknown | Free and discounted ebooks. Placement is a crap shoot. The $5 guarantees the book will be listed. |
| Free Book Club | free | no | free ebooks only |
| Deal Seeking Mom | free | unknown | A site with links to lots of free stuff and great deals, including ebooks. |
| Free Stuff Unlimited | free | unknown | see above |
| eBook Korner Kafe | free | yes | appears to be FB only |
| Book Angel | free | no | Free or cheap books. Must be PG13. |
| Free Books | free | yes | There's a section for permafree. |
| eBook Lister | free | no | Free and bargains. Non-fiction must have 3.5 star rating or better. |
| Frugal Tips and Freebies | free | no | free ebooks only |
| The eReader Cafe | free, or $40 | no | Three review, 4+ star rating minimum. |
| Armadillo eBooks | free, or $20 | unknown | No restrictions stated |
| Indie Book of the Day | free | unknown | eBooks reviews for quality and ratings. |
| One Hundred Free Books | free | unknown | acceptance not guaranteed |
| Content Mo | free to $30 | yes* | Initial listings are free. Paid tiers include social media shares, featured blog post. |
| It's Write Now | free to $20 | no | Must cost under $1. |
| Topless Cowboy | free | yes | Focused on cowboy romance. |
| Lovely Books | free to $10 | yes | Five day lead time required. $10 gets your ebook shared in 60 FB groups. |
| eBooks Habit | free to $15 | no | Acceptance not guaranteed on free tier |
| Kindle Book Review | free to $20 | unknown | see above |
| eReader Girl | free to $20 | unknown | free listings only for free ebooks. Acceptance not guaranteed. |
| Kindle Book Promos | free to $40 | unknown | No restrictions stated |
| Book Bongo | free to $50 | unknown | Acceptance not guaranteed on free tier |
| Discount Book Man | free to $15 | yes | No restrictions stated |
| Pretty Hot Books | free, $25 | yes | $25 guarantees social media promotion as well as a featured spot on the site's home page for 7 days. |
| DigitalBookToday.com | free to $20 | no | The ebooks at least 18 reviews and a minimum 4.0 star rating. Will list for up to 4 consecutive days if free that long. |
| BookDeal.io | $70 to $250 | no | Bookdealio is an ebook deals newsletter designed with authors in mind. Along with an ebook deal promotion, authors may add a link to their website or email newsletter sign-up form. The cost to run a 1-day ebook deal promotion is $70, weeklong promotion or full-price book promotion costs $250. |
Paid Book Promotion Sites
The following sites don't offer a free tier.
| Site | Cost | Erotica allowed? | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book Raid | up to $10 | yes | BR has quality standards ad charges per click to promote your book on its site and newsletter. |
| Planet eBooks | $20 to $60 | unknown | eBooks will be promoted in the newsletter and on social media. |
| The Fussy Librarian | $9 to $18 | yes | Ten reviews, 4-star rating. TFL tailors its newsletter to a reader's preferences, and only recommends books in genres a reader expresses interest in. |
| BookBub | varies | yes | Selective on what they will accept. Good track record. |
| eReader News Today | $35 to $120 | no | Free or cheap ebooks accepted. Checks books for quality. |
| Free Kindle Books and Tips | $25 to $60 | no | 4-star average, and 8 reviews minimum. |
| Hot Zippy | $23 to $337 | unknown | Free, discounted, and regularly priced ebooks accepted. |
| Many Books | $29 | unknown | Ten reviews required. eBook must be free or deeply discounted. |
| Good Kindles | $25 to $45 | yes | No restrictions stated |
| Kindle Nation Daily | $30 to $120 | unknown | Free or deeply discounted books recommended but not required |
| Book Goodies | $7.50 tp $40 | yes | Only free ebooks accepted |
| FreeBooksy | $40 to $150 | yes | Targeted genre mailing lists. Only free ebooks accepted. |
| Book Gorilla | $50 to $100 | yes* | eBooks must have 5 reviews and a 4 stars average. 100 pages plus length required. |
| Book Lemur | $25 to $35 | unknown | More expensive books will cost more to promote. |
| Book Barbarian | $30 to $50 | no | SF&F only. Discounted or free books. Minimum 3.5 star rating. Cost varies by cover price. |
| Red Roses Romance | $15 to $30 | yes | Erotica and Romance only. Discounted or free books. Minimum 3.5 star rating. Cost varies by cover price. |
| Book Adrenaline | $10 to $20 | no | Thriller only. Discounted or free books. Minimum 3.5 star rating. Cost varies by cover price. |
| eBook Hounds | $10 to $45 | yes | Cost varies by genre |
| Whizbuzz Books | $49 | no explicit cover images | n\a |
| Bargain Booksy | $25 and up | yes | Books priced $3.99 and below, no minimum review requirements, |
| Red Feather Romance | $100 and up | no | Free and discounted steamy contemporary romance. Must be rated 3.5 or higher. |
| NewInBooks | $299 and up | no | For new releases in Mystery, Romance, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Biography |
| Early Bird Books/Open Road Media | $75 to $300 | no | Reach consumers looking for ebook deals via Early Bird Books, or genre readers via one of other sites: The Lineup for readers of true crime and horror; The Portalist for fans of science fiction and fantasy; Murder & Mayhem for lovers of crime fiction and thrillers; A Love So True covering romance and relationships; and The Archive for readers of history and non-fiction. |
Disclaimer
One problem with this type of post is that sites like the ones listed above are changing every day. New ones open every so often while (thanks to Amazon) existing sites sometimes go out of business or just disappear. The links listed above were valid when I published this post, but I can't guarantee that the sites will still be there when you click on the link.
Please do let me know if any of these sites go dark (or if a new one launches), and I will be sure to update this list.
Minor point: I don’t think you should really call ereaderIQ a book promotion site. It is very much a service to readers telling them when books or authors they have selected have seen price reductions (not necessarily just a sale) or an e-book version of a paper book has been published. From an author’s point of view, if the reader hasn’t already selected that author or one of their books – or if the price reduction does not meet the selected criterion – then the subscriber will hear nothing about them.
@Mike Hall
https://www.ereaderiq.com/advertise/
Few if any of these promotional sites will be of use for the ebook version of a traditionally published book, since the author can’t give it away or discount its price.
Well, these sites are only of use to publishers, anyway. It’s just that some of those publishers are handling their own books, while others are not.
Freebooksy now runs Bargainbooksy for books not free but priced $5.00 or less.
Thanks Nate, and to the commenters as well. Getting back into the writing after 3 years away (intensive homeschooling). Have bookmarked this page for future reference. 🙂
Tammi, yes in theory to adverts on ereaderIQ but in practice the only contact I have with the site is when they tell me about changes for a book/author that I’ve put on to watch (or when I add a new book/author) so the adverts are to all and intents invisible since I’m not going to go there at all often (even assuming that they are not blocked by Adblock Plus.) Still, I hope they are generating ad income so as to keep them going as I believe that they were hit hard by Amazon’s (unjustified in their case) changes to affiliate sales.
@Mike – Before telling me I’m wrong, maybe read the information on the page I linked?
All three of the advertising opportunities on that page are deal newsletters which go out daily . They do not require going to the ereaderiq page to see them. People who sign up for the newsletters get email from them, as with Bookbub or Freebooksy. Booksends in particular works fairly well, especially given the price.
EreaderIQ has a free price-drop service, yes, but they monetize it with a deals newsletter that they have had for at least five or six years.
I’ve been advertising on EreaderIQ for much of that time. They have a number of cool features you can’t get in most other places – such as highlighting KU books, adding the audiobook deals, and advertising up to 5 books in a series simultaneously.
Thanks this is a most useful list for Indie Authors. I am sharing it with my friend cheers 🙂
What is the return on these sites? I don’t see an ROI, which is what will determine if the site is useful. If I spend five dollars and only get four sales, that site isn’t useful. Great list, but that’s all it is.
[…] Hoffelder presents Nate’s Big List of Free & Paid Book Promotion Websites posted at The Digital Reader, saying, “You can’t sell an ebook if no one knows it is on sale, […]
[…] Hoffelder presents Nate’s Big List of Free & Paid Book Promotion Websites posted at The Digital Reader, saying, “You can’t sell an ebook if no one knows it is on sale, […]
I’ve written a detailed account of a Kindle Countdown Deal, listing promo services I used, costs incurred and results. There aren’t that many such accounts on the Net and none that I know of that are recent so I think it sort of complements the above article.
https://ideasforarevolutioneng.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/how-to-promote-part-five/
I would like to add another one to the list. It’s completely free. Their promotion includes adding the book (cover, description, etc.). If you’re interested go check it out and fill out the form. http://www.kindlerella.com/2018/09/free-book-promotion-on-kindlerella.html You’ll get a confirmation mail once your book is live on their blog. I mean, it’s a free exposure, so why not?
Try here:
https://bookpromotion.site
https://bookpromotion.website