Monday, March 10, 2014

Where to Advertise Your E-Books – Discounted, Free, and Otherwise

Last year, a fellow author ran a discount special on her book. She and her publisher combined efforts and advertised the sale price on several sites. Her sales went through the roof, her book shot to the top of the Amazon charts, and she moved over four thousand copies.

Wow! Was that normal? Would that work on any book?

She was nice enough to send me a list of the sites they’d used and I forwarded it to my publisher. They’d never discounted a book in that manner before, but decided to give it a try. I was to be the guinea pig and they set up a one week sale for my second book, CassaFire.

The result? While I don’t yet know how many copies moved, CassaFire did hit the top of several categories on Amazon and was in the top two hundred of all books. Whoa!

As an added bonus, since I have two other titles, both of those rose in ranking as well. And after the sale, all three books continued to sell well.

Does advertising a free or discounted book work? I’d have to say yes!

Between the list she sent me and some research on my own, I was able to compile a list of sites where you can advertise your eBook. A few are free while many cost money. There’s often a minimum number of quality reviews required for a listing. You have to decide which book qualifies, which one would best benefit from a sale (and benefit your other books), and what you or your publisher can afford.

While not everyone will experience great results, it’s definitely worth checking out!

BookBub
Probably the most expensive, but it also gets the best results.

Kindle Books and Tips
Costs $25 for basic listing.

Digital Book Today
Free and paid options, and not just for discounted or free books.

EReader News Today
Costs 25% of sales through their site.

Read Cheaply
Free listing for discounted books.

Pixel of Ink
List your discounted and free books.

Many Books
Free and paid options

The Fussy Librarian
Listing for any eBook.

And the following websites list many more discount and free book sites:

Ready to have a sale now?

55 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Great list here, Alex! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I must invest in a Kindle, always behind with technology that's me.
Great post to read and some good tips about E books.

Yvonne.

Anonymous said...

Hi Alex Yvonne again why can't I join the IWSG group, I tried several times but was told unable to do so.
Yvonne.

Nigel G Mitchell said...

BookBub is the best place to advertise, but also one of the hardest to get into. This is a great resource of other places to try

Unknown said...

Great list Alex, thanks.

Donna K. Weaver said...

I've heard great things about BookBub but I've also heard their impact isn't what it used to be. Could be a fluke though. Congrats.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yvonne, do you mean follow the site or join the group? You're already in the group.

Nigel, their requirements are tight.

Donna, it made a difference with my book, big time.

Anonymous said...

Alex I mean Join the site that is done through Friends Connect.

Yvonne.

Pat Hatt said...

Bookbub is kind of anal when it comes to letting people in, but if you get in it works awesome. Used it last sept for a free run and got 18K dwl's of my book. That jacked me up and then sold a ton of other ones, plus got a good 20 reviews or so. Worth it indeed.

Anonymous said...

That's cool! I bought CassaFire during the promo, too! :D

Lynda Dietz said...

Thanks for this list! I've looked around before, but the sheer number of sites (and my ignorance of which ones are ripoffs) was overwhelming. I'll be sure to share it with the authors I work with.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

That's a great list of sites.

Melissa said...

Great list, Alex. Thanks for posting this!

How early does one need to apply before the book is advertised? Is there a common time frame?

Christine Rains said...

Fantastic list! Thank you. :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yvonne, not sure why. You're not blocked.

Pat, that's great results!

Thanks, Debra!

Thank you, Lynda.

Melissa, it seemed to vary between one and three months.

Karen Woodward said...

Thanks for this list! Great resource.

Ellie Garratt said...

Awesome list. Thanks, Alex.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I'm thinking of talking to my publisher about trying something like your publisher did. I've heard of most of these sites and have read good recommendations for most of them.

Unknown said...

Definitely heard of the power of Book Bub. Thanks for putting all of these in one place!

Unknown said...

Very nice to have another list to compare to those that I have discovered. Thanks!

Elizabeth Seckman said...

Excellent list. I need to bookmark this!

Larry Kollar said...

I've been hearing BookBub isn't delivering the goods like they used to. They've jacked up their prices, and more people are claiming to have broken even at best on their promo. It makes me wonder if their mailing list members are glutted with free books.

There's a new competitor, Freebooksy, that does free one-day promos of free books. I gave them a shot last week; my book peaked at a #233 overall Free ranking on Amazon and #3 in Fantasy (1000 downloads in just over 24 hours). I think it's having a halo effect on my fantasy novella series as well.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

This is great stuff, Alex. I'm more determined than ever to buy an iPad.

Karen Lange said...

Thanks for this info, Alex! Bookmarking this. It'll be a big help!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Susan, you should try it!

Larry, the BookBub ad my publisher did certainly paid off. Good to know about Freebooksy.

Michelle Wallace said...

Great list Alex! Thanks for sharing.

Gail M Baugniet - Author said...

Thank you for compiling this list, Alex, and especially for sharing the information here. The list is very helpful to me.

Unknown said...

Alex..Thanks for the list. Your timing is perfect. I am listing my book Misty's Child free March 14-16 and Ereadernewstoday is featuring it for Friday.

Anonymous said...

Curiosity Quills used BookBub for my 18 Things 99 cent promotion . . . not sure if they advertised it anywhere else, but it was pure gold for me :-)

Stephanie Faris said...

A former co-worker of mine once downloaded a free book to his Kindle and read it. The book was really good...and there was a part 2, 3, 4, and so on. The catch was, when you got to the end of book 1, you had to pay for the subsequent books. He bought them because the first book was so good.

I think it could work...

J.L. Campbell said...

That's helpful. Thanks. I've used ERT and it works.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Gail, good to hear!

Jamie, it paid off for me, that's for sure.

Stephanie, exactly!

Elsie Amata said...

I need to bookmark this page, Alex. It's chock full of great links. Gah, this still terrifies me, thinking about selling the book I wrote. I'm kinda glad it's so far away!

Unknown said...

Great information, thanks for the list. Great page to bookmark for future reference.

Crystal Collier said...

Awesome list. I've been researching a number of these lately, and these are definitely some of the top bidders.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the list. I recently put my book up for sale and have been struggling to find places to submit it.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Alex - fascinating and informative to read .. I've logged it in my brain too!

Cheers and I'm so pleased your sales are rushing through .. excellent - Hilary

Lisa said...

Thanks very much Alex, for this list and the explanation of how it worked for you! Now, to read and research.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad this has helped so many!

Gossip_Grl said...

Yep everyone loves a sale! :) I am definitely bookmarking your post! Thanks for sharing some great info!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the personal info on how you book (and books) did. I've bookmarked this for future reference. Great post!

~Sia McKye~ said...

Some really good information. I'm going to have to share this with a few of my writing group friends.

I think a broad base sale on various sites, like this, is advantageous to authors. For one, there are those who always look for a good sale. Even if they buy one book on sale, if they really like it and you have a back list, they'll check out those books too. Winning situation.

Sia McKye Over Coffee

CA Heaven said...

Good to know. Very useful list >:)

Cold As Heaven

WordsPoeticallyWorth said...

Sounds like a wise thing to do to boost your sales. Well done and thank you for sharing. Love love, Andrew. Bye.

Sher A. Hart said...

Cool! Now if I can remember where I saw this when I need it. . .

Elizabeth Seckman said...

Did most all of them!! Plan to have my book on sale in June. Thanks for making this easier Alex!

Nesho Sabakov said...

Hey great list! I've used some of these sites in the past with good results. By the way you can also use www.thewallofbooks.com which is pretty nice. It allows unlimited books, reviews, social connections and even uploading a book sample.

Flurries of Words said...

Also try http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.com/ and http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.co.uk/. Very inexpensive and markets to USA, Canada, Australia, India and the UK

Michael Jennings said...

Excellent lists up there. But many of promotion site list links aren't up-to-date. Over the years many promotion sites have come and gone. Here is an very current list of all the promo sites both paid and free: http://kindlepreneur.com/list-sites-promote-free-amazon-books/

Home on the Range said...

Thanks for the updated link Michael Jennings - I'd found that and used it earlier this month. For what it's worth - I had the most downloads for my discounted book from promotions by The Fussy Liberian, Choosy Bookworm and Awesomegang,

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Thank you for creating your list of book promotion sites.
There`s another service for ebook promotion.
Books Butterfly do $0.99 book and free book promotions to email lists of 125,000+ email subscribers. We have 128,888+ daily active readers. We offer a prorated refund in case a promotion does not hit the specified targets.

We'd really appreciate it if you'd add our site to your lists of useful resources.

Our Page for Paid Book Promotions
www.booksbutterfly.com/order/paidbookslots/?tag=op250_lists_2_insecure

Our Page for Free Book Promotions www.booksbutterfly.com/order/?tag=op250_free_lists_2_insecure

Where we promote: http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/wherepromote/

Ederbickems said...

Here is an interesting new approach to ebook promotion I would like to share. We list your book on content rich pages and share it through our large and constantly growing social media following.

It is super simply to submit an ebook and always free:

http://guymcbryde.com/?page_id=2351

Think of it as Pay-Per-Click advertising without having to pay per each click!

Your Ebook does not have to be free, and once we list it, it stays live on our pages for as long as the Ebook is available for download.

Anonymous said...

Here's another site for posting Kindle free and 99c books: http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/

David said...

Thanks for this usefull information!

I recomment this site for free ebook promotion:

http://www.ebookstage.com/welc...

Booklover said...

Bookzio.com promotes indie authors' books with both free and paid book promotion activities. (Lots of our indie authors and publishers promote with us time and again.)