July 7, 2015 - 

Recently I posted a rant summarizing briefly my issues with the erotica publishing process.  While many of my manuscripts had been accepted, I had received a rejection and decided to take the opportunity to figure out how to self-publish.  I chose Amazon which aside from the recent debates about the KDP Select Program, was easy and straightforward to upload my content, create a cover and an author page.  I published Mistress Charm’s New Pupil and set about various social media posts to attempt to drive traffic.

I haven’t been successful using my Twitter handle and website so I began looking into promotions and marketing.  I was considering offering a free promotion of my book to drive activity and generate customer reviews.  I was familiar with sites that offer free ebooks and began investigating.  Imagine my horror when I discovered that not only would I be losing the revenue during my promotion – many of these sites would require me to pay to use them.  I set out to put together a list of promotion sites that would be free for me to use.  As I was researching I thought this may be valuable for other authors and decided to post a blog about it.  Due to the volume, I have split erotica and non-erotica and will publish the erotica friendly sites next week.

Addicted to eBooks is great for authors whose regularly priced books are $5.99 or less and show at least 100 pages of material on Amazon.  No erotica, offensive materials or non-family friendly cover art.   To submit, you will require an account.

Book Preview club has a free offering that is not guaranteed.

The Book Circle has a free option that is not guaranteed. Payment will guarantee placement excluding sexually explicit content.  The listing will remain up on their website for the duration of the promotion. A tweet of your promotion will be sent to their nearly 1000 Twitter followers and the promotion will be placed on their Facebook page.

eBookLister offers free listings up to 60 days in advance.  Registration isn’t required but a valid email address is.  Typically listings have to have a star rating of 3.5 (see submission guidelines for additional information).

Reading Deals offers an opportunity to submit your books for consideration on the dates of your book promo. Submissions are not guaranteed unless paid.  Exclusions apply – applicants must have a minimum of 5 reviews and 4.0 stars on Amazon.  Graphic sexual content is not allowed and the book must be discounted.

The eReader Café showcases free kindle books that are over 100 pages, have at least 3 reviews and 4 stars.  Placement is not guaranteed and they request at least three days notice prior to your promotion beginning.

12 Best Free Kindle Books: If you are already established and writing in the novel arena this is for you!  Books must meet minimum criteria: Fiction (18+ Amazon reviews, 4.0+ stars, 100+ pages) Non-Fiction (less than 100 pages: 60+ reviews, 4.2 stars.   If you don’t have the required reviews or star rating you can pay a fee for inclusion.   Short stories (< 100 pages), novellas, essays, partial books, and erotica are not accepted.

eBooks Habit is a site dedicated to helping readers find great free ebooks for Kindle.  Each day they showcase 10-20 great ebooks that are free at the time of posting, as well as some bargain ebooks with reduced prices to their subscription base.  There is a free option that you can apply for if you have at least 4 customer reviews, and no graphic sex scenes.

Indie Book of the Day – allows you to promote your free Kindle listing with as much as 30 days notice by completing a form.  Promotions include website, Facebook page, Twitter and Pinterest. It’s open to all authors and book types except those with objectionable materials such as controversial topics, and graphic/explicit sex.  They may also exclude your submissions if you have no reviews or bad reviews.

Indies Unlimited is temporarily closed to submissions.  The site mentions June 1st as the target to re-open.  As we are almost upon July, I am not sure if and when free promotions will resume.  The site offers a free self-service promotion Thrifty Thursdays for 99¢ e-books and free e-book promotions, run every Thursday at 5 a.m. Pacific time.  Exclusions include erotica, religious and political books.

If there are other sites out there that offer authors free promotion during a period when the author is offering a book for free please let me know.  I would also love to hear if you have had any experiences with these sites!

Research is a key component of the self-publishing odyssey to push boundaries and limits and dream to be DesireBound…