Free Promos for Free Promos -Part 2
July 16, 2015 -
This is the second installment in my free advertising options for authors who have a free promotion. If you missed last week, the intro provides the backdrop.
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 published the non-erotica friendly sites last week.
The Wall of Books exists solely for book recommendations and book promotions regardless of where you distribute your book. They offer an annual free plan or a paid lifetime plan both with upcharges for additional promotions. You must register to apply.
Bookgoodies.com has a forum that permits posting free book promotions on the day of the promotion only. The site accepts paid promotions for free ebooks as well. There are other free book promotion opportunities for general book submissions. You must include an author interview and answer some additional questions to be considered. Anticipate at least 28 days before your book posting will be live.
AwesomeGang is a self proclaimed site where awesome readers meet awesome writers. You can submit your book for free promotion.
Pretty-Hot.com has a basic free service. They request a synopsis of your book along with an introduction to the author. They have an additional option for $25 that guarantees a featured spot on their homepage for 5 days. The book will also go out in their newsletter and social media channels (5800+ Twitter followers and around 5750 Facebook fans).
It’s Write Now accepts free submissions which are not guaranteed. Free submissions are listed on the front page, for up to three consecutive days and permanently listed in their book blog. As is typical with these sites, paid submissions are guaranteed.
Freebooksy: If your book is permafree or you have a KDP Select Promotion coming up you can apply for an opportunity to promote your book for free to their audience of over 150,000 readers. They do not guarantee placement of your book by applying. The site also offers paid marketing opportunities.
Erotica Everyday accepts all erotic and romance books, no matter how naughty they might be. Promotions are free and require a simple submission form. They also offer a paid option if your book is not on free promotion. Upon submitting your request, you will be redirected to the authormarketingclub.com site as well as receive follow up email marketing from them.
People Reads is among the most stringent, with the following minimum requirements to be considered: 10 reviews on Amazon (US and/or UK) with an average rating of 3.9 stars +. For books with 50+ reviews an average of 3.8 stars or better must be maintained and for books with 200+ reviews an average of 3.5 stars or better must be maintained. This excludes new releases which have a less rigid set of requirements but a similar star rating when rated. As with most of these sites, there are free options which are not guaranteed and paid options which would be guaranteed upon approval.
The Kindle Freebie Daily Alert offers a free option that requires at least 14 days notice and is not guaranteed. The free option does not include posting an image of your book cover. The paid option requires only 24 hours notice and is guaranteed. You are required to confirm that the title has a 3.5-star rating, or higher, at the time of submission.
Dirty Book Deals is a site focused on at least R rated erotica with a preference for X. Give them at least 2-3 weeks notice before the promotion. They are looking for Amazon posted books with decent reviews. They will accept no reviews. The one hook they have is you must tweet something about them and post to the url. As is typical free promotion is not guaranteed. The folks there seem pretty responsive.
eBookasaurus allows you to showcase your book on your free or deal days. The site lists newest titles daily as well as sends a newsletter to get its subscribers up to date. Standard book listings will display your book on the first day of promotion on the front page of the eBookasaurus.com website with new listings added every day at the top. Free book listings also have details pages that will display your books title, author info, cover and a link download or purchase your book.
Naughty Reads will feature free, sale (<$3 & at least 50% off full price) and new release books. Typically they are looking for books with at least 5 reviews and high overall average rating. Authors are limited to one ad / 30 days and books are limited to one ad / 90 days. A few caveats, short stories are unlikely to be accepted, unless free and if a book has been free in the previous 90 days, that’s the only price they will feature it at.
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…