If you are looking for places to submit your free KDP select promotion for your Kindle eBook, you are in the right place! I also share my 11 step checklist with you!
The Power of the KDP Select Program
One powerful way to launch a new book is by using Amazon’s KDP Select program. This program launched in December 2011 and I first enrolled one of our books in the program in early January 2012. The program is no longer as effective as it was in 2012, but we have still seen success with our books as well as the books of other authors.
What we normally do is to use the KDP Select program to launch our new books and then we remove them after our 90-day contract. This allows us to publish them to other eBook platforms. I use Smashwords to distribute my books to Nook, the iBookstore and others. You can find out more about how to do this in my training program here.
Please note, that you have to go in and choose to remove your book from the KDP Select program or else it will automatically renew. You can do this by logging into http://kdp.amazon.com, clicking the link for the bookshelf and then clicking “info” on the right side under the column for KDP Select. There you can choose to remove the check mark that automatically re-enrolls your book in KDP Select.
For books that are part of a series, it may be beneficial to keep the first book in the KDP select program to gain exposure and interest in the rest of the books in your series. Also, make sure you put an excerpt of the next book in the back of your book as well as links to the books from the entire series.
Varied Results But Increased Royalties Overall
Realize that your results will vary. Some of our books have done amazing in a free promotion and others not so great. But, overall, using the KDP select program to launch our new books has increased our Kindle royalties from double digits per month in 2011 to now consisting of more than half of our entire income. This is significant and makes it very worthwhile to me. Realize that we have been writing and publishing books on a full-time basis and have published a new book almost every month.
One of the most powerful aspects of running a KDP Select promotion is the free advertising Amazon will give you afterward. For each person that downloaded your book, they have also downloaded other free books or bought other books from Amazon. Amazon then figures out which books were most likely to be bought from the same customer and will include them in the list “Customers Who Bought This Book Also Bought.” Therefore, your book starts showing up on other book pages and getting free advertising which often boosts your sales and rankings.
Things change often at Amazon, so I encourage you to do your research and decide what is best for you books.
My 11 Step Checklist for a KDP Select Promo
This is not a comprehensive list but gives you a good idea of what I try to do for each free promotion I run.
To Do for Free Days:
1.) ASAP: Get 5-10 reviews posted.
2.) Optional: approach blog hosts re: blog tour.
3.) 1-2 weeks before: submit to free sites listed below.
4.) Write tweets, FB posts, blog posts and announcement email.
5.) Send tweets, FB posts and blog post to authors willing to cross promote for you.
6.) Optional: Set up FB/StumbledUpon/Twitter advertising for the day of the free promo at least one day early so that it is approved in time.
7.) Submit to sites that only allow you to submit the day of the promo below.
8.) Post on Facebook profile, Facebook pages and Facebook groups on free day.
9.) Send out e-mail about promotion to your list on free day.
10.) Write tweets for your first paid day after the promo and include #borrow #amazonprime to try to get more borrows.
11.) Optional: Set up paid advertising for the first paid day after your promotion.
47+ Now 76+ Places to Submit Your Free KDP Promotion for Your Kindle eBook
Listings and requirements tend to change. These are updated as of February 2018 and we have added many new sites. We will continue to update this list and add new resources, so share any updates or new resources you find in the comments below.
Free and Paid eBook Submission Tools
Note: An easy way to submit to the tops sites is by using the Author Marketing Club’s free submission tool. Or you can manually go through the links below. Whichever works best for you!
Two Paid Options:
Want to save tons of time submitting to these sites? There are two options I recommend.
Option One:
If you plan on submitting free book promotions more than once, I recommend KDROI. You pay a one-time fee for unlimited submissions.
However,if you have just one free book promotion to submit, check out this paid (but inexpensive) eBook submission tool below. Right now it costs $29 and takes less than 5 minutes to submit to 25+ sites.
FREE Marketing Opportunity
6 E-mails To Send:
Here is a sample e-mail that I use when I sent out information about my free promotions. Feel free to use it and adapt it with your information.
===================
I wanted to let you know that I have a special promotion on Kindle coming up where my newest book (Christian nonfiction) will be available for free.
Free on Wednesday 11/14/12, Thursday 11/15/12 and Friday 11/16/12 ” 21 Stories of Gratitude: The Power of Living Life With a Grateful Heart.” (ASIN: B009YWM3WI) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009YWM3WI
7 reviews with an average 5 star rating
Here is where you can find me online.
- Blog: www.bodyandsoulpublishing.com/blog
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/getfreechristianbooks
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/freebookschrist
Thanks for letting your readers know about this free book promotion!
~Shelley Hitz
===================
- Send title & dates to staff (at) indiehousebooks.com with Free eBook in subject line. Listed on first come first served basis. Must have at least one week notice.
- http://kindlenationdaily.com/contact-us/ – email website owner, Steve Windwalker at KindleNation (at) gmail.com, hppress (at) gmail.com
- http://thedigitalinkspot.blogspot.com/p/contact-us.html – send email to thedigitalinkspot (at) gmail.com
- Send an email to FreeEbooksDailyBlog (at) gmail.com for listing on Free Ebooks Daily and Free Ebooks Daily Facebook page
- AppNewser Free eBooks of the Week: Our editors pick a few free eBooks every week. To submit email your pitch to appnewser (at) mediabistro.com
- webmaster@icravefreebies.com from http://www.icravefreebies.com/contact/
7 Contact Forms:
I simply copy and paste my e-mail from above into the following contact forms.
- http://ereaderlove.com/contact/
- http://www.indieauthornews.com/p/contact-us.html
- http://www.freebookshub.com/authors/
- http://www.freeebooksblog.com/contact/
- http://jungledealsandsteals.com/about/contact/
- http://www.freebookshub.co.uk/authors/
- https://www.topshelfbooks.com/page/contactus
35 Website Forms:
- http://www.ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-and-free-book-submissions/ – Must have more than 3 reviews and a 4 star rating or above. – Contact them at least 3 days before it’s scheduled to go free.
- http://digitalbooktoday.com/12-top-100-submit-your-free-book-to-be-included-on-this-list/ – The majority of submitted books that meet the minimum guidelines of 18+ reviews and 4.0+ star average are listed for up to 3 consecutive free days. For a minimal fee they will list a limited number of books that have little or no reviews.
- https://fkbt.com/authors-sponsors/ – first come, first serve $25 flat fee
- http://ereadergirl.com/submit-your-ebook/
- http://awesomegang.com/submit-your-book
- http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-about-free-books.html
- http://www.totallyfreestuff.com/submit.asp
- http://ebookshabit.com/for-authors/
- http://hotzippy.net/ – they offer paid promotions that will be featured on multiple sites.
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFEyLTFUSHREd05KaVItaDdUUkVVNGc6MA#gid=0
- http://www.frugal-freebies.com/p/submit-freebie.html
- http://www.theereadercafe.com/p/authors.html
- https://ohfb.com/advertise/ – They offer paid options.
- http://www.armadilloebooks.com/submit-free-ebooks/
- http://bookangel.co.uk/submit-your-book/
- http://bookdealhunter.com/submit-free-book/ (must be an e-mail subscriber to their blog)
- https://bookgoodies.com/advertising/advertise-your-free-book-days/
- http://contentmo.com/submit-your-free-ebook-promo
- http://form.jotformpro.com/form/21078469493969 (for the Kindle Book Review)
http://www.freebooks.com/submit/
- http://www.itswritenow.com/submit-your-book/
- http://kindlebookpromos.luckycinda.com/?page_id=283
- http://freediscountedbooks.com/submit/ (must sign up for a free account)
- http://lovelybookpromotions.com/submit-your-kindle-freebie/
- http://bookbongo.com/submit/
- https://www.authorsden.com/join/Default.asp – basic account is free but they offer paid options as well for more exposure
- http://book-circle.com/submit-free-kindle-ebook-listing/
- https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook
- https://thisiswriting.com/free-book-marketing/ – fiction only
- https://booksliced.com/books/ebook-promotions/ – advertising starting at $5
- https://bookraid.com/p/partners/sign_up
- http://authorshout.com/free-books/ – currently $5
- http://www.bookzio.com/promote-your-book/
- http://newfreekindlebooks.com/authors/
- https://www.ebookstage.com/how-to-promote-your-ebook – must sign up for a free account
3 Places To Submit Your Book On Your Free Days:
You are not able to do this tasks ahead of time, but for extra exposure can submit your book to these sites the day of your free promotion when you book is actually free.
- http://snickslist.com/books/place-ad/
- http://www.kornerkonnection.com/index.html
- Add your book page to Reddit.com and use an appropriate subreddit. See this video tutorial I created if you’re not sure how to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO2VTIeBYq4
5 Christian Genre Specific Websites:
- Faithful Reads – http://faithfulreads.com/authors/
- http://christianbookreaders.com/author-registration/ – you need to register on their site to submit your book.
- Post on CrossReads forums on the thread for the date your book is free (requires a free membership) http://crossreads.com/community/forumdisplay.php?10-FREE-Books
- Christian Women Reader’s Club – http://cwwriters.com/readers/for-authors/submit-your-book/
- https://www.ebookchristian.com/submit-your-ebook.html
Purchase Advertising for Your Free Promotion
It is a TON of work to submit to all of these sites and go through my 11-step checklist. Therefore, you may want to consider purchasing advertising instead.
2/26/14 UPDATE: Previously we recommended a service called, “Free Book Service.” In December I had e-mailed Amazon to make sure it was okay to use a service like this and they said yes. However, Amazon has changed their mind. This was brought to our attention from other authors and we e-mailed Amazon directly to confirm. This was their reply…
While we support the legitimate promotional efforts of our publishers, we have determined that Free Book Service’s services manipulate Kindle sales rank. We take activities that jeopardize the experience of our customers and our publishers very seriously and may take action against publisher accounts that engage in sales rank manipulation.
Therefore, we no longer recommend you use that service. However, there are many websites you can get paid advertising.
One such site is BookLemur. This website promotes eBooks priced under $2.99 (including free book promotions) on their website, via genre targeted e-mails and on social media. They allow you to select the date of your promotion, however, they do fill up fast, so make sure you purchase your ad in advance here.
Anyone that knows me well, knows that I operate in an ethical way and will not do anything that puts my KDP account in jeopardy. If I have a question about something, I will e-mail Amazon directly. If they say it is okay, then I trust their word and vice versa. For example, last year, many authors were using fancy HTML code in their book descriptions on Amazon. I e-mailed Amazon and they said it was against their terms of service to use that kind of code. Therefore, although I wanted to use the fancy HTML code, I didn’t.
I want you to be able to trust our recommendations and know that we do thorough research before recommending any product or service. If you have any questions on this, please let us know.
Reaching an International Audience
Kindle books do reach an international audience. However, there are some countries that are not currently able to download free Kindle books. If your targeting these countries with your promotion, you may want to try a different method.
Kindles and Kindle content are NOT available in the following countries: (as of December 2014)
To get the most updated information, simply contact Amazon via your KDP dashboard.
United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Islamic Republic of, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Maldives, Malaysia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Syria, Chad, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Yemen
More Book Marketing Opportunities
Want to discover more opportunities to market your book? If you’re a Christian authors, check out our post, “100+ Places to Promote Christian Books.”
What Has Worked for You?
Have you used the KDP select program? If so, share your results with us below. Also, if you have any other websites to add, share them in the comments so we can add them to our list.
Be Social! Share These Resources With Other Authors Below:
This post is amazing. Thanks for the great resource.
So glad that you found it helpful Jo! You are very welcome 🙂
You can add this too for free kindle ebooks UK
Free ebooks UK http://www.freebookshub.co.uk/
We added your site to our list. Thanks!
SciFiReads.com is offering free promotions for the next few months for authors. Can you add it to your list? We have a large email list and are eager to have author promote 🙂 Thanks!
Thanks for letting us know!
So helpful. Just posted details of my free ebook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E4AEWD8 onto a number of these sites.
Thanks for this usefull information!
I recomment this site for free ebook promotion:
http://www.ebookstage.com/welc…
I actually had a KDP promotion coming up this week, so this list was extra super handy for me today 😉 Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome Loretta!
Hope your promotion went well, Loretta!
Hi there ,
So pleased to find this site its really helpful and filled with great ideas to attend too.
So glad you’ve found it helpful Maxine! Keep posted as we plan to share many more tutorials for authors here.
What a delight to find my website/ blog here many thanks Shelley
Thanks, Maxine! We’re glad you found us too. 😉
hello Heather a thank you to you too for a really great site here.
Hey Shelley
I started emailing all the emails you gave, and when double checking, some of their sites are no longer up or the one with the Facebook page is down. I know you gave a preface that this was up to date as of June, but just thought I’d let you know already some of them seem invalid.
However, thanks for putting a list like this together and links all in one place. It’s much easier than bookmarking them all myself like I’ve done in the past.
Blessings!
Hey Steve,
Thanks for letting me know! I just updated the list – it is ever changing! And you’re welcome.
Great post. I will definitely use this when I have a free day. I actually have one tomorrow but will have to look over everything for my next free day.
Thanks Terry! Let us know how your promo goes.
Thanks for including Awesomegang.com on your list of places to submit to. It is much appreciated.
If I can I would also like to add that we let authors place their books right on our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/ourawesomegang
Thanks again for mentioning us.
Vinny
Thanks, Vinny! We have a separate list of Facebook pages/groups and I’ll make sure you’re on it!
Loved this! So helpful. thanks so much.
Excellent Resources.
You can add Slashed Reads to your free promo list if you like.
Thank you Robin! I just added it to our ever growing list 🙂
Thanks for all your hard work Shelley!
Thank you for our 47 places to submit list as well as other helpful tips.
I wanted to let you know about our book site http://freediscountedbooks.com/, which promotes KDP free books in all genres. Submissions are free and we automatically place them for sale in our bookstore after the free days have passed.We also accept perma-free books.
Thanks,
Lynn
Thank you Lynn! It is now added to our list.
thank you Shelley
Another is http://www.bookwormempire.com
Inexpensive & allowed my book to be featured
Thank you! I added it to our list under contact forms and let authors know that paid options were available as well.
http://www.ebooksgrowontrees.com is another website to help promote your free and discounted eBook days
Thank you, Sara! I added it to our list under contact forms and let authors know that paid options were available as well.
Extremely helpful work, thank you, I hope you are getting your works worth for it.
Celal Boz
So glad you found it helpful! I hope it helps many authors.
Here is another website to post your Kindle freebies, list your books, and promote yourself as an author! http://lovelybookpromotions.com
Great, thank you! It is now added to the list.
Thankyou for your post and I plan to follow every word.
I found this post by searching for “places to promote your Christian book.” I already had all of the mainstream places to promote that you mention, but it is very difficult to find sites that are specific to Christian fiction (which is what my novel, A Chain of Flames, is). So thank you, ‘thank you’ – “thank you” for including those 9 Christian Genre Specific Websites in your resources. I greatly appreciate it!
You’re welcome, Tony!
Fantastic article!! I am using your tips on my latest free books now 🙂 Fingers crossed!
This is fantastic. THANKS!
Feel free to add our site as well. We’re happy to have more authors: http://www.iloveebooks.com/for-authors.html
Happy Writing!
Great tool for anyone planning a Kindle Select freebie. I tweeted about it to my4,000+ followers.
thank you, thank you, thank you.
Just uploaded my new novel CAPE MAYBE to KDP Select today so this is soooo timely.
best,
carol
Hi, Carol,
Here’s info on more places to send info on freer or discounted books:
If you are planning to offer Kindle copies of your book for free or discounted books, here are sites that retweet such offers. You’ll get best results by tweeting them directly. If you have time, check the sites to see if they use a specific style, cover a specific genre or want you to contact them at a specific time, such as the morning the offer starts.
United States: @4FreeKindleBook, @ASMSG1, @BlogSquares, @book_tribe, @bookyrnextread, @CriFiLover, @eBookBuilders, @ebookmybook_now, @eCrimeThrillers, @freebooksnow, @freebookpromos, @FreeBookClub1, @FreeEbooksDaily, @FreeBooksNow, @FreeKindlePromo, @HamishnPonsonby, @IBDBookoftheday, @IndieAuthorAnon, @IABookReviews, @KDFR1, @Kindlebookpulse; @Kindle_Freebies, @KindlePromoFree, @KindlePromotion; @kindlepromoter, @MadKindlePromos, @MasqCrew @More4LessOnline, @MustReadMystery, @Reading4Pleasur, @theluvofbooks, @Thrillerink, @TweetBookTweet, @TweetYourBooks, @writeawaybliss, @WriteintoPrint
United Kingdom: @TheBookBuzzers, @bookclubfanatic, @eBookDailyUK, @EndeavourDeals, @KindleFreeBook, @Kindle_Promo, @KindleShoutOuts
Hi, I’ve been remiss in not posting another thank you sooner. Your generosity in sharing all of these links is so special and helpful. As I used your list to prepare for my January free days for my novel CAPE MAYBE, I kept marveling that you didn’t just share links to websites, but the EXACT link to the submission page, so there was no time wasted routing around. You’ve made my journey so much easier. Thank you and Happy New Year, carol
Thank you so much! I haven’t tried these yet, but the time and care you put into compiling the list is so sweet and helpful. I hope your book takes off like gangbusters!
Accepting submissions for free or 99 cent fiction ebooks.
Awesome info, glad I found this through The Book Designer!
Wow, I’m DEFINITELY bookmarking this page!
Glad to have found your blog through The Carnival of the Indies — your posts deal thoroughly with significant issues.
I’m currently developing a couple of non-fiction books, and thinking of using KDP for when they’re out.
Thank you for such a thorough listing! Amazing.
THanks for this list. My free promo days got 100+ dowloads. THanks again. However I Noticed that the days after the free promo days were followed by zero sales and zero reviews. Any suggestions or recommendations?
Thanks
Great content! I (almost) never comment, but I have to say…This article has more practical information than I’ve seen in one spot, including books and ‘webinars.’
We post links to free ebooks on ebookspromo.com. We will also promote and submit your book to these free ebooks sites prior to your book being free. Visit our site for more information.
I am a bit overwhelmed with my first ebook, hopefully publishing in next couple of weeks. This information is very useful. Do you think for a first timer the KDP is the right way to go? I don’t have a big email list, so need all the extra attention I can get. Thanks !
Hello,
This is a great resource for authors and publishers!
We would love to be added to this list, our website is http://www.FreeEbooksMe.com
The best thing about submitting to our site is that all properly formatted submissions are promoted NOT ONLY in their perspective category, but on our HOMEPAGE, AS WELL AS Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, and more, all free of charge!
We hope to be added to your awesome list and look forward to seeing some of your submissions soon!
Thank you for your time and consideration!
FreeEbooksMe
What a great resource!! We used the free promotion and the links provided in this post with huge success.
All of the links to the free ebook sites and blogs definitely helped move the needle during our free launch.
Here’s the stats from the launch last week:
Book: “The Productive Person”
#1 in Self Help
#1 in Self Help – Stress Management
#2 in Business & Investing
#1 in Business & Investing – Business Life
#1 in Business & Investing – Business Life – Time Management
#39 overall in the Kindle Top 100 Free List
And…
***5274 Total Downloads!!!***
Also, in less than a week since our free promo period, we’ve sold 419 copies of the book and counting.
All thanks to your help THANK YOU!! Keep up the great work.
Hey just want to let you know that our website http://weeklybooklist.com which will send out emails to our huge list of subscribers. As we are new this is free of charge to start with.
Great post with a ton of great resources. Very helpful. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Shelly and Heather –
I have been adding all these sites to my bookmarks over the past two days. I am really looking forward to using these resources.
I did want to mention that when you go to http://snickslist.com/books/place-ad/ you are asked to enter a User Name and Password.
Any tips on how to get one set up?
Thanks –
Travis
Hmmm…that’s weird. I just went there and didn’t see a need to enter a username and password to be listed on SnicksList.com.
Also,
This is another site where you can post your free ebook.
http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/submit/
Travis
Great article and amazing information about self publishers
You can add this site to your list as well.
http://www.FreeEBooksForMe.com
Thanks for the fantastic post!
Deanna
I have been reading you guys for a while and I really appreciate all the help. But it makes me sad that you guys recommend and link to any so called services just because you can make some affiliate commission.
That Guarantees Downloads service you link to that goes to a Warriorforum WSO thread, is a total scam. They use bots to get you those guaranteed downloads. So, you are cheating the system risking your account (and they will find out sooner or later, just like they did on Facebook and YouTube), not to mention you pay a few hundred dollars to get 1000’s of free downloads, but you won’t make a dime. So, it’s a lose lose situation.
Again, I thank you for all the helpful tips and advice you guys provide here, but I sure hope you guys would verify things a bit more before recommending a service to your readers. And I mean it with utmost respect. Thanks.
Jenny,
I’m glad you’ve been helped through our tutorials, advice, etc. I do earn some income from affiliate sales but NEVER promote anything unless I believe it will be helpful to authors, use it myself and/or have thoroughly researched it.
Believe me, I thought the free downloads service was a scam as well. But, I did a lot of research before recommending it.
#1: I e-mailed KDP and gave them the link to their site. They said it was fine to use 3rd party services like theirs for paid advertising in this way.
#2: I waited until a couple of my author friends used their service. Not only did they get the downloads they paid for, but they also had an increase in paid sales in their book and series afterwards.
#3: I asked the company directly if they use bots and how they generate their free downloads. They have a big e-mail list and so their downloads are from REAL people. This was their reply to me.
“The downloads are from real people. We already have confirmation from not one but a few different people emailing and asking amazon about the legitimacy of the downloads.
We guarantee downloads because we over deliver.”
I’m not sure who you are getting your information from, but from my research, this seems like a legitimate form of paid advertising to get downloads for your free KDP promos. If you have proof that it is anything otherwise, please let me know.
Thanks!
Jenny,
2/26/14 UPDATE: Previously we recommended a service called, “Free Book Service.” In December I had e-mailed Amazon to make sure it was okay to use a service like this and they said yes. However, Amazon has changed their mind. This was brought to our attention from other authors and we e-mailed Amazon directly to confirm. This was their reply…
“While we support the legitimate promotional efforts of our publishers, we have determined that Free Book Service’s services manipulate Kindle sales rank. We take activities that jeopardize the experience of our customers and our publishers very seriously and may take action against publisher accounts that engage in sales rank manipulation.”
Therefore, we no longer recommend you use that service. However, there are many websites you can get paid advertising and we outline these in our book, Author Publicity Pack.
Thanks!
Shelley
Hi Shelley!
Just wanted to let you, your author friends, and your readers know about eBooks GROW ON TREES. Our goal is to provide readers with an eclectic assortment of eBooks to download either for Free, $0.99, $2.99 or Less, or an eBook Deal. We also provide authors with the opportunity to advertise their free or eBook Deal with us to be promoted on our website, Facebook, Twitter, and the eBooksGOT Daily Newsletter.
Thanks for everything you do!
-eBooks GROW ON TREES
http://www.ebooksgrowontrees.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ebooks-GROW-on-TREES/593430457364998
https://twitter.com/ebooksGOT
Please add ChristianBookFinds.com to your list. Under “Contact” you will find how to submit a book for consideration.
Hi,
I just want to thank you for the post on getting the word out on a free ebook promotion. This was my first ebook and, after the 3rd day, there have been 900 free downloads of my book. It’s not in the thousands but I did it all manually with the links and contact pages you recommended here. I am very happy with those results for my first book!
Do you recommend doing a Countdown Deal right off the bat or just try to promote it through my site and other avenues beforehand?
Thanks,
Bob Bessette
I recommend OneShotPitch.com it is a great free place to advertise your work for free
You can also promote your book on my website.
http://www.danielwallock.com/promote-self-published-book-share-writing-journey/
THE RESULTS I GOT FROM TAKING THIS ADVICE HAS EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS!
Hey Guys,
I recently put my very first eBook on Amazon in November. I’ve been encouraged every time that someone purchased my book, but I knew I needed to do more to get the word out. I started a 5 day free promo on January 8.
HERE ARE MY CURRENT STATS …
The deal has been going on for SLIGHTLY OVER 36 HOURS.
3,820 FREE UNITS DOWNLOADED (That’s about 106 books / hour!)
#1 FREE BOOK IN THE KINDLE STORE IN IT’S PRIMARY CATEGORY ANY TIME I’VE CHECKED SINCE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
#1 FREE BOOK IN THE KINDLE STORE IN IT’S SECONDARY CATEGORY AS WELL ANY TIME I’VE CHECKED SINCE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
#86 FREE IN THE KINDLE STORE OVER ALL AS I WRITE THIS.
Wow! Thank you so much for your advice. I am new to all of this. I only have a very small email list of about 200 friends and family that I shared this with. I have ZERO presence on facebook and social media in general. I don’t even have a website for my book other than the Amazon site! This wouldn’t have happened without God being a generous God and it wouldn’t have happened without this awesome advice.
If you read this article, act on what you read. I submitted my book to every one of these sites that I was able to. This is INSANE!
By the way, do you have any more advice for how to translate this into PAID sales after the deal ends and tips to keep the momentum going? This would be a huge help to all of us.
If anyone is interested in the book, you can get it for free until Jan 12 at the link I provided. 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GLE3FU6
Hey Travis,
That is very exciting to hear about your results using our checklist and listed sites. Awesome!
Once your book has 10 reviews and if you’re willing to lower it to $0.99 for at least two days, I’d recommend ENT bargain book of the day: http://ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-kindle-books/
We also have lots of resources listed in our book, “Author Publicity Pack” but we’ve had the best success with ENT.
Ok great. So are you suggesting that after my free promo ends, I should sell my book for $0.99 for the two days immediately following the free offer to gain lots of sales? Would that be better than immediately raising the price back up to the full $2.99?
There are different thoughts about pricing after a free promo. Some authors want to get the most royalties they can and leave it at full price. Some lower it to $0.99 and do a ton of advertising for that.
However, the advertiser I suggested, ENT, is not guaranteed. You submit and they may or may not accept you. If they accept you, it will probably not be for a few weeks or even months from now.
Thank you very much for this – your tips are shaping my strategy for my next free days. My first free day was almost promotion free – so I am going to hit the next ones hard.
Shelley,
Thanks for the great article.
The following website has a FREE tool that stores the book details such as Title, ASIN, etc and submit the book to 15 sites during the KDP FREE promotion. The author doesn’t need to enter the details for each website. So it takes very less time to submit to 15 sites.
http://www.IndieAuthorClub.com
Can you please include this site to your list of sites so that authors can benefit from this FREE Tool.
http://www.indieauthorclub.com/tools/free-book-submission
Thanks!!
Hi Heather and Shelley, I absolutely love your article. I am new to ebooks and Im grabbing up all the data I can. You make it look so easy! Thank you for sharing. May God bless and keep you both in the name of Jesus Christ amen
Oh, I have a question: Is downloading to your kids kindle, so they may have a copy on the go, against any “author codes”- it makes sales go up by a few, is this bad to do?
Wanted to let you know that http://www.bargainchristianfiction.com is accepting submissions for free or discounted Christian fiction books. We love to help authors promote their deals.
You can post free and bargain books for kindle books available in the UK @UKbookPapa
Hi Shelley and Heather, thank you for setting up this list!
I would like to add one more:
http://www.choosybookworm.com/authors.
The eBook promos are free, and all eBooks are featured on our website, in the daily email newsletter, as well as on Facebook and on Twitter.
Hey, nice list. I did notice, you listed:
http://www.thatbookplace.com/free-promo-submissions/
twice, in both places as a broken link; bringing down the true numbers. Also, I’ve seen links to that site elsewhere, but I still fail to see any use to authors in their site: all they seem to offer is book fairs that authors have to pay for. There’s nowhere to see anything about free books; it seems like they used to offer that service, but quit in 2012, in favor of traveling book fairs.
Great to find this.
My book is going free tomorrow and the next day. I have followed and informed a lot of the links, here’s hoping I get a good response for my motivational running book, “Run Your Destiny.”
Thanks
Thank you so much~!! I thought I did my marketing too late for my free days on kindle because I started marketing on the day of.. But you have shared 8 sites that i can promote my book~!
Again thank you very much and keep up the good work!
Another one for your list: You can also promote your book for free at http://freekindlebooksplace.com/
Hi Shelley – I’m running my first free Kindle offer starting on Friday. Thanks so much for the tips – I pray that hundreds if not thousands of Christian teens all over the US download my book Whose Am I? Thanks for all you do!
I found this tool very useful for submitting free books. Costs only 14.99.
BTW… my Paranormal Mystery will be available for free from 6/20/14 to 6/22/14
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DSR783E
Thank you Shelley and Heather! Great stuff!!!
Marcello
Just posted my free publicity for e-book july 5-6, 2014 on most of these sites. Thanks for the tip.
my book:
Life Unexpected: A Trauma Psychologist Journeys Through Breast Cancer
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KAKLPRM
I wanted to take a moment to share our submission service we offer for authors.
What the service provides is submissions from anywhere to 15 over 40 of the top free days promotional sites for your kindle book.
It also will get your book promoted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked-in, Reddit, Google+, Blogger, Tumblr, Youtube, Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Plurk, Instapaper, Diigo, Delicious, Stumbleupon, and so much more!
On top of all of that, it will get your book on the homepage of free days book websites that are PR2 and have a DA/PA of 20+!
The service cost starts at less than a cup of coffee!
Visit us today at http://kdpfreesitesubmitter.com/
Thank you Shelley for allowing us to post this here. 🙂
Thanks for this list. Seriously been a huge help. You got me to #145 in overall kindle store overnight using about 2/3rds of this list. So, yeah, thanks!
Awesome! You’re welcome 🙂
Hey Shelley,
First thanks for taking the time to gather together all this great information.
Next, I run an online show about Book Marketing that I would love to have you on some time. It is called, The Author Hangout and past episodes can be found here: http://theauthorhangout.com.
Lastly, if you are updating your list of free and bargain sites, this site just launched on Friday July 11. http://readingdeals.com.
Thanks again for this resource and your time!
Shawn
Shawn, you’re welcome! We do update the list periodically so appreciate the new site. I’ll e-mail you about the interview, thanks for the invite.
I just started a free Facebook promo site for authors and readers to promote and recommend ebooks. This page is also for book cover artists, editors and formatters to post about their skills 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/DigitalBookAddicts
Great list!
Could I also suggest you add Readers in the Know. http://www.readersintheknow.com/home
It’s a new international book promo site with an initial marketing focus on the UK.
It works a little differently to most of the others in that you only need to add your book and author details once, after which they’ll be permanently listed. Promos and events can then be scheduled with just a few clicks and readers can choose to browse from all books in the database, all those with a promo scheduled within the next 90 days, or from those on promo that specific day.
I would love to have my site added to your list. I have a form authors can submit their book through and you can use the calendar to pick your Free Kindle Book dates. When a book is published live I post it on Facebook and Twitter and it goes out in my daily email newsletter to readers who are looking for Free Kindle Books. Here is the link to the form: http://www.sweetiespicks.com/submit
Another good Christian Genre specific is at http://petersilas.com/free-christian-ebook-advertising/
We offer free book promotion services as well. Feel free to add it to your list above.
Please note: we do require all authors to take the True Review Pledge first (http://truereviewpledge.com), which is free, to assert that they will not and have not paid for any of their reviews. (They can also download a badge to display on their website, if they want.)
The submission form is located at http://zwoodlebooks.com/authors-and-publishers.
The service is totally free, although we do recommend authors make a small donation to a literacy charity of their choice (very few do, to our knowledge, which is really disappointing).
Shelley just wanted to tell you THANK YOU! And GOD BLESS YOU for the 76-steps – I followed each one to the best of my abilities. You are a great resource of good solid advice!
Just to let you know my experience with Amazon Reviewers: they said I spammed them for reviews!!!!
And posted those as ‘reviews’ on my book page ASIN: B00MF8BJQE.
So I have not approached another! But thank you for all your advice.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MF8BJQE
How did you approach the Amazon reviewers (form letter or personalized to them in some way) and how many times did you e-mail them? It is really important to respect their time and not continue to e-mail them over and over if they don’t respond.
Excellent and informative article you share here. Great work. I want to ad a site http://ebookkorner.weebly.com/, this site is free for ebook submission.
Hello,
You have an amazing website with a unique content, congrats!
We have a new service for readers and authors.
FREE and Bargain eBook Deals for Kindle, Apple, Nook, Kobo,
SmashWords & Google!
The service is totally FREE for Readers & Authors – Quality is
Everything for us.
We have developed a unique system for authors to promote their eBooks
using a smart validation system.
They promote only their best eBooks with the ultimate price and the readers receive quality and amazing deals.
We offer for authors/publishers:
• FREE Service
• Upload ALL their kindle books info at once (They can add links to KOBO, SMASHWORDS, APPLE..)
• Promote as many deals as they want for FREE.
• TRANSPARENCY – Honest feedback about their books.
• Manage their promotions on a private Authors Area (Edit/delete/save promos).
• Use marketing templates for their book’s description to sell more books.
• More to come soon…
We would appreciate if you can mention us on your website in free kindle book promo area.
Please give it a try and send me your honest feedback, it would be much appreciated!
Thank You and Best Regards,
Daniel.
I have a site I would like you to consider adding to your list of book promo sites.
My site is http://bivric.com
BIVRIC is a site that features and promotes self published authors via interviews and book blurbs, I also post articles on marketing self published books. No fees required. I accept any genre and prefer full length books, not novellas or how to books less than 100 pages.
Feel free to point self published authors my way if they would like to be interviewed.
Thank you for your consideration
Great list that you have here Shelley. Surely this will help a lot of authors in promoting their Kindle Book.
Thank you! We hope it does help many authors.
Thanks for the great tips.
I watched your video and used the email submission tool.
You share a nice and workable list. Thanks for this list.
You can ad this site in your website. Anyone can submit ebook’s here.
http://ebookkorner.weebly.com/
You can post free kindle books (with UK Links) to the bookpug.com free and bargain books facebook and twitter page, with 26,000 followers
http://www.bookpug.com/2015/01/free-kindle-books-uk.html
If you submit to Indie Book Bargains on the day, you’re very unlikely to get featured – much better to do it in advance.
NewFreeKindleBooks.com will list your Kindle “Free Days” and “Countdown” promotion.
http://newfreekindlebooks.com/authors
Hello,
If I may, I would like to suggest also our site, Goodkindles http://www.goodkindles.net/p/submit-your-book.html
Have a nice day!
Please consider my site to submit your kindle.. Its FREE 🙂
http://ilikeebooks.com/submit/
I just want to thank you so very much! I see how it feels now to give value to online to users and feel good about doing it! I wanted to leave a nice post to show my support to your site! I will share this with my audience. I am doing the same thing with blogging tools and when I get a nice comment it makes me want to give more value! I give both of you an A+! I don’t want to spam with my link, so if you approve this post you can share the link with your audience and discover all the great tools available for free or low price and some things you have not thought of!
Cheers!
Thanks Brion! Glad you found it helpful.
Hi, I’d like to suggest http://manybooks.net/promote.php to add to your list 🙂 Thanks!
Hello!
I’d love to share Budget Bookworm with your readrs. We go a little above and beyond with our promo. We share on our Facebook Page, in groups, on Twitter AND Pinterest!
Check us out today at http://budgetbookworm.com/authors
– Ann
I have a free eBook promotion going on this weekend, and using some of the strategies from your book “Marketing Your Book on Amazon”. I hit the #1 Best Seller Rank in my specific category this morning. Thanks!
“Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,503 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Animal Care & Pets > Dogs”
amazon short link to Poker Night: The Real Story of Dogs Playing Poker
http://amzn.to/1Ekoog1
Congratulations!
I am doing exactly the same thing with blogging tools and when I get any comment it makes me want to give a great deal more value! I give both of you an A+! I don’t just want to spam with my link, so if you approve this post you’re able to share the link with your audience and discover lots of the great tools available for free or low fee
BOOK
Thanks for a great piece of knowledge shared , keep updating it helps a lot!
Great list, thank you very much! Very helpful.
This is a great guide / list! Thanks for taking the time to write it.
I have found another great site that you may wish to consider adding. It’s called Planet eBooks and the website is http://www.planetebooks.net
They promote your free Kindle book to a community of over 130,000 Facebook followers (plus a growing audience on Twitter, G+ and Pinterest). I hope this is of help to someone.
Here’s a new site that welcomes Indie authors.
https://donsloanauthor.wordpress.com/
Thank you for creating your list of promotion sites.
We’d really appreciate it if you’d add our site to your lists of useful resources.
We’re Books Butterfly and we do $0.99 book and free book promotions to our email lists of 125,000+ email subscribers. We have 128,888+ daily active readers across all our sites and blogs and lists.
Our Page for Free Book Promotions http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/?tag=op250_free_lists_3_trainingauthors
Books Butterfly
Where we promote: http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/wherepromote/
Greetings! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time
now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and
give you a shout out from Humble Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the great job!
Thanks Percy!
Hi, I was just wondering if any of the websites above cater to the UK market? Either specifically or as well as other countries. Or if you know of any website that do? Thanks, Emma.
There are some in the list for UK. But, most are for US readers.
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.
New! Submit your FREE kindle promotion and get a fancy review with perma-link!
Visit: http://www.freekindledeal.com
Excellent resource – thank you.
Please add our website, eBookChristian.com to your “Christian Genre Specific List” – it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
When we do another update, we’ll consider adding your site. Thank you!
At Flurries Unlimited, we promote books without any requirements as to number of reviews or rating. Check us out at: http://flurriesofwords.blogspot.com/
Thank you displaying such a useful list of sites. I would to add another useful site for ebook submission – https://issuu.com/
eBook on issuu :
https://issuu.com/claraghosh/docs/editor_s_note
Please add us to the list:
http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/
Our form is here:
http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/effiforauthors/
Thank you!
Thank you for this useful information!!
i would like to recommend also:
http://www.ebookstage.com/welcome/MTEwMA==/
Hi there. We’d love to be added to your list! http://www.spoiledreader.com Thanks!! 🙂
This is an awesome list, Shelley! Thank you for including book submission tools as well. I’ve published few Kindle books but did not get to post to so many free sites – otherwise I’m sure I would have got better mileage. I’ll certainly try this list for my upcoming Kindle book series. Thanks again!
-Shiv
Thanks for this useful information! I used some of them to promote my book
you should try also this one to promote ebooks for Free:
http://www.ebookstage.com/welcome/MTEwMA==/
Best sites to promote Kindle book free
You can try this one for free Submissions
http://www.readkindlebook.com/
Thank you for this useful information
You can try also this one to promote ebooks for Free:
http://www.ebookstage.com/welcome/MTEwMA==/
Every promotion is a good promotion, it’s never enough. And this one is for free: https://katherinemilkovich.wordpress.com/promote-your-ebook-for-free/
Good luck! 🙂
Great advice, I will use this for my new weight loss book. https://amzn.com/B01KW6AB3M
Hi Shelley,
I’m a first-time author looking tor marketing information and found your site through an internet search engine. I’m so glad I did! I find your posts informative and really easy to understand. Thanks for investing in the lives of others—your passion and heart to help people come through in your posts.
May God continue to do abundantly more than you could ever dream or ask in the coming years. I pray for your vision to expand for God’s glory!
You are much appreciated,
Lisa
I’m glad you found it helpful!
Hi Shelly! Thanks for this great list of resources. I clicked through each link and discovered that many of them are not working or have expired, or those website are now down, so it might be nice to go through and update the list. Just so it saves others trouble in the future. Again, thanks for the great post!
Thanks Livy! We do update the post occasionally as we can.
Thanks for this useful information!
You’re welcome!
Oh, I have a question: Is downloading to your kids kindle, so they may have a copy on the go, against any “author codes”- it makes sales go up by a few, is this bad to do?
If you have multiple Kindles, I don’t see why you can’t download a book to each account.
very useful information.thank you for sharing
I was wondering where should I promote my self written book. Thanks for sharing a wonderful article with us!
Keep writing
You’re welcome!
Thank you everyone for you various contributions. I’m really enjoying this.
Please help me with a list of places I can promote/market my UK books if you have. They are really suffering in sales rank
Thanks in advance.
This post is nice. Thanks for the great post.
Thank you for this useful information!!
i would like to recommend also:
http://digitalbanda.com
Wonderful list Hitz. I checked every links you have mentioned over here, I found some of the links are not working. Would be great if you can replace them with some of the active sites. I have recommended this website few of my friends who are writer and seeking this bunch of links where they can submit their Kindle Edition.
Thanks for letting us know, Victor. We try to update the post as we can.
Here’s another place where you can promote your book for free https://kindlerella.wordpress.com/promote-your-ebook-for-free/
nice work good job http://amanmathur.in/
I read your article. It is very nice thank you for sharing it.
I read this blog thank you for sharing it.
You’re welcome!
Thanks for sharing this with us… Very nice and informative post !!!!
You’re welcome!
Hey, You Solved my problem.. we also looking for this types article.. Thanks for sharing with us…
There are new opportunities in 2021 like Joelbooks Deals, where you can promote Free or Discounted Kindle ebook deals:
https://joelbooks.com/kindle-deals/
The site has organic traffic from Google, mainly from the US and UK.
2022, please update this post and reissue it. Many of the links are not live anymore. I got tired of clicking and finding dead links. Thank you!
Hi, the links are now updated.
Excellent Blog! I would like to thank for the efforts you have made in writing this post.
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