As promised, in my last post, here are the nuts and bolts of my last promotion on KDP Select. Keep in mind, that at this time of writing, Amazon has announced changes to its affiliate program – those sites sending buyers over to Amazon’s free ebooks will no longer be paid for referrals above a certain number ( I think it was 20,000) and for the uber-large, super popular sites like Pixel of Ink, and eReadernews etc, this will probably affect the way they support authors wishing to be featured on the sites’ free pages.
Anyhoo, for now, here’s what I did to bring my KDP Select numbers up from around 2000 to over 14,000 free downloads of Quintspinner – A Pirate’s Quest. (Wanna see what those 14,000+ picked up? http://amzn.to/SvbVyx ).
From an original list supplied by best selling author, Martin Crosbie (http://martincrosbie.com/), here’s my list and notes(bolded) of sites that I accessed:
EBOOK PROMO sites that I used for Quintspinner for March 1st and 2nd KDP Select days.
Thanks to the Kindle Boards, we discovered a long list of places where self-published authors can promote their eBook for free.
We’ve collected more information about the sites in a simple directory below, linking to the submission pages for these eBook sites. If you are an avid eBook reader, these sites are great for finding new books to read as well….
Free Sites for eBook Promotion
Did free May 15/12. Pd is $15 or $5.Addicted to eBooks: “This website is perfect for readers like me, who want to watch their book budget. This website also allows the author to rate some of the content of their book. I want to know before I buy if a book the level of profanity, violence or sex in a book. I’m excited that authors can now rate their books for the readers.”
No cost. Applied Feb. 15/13 AppNewser Free eBooks of the Week: Our editors pick a few free eBooks every week. To submit email your pitch to appnewser [at] mediabistro [dot] com.
Has logos for several sites. Entered separately on this list. Author Marketing Club: “No longer do you have to dig up your links to the best places to submit your books. We’ve put them all together here for you in one spot. Just click on the logos below to load each site’s form, fill in your details, and you’re done.”
Pd $5 for “free ebook” and $5 for March 8 “Bargain” listing ; Pd $5 for Pixel Scroll March 1. Bargain eBook Hunter: “If your title is currently FREE on Amazon, we want to know about it! Simply use the Contact Form to let us know about your free title and we will consider listing it on our site. There is NO COST to you if you contact us and we choose to post your free book. We accept all genres except erotica.”
Emailed her. She featured me. Books on The Knob: “Bargain reads, free ebooks and book reviews for the Amazon Kindle, nook, Kobo, Sony and other ereaders, Kindle Fire, nookColor, Kobo Vox, and other tablets, along with some games, music, technology and computers tossed in now and then.”
For NOOK only. Didn’t use. The Cheap: “This website was created in an attempt to let other Barnes and Noble NOOK users know that there really are plenty of deal priced books for NOOK readers. Here at the Cheap we, a group of deal scouting women, inform you of free and low-cost books. These change frequently so please be sure to check in often. We do our best to share only legitimate offers.”
Applied for free listing. Requires 18+ reviews and 4.4 rating. Has top 100 Best Free Kindle Book List and requirements may arbitrarily change to 20+ reviews. Digital Book Today: Includes both free and paid options for writers looking to promote.
Applied Feb. 25. eReader News Today: Features bargain Kindle books and free Kindle books.
UK site. $4 for day 1 and $2 for each day after that. Donated $8. Had to send info via email. Flurries of Words: “we have both FREE and PAID advertising options (apologies but we do not accept porn or erotica books). There are currently five FREE advertising options available: 1) Free Book Find (for permanently or temporarily free books) 2) 99 Cent Book (for permanently or temporarily 99 cent books) 3) Bargain Deal (for books over $0.99 but under $4.99–either permanently or temporarily) 4) Indie New Releases (for books newly released within the past 30 days) … 5) BOOK OF THE DAY”
Submitted to Free service. Also has $50 or $100 choices which I didn’t use. FreeBooksy: If you find an ebook you think our Freebooksy readers should know about please let us know in the form below. And if you are an author and you want to tell the world about your free ebook fill out the form in the Authors section and we’ll take a look at your book.
Frugal Reader: “Please use the form below to submit your FREE books to be considered for a featured FREEBIE post. Submitting your novel does not guarantee that your book will be featured. Please allow as much lead time as possible as I know these are limited time offers. Please note that I feature most genres, and while I may feature romance titles that include sexual scenes, I don’t feature titles that strictly fall under the erotica genre.”
Goodkindles: “we are a place where you post your own article about your title and can reach the readers. We do not review your book – we give you a platform to tell everyone what do you think is most interesting about your book and what you think will interest readers so much that they will go and buy your book.”
Kindle Daily Deal: “Let’s get the word out about your wonderful books on Kindle to my 13,000+ followers. I am a fellow author and I’d love to help promote your books. I enjoy reading as much as writing, and feel it’s important to support my friends. Currently, this service is FREE to you, but in return for adding your book(s), I’m hoping you reciprocate by buying my latest book containing funny essays about relationships…”
Applied for free listing. Free Kindle Books & Tips: “If you are an author and would like to have your book promoted (for free) on our site, please fill out the form below: your book must be free in the Amazon Kindle Store and must have an average user rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars for consideration. Please note each book submitted cannot be promoted due to space limitations on a particular day, but if your book is selected we will contact you at the email address you provide below.”
$6 for 2 days. Pd via Amazon. Free eBooks Daily: “I love to hear from authors and readers! If you have a comment, suggestion, or free ebook you would like listed or if you just want to say hello, feel free to send me an email.”
GalleyCat Facebook Page: You can post your book in our New Books section, an easy way to share your book with our readers.
Indie Books List: “If you submit an excerpt with less than 1,500 words, we will delete it. Due to the high number of submissions we receive, we may not have time to email every person who submits a shorter excerpt to ask for another one. Please – look at your word count before uploading. If you would like to be considered for both Indie Books List, and Only Romance…you must submit using each site’s submission form. There are now two separate submission forms, when there used to be just one.”
Meet Our Authors Forum: A place on Amazon where writers can talk about their work.
Applied for the free listing. Pixel of Ink: “If your book will be listed as Free ($0.00) on Amazon.com in the next 30 days, then please let us know by filling out the form below. Pixel of Ink may attempt to feature your book
Set up membership . Applied for free listing. World Literary Cafe.(link from Author Marketing Club)
Pd $5. For March 8th week listing. IBD (link from Author Marketing Club
Pd. $10 to be featured March 1st Awesome Gang. (link from Author Marketing Club)
Free listing for “free ebooks” for March 1 and 2 The eReader Cafe (link from Author Marketing Club)
List ON THE DAY THAT THE BOOK GOES FREE. Snickslist.com (link from Author Marketing Club) (will also be listed on YourBookAuthors.com)
Pd $35 for 2 weeks on Home Page Feature and $10 for free days (March 1 and 2) Book Goodies (link from Author Marketing Club)
Didn’t use as was too expensive Kindle Daily Nation.
Sent a request. Never heard back. eReader IQ
Couldn’t find signup The Digital Inkspot
Didn’t use www.dailycheapreads.com as it looked like they post about free ebooks on Mondays and I found their site on a Tuesday, and my promo was running Friday, and Saturday.
I bought a www.BookBub.com ad for March 2nd. Originally I asked for a listing under Historical Fiction ($140) but they emailed me back and said their editorial staff thought it would be a better fit under Action and Adventure ($60). Went with Action and Adventure.
Got a feature on www.FreeBookDude.com . They vet who they choose to promote but promote very well.
So, there were some twitter sites as well, that were part of the above sites promo deals – I retweeted those as well.
NOTE: setting this up is, at first overwhelming, and yes, it IS TIME-CONSUMING but to be successful, you have to invest the effort. I spent 2 full evenings emailing and filling in forms to get this promotion underway. Martin had done most of the work, in amassing most of these sites in an orderly manner, and he so generously and freely shared his lists. That’s the wonderful thing about Indie authorship in this day and age. We are all in it together. Helping each other out with lists, advice, tweets, etc. I’ve been a recipient of all of that authorly love. I’m just paying it forward. Hope you find this useful. 🙂
Dianne Greenlay 
Fantastic information! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Brian
http://www.brianwfoster.com
LikeLike
Hi Brian. Thanks for stopping by and giving it a read. I’m glad to be able to share, and I realize that getting 14,000 free downloads is just a drop in the bucket for many savvy Indies, but for me it was a 7-fold improvement. However, for everyone reading my comments, I have to give all of the credit to Martin Crosbie, as he formulated this list initially and I just added a few more to it, and Martin has been so gracious right from day one about helping out other authors. He is the author of “My Temporary Life” for which his efforts resulted in him being written about in several prominent magazines and newspapers, and the follow up novel, “My Name is Hardly” ( http://amzn.to/WuBzvR for amazon.ca and http://amzn.to/YxIJgl for Amazon.com). Anyone else have some good additions to add to this list? I would love to hear from you.
LikeLike
Thank You for mentioning Awesomegang.com on your list. I am glad to see you had 14,000 downloads. That is much better than the average author gets but you also did a lot of work.
Just wanted to add something about our site. When you submit to our site the book page also goes out to our Twitter 3000 fans, Facebook 2000 fans, and G+ pages most of the
time.
These are real followers that want to read books. I am seeing a lot of website popping up that have 50,000 Twitter fans 50,000 Facebook likes over night and charging crazy money for advertising. Most of these accounts are fake and not focused of getting more readers to your books. Before you pay any money towards a site for adds you should do a Whois http://whois.net/ on the site and make sure it has been around a while by checking the registration start date. Otherwise you are throwing away money that could be spent elsewhere.
Thanks again for mentioning us and I am glad you had a success with your book.
Vinny O’Hare
LikeLike
Hi Vinny, thanks for dropping by. Yes I was really pleased with my results. I intend to run another promotion at the end of June and this time will narrow my selection down to the few most effective sites, including yours. I have seen a steady increase in sales since my last promotion, with most of it atttributable to sites like yours. I will certainly be signing up with you again!
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing this. I’m running a free promotion next week and this has helped me get the word out there hopefully! 🙂
LikeLike
Glad to hear it helped.:-) Promotion is so time consuming that it’s nice that we authors can share our knowledge and info, cutting down on the effort and time for other authors. Good luck with your promotion!
LikeLike
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
Great info for newbies (like me). I’m enjoying your posts and trying to learn something. Thank you!
LikeLike
In many ways, we are all newbies – just sharing the journey’s maps with each other. I have been helped by many other along my way, so I’m pleased to be able to share back. 😀 Thanks for dropping by.
LikeLike