Writing Tip Wednesday: The best paid book promotion sites

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy!

For authors, this is a good time to be writing, publishing, and promoting! It’s our chance to provide quality fiction and nonfiction books to everyone at home 🙂

And for readers, it’s your chance to get lost in a great fiction book and find a new favorite author, as well as learn something new with a nonfiction book (or books!).

A ton of promotional companies have sprung up to assist indie authors. Indeed, there are so many companies to choose from that we often wind up with decision paralysis. I’m here to help you make the selection.

I’ve tried a bunch of different promotion sites. Some are more professional than others and some get better results than others (results also depend on the genre you’re promoting). Twice I’ve purchased a paid promotion and NOTHING HAPPENED, that is, my book didn’t get promoted. In one instance, I never heard back, the promotion didn’t happen, and when I recontacted the company I got no response. In another instance, the promotion didn’t happen, I recontacted the company and was told that the payment had been made to the incorrect email address (the incorrect address was listed on the payment form sent by that company, mind you). They refunded me the money, but the promotional opportunity was missed. If I hadn’t checked to see whether the promotion had taken place, I would have wasted my money.

I do not have the time to check up on every single promotion to make sure that I actually get what I pay for. I expect professionalism and competence from book promotion companies, and you should, too. 

To that end, below I’ve provided a list of bona fide paid book promotion sites, which I have used (with the exception of Bookbub), and with which I have had success. These sites will promote your free and discounted eBooks to their large subscriber base. If you have any doubts about which promotion site to use, start with this list. Also, as I mentioned in this article, I would generally trust any promotion site mentioned by reedsy.com.

This list is not exhaustive. If you know of a great promotion site that I haven’t mentioned, please comment below or email me on maria@lawschoolheretic.com.

Top paid book promotion sites

The Fussy Librarian – I’ve had great success listing a contemporary romance novel here for a one-day promotion, with almost a thousand downloads. Check out my article on that here.

BookDoggy – I’ve had great success listing in the contemporary romance genre here, with hundreds of downloads. In fact, this past week I listed a free new release for a one-day promotion (it cost $18), and got about 600 downloads.

eBookStage – I didn’t have a lot of downloads using this site; however, that may have been due to the niche genre of the book I was promoting. The site is professional and well-organized; and the book promoters get back to you quickly.

Bookbub – I’m sure you’ve heard of Bookbub. You have to apply to get your book promoted to Bookbub subscribers, and it’s highly competitive. Bookbub only accepts a small percentage of applications for promotion. However, the paid promotion usually has a good return on investment for authors. Make sure to follow Bookbub’s submission guidelines.

I haven’t used Bookbub to promote because my books have not yet been accepted there. I know Bookbub is worthwhile since authors I trust have used it successfully.

In addition to a book promotion site, Bookbub is also a social networking site for authors. You can create an Author Profile on Bookbub, list your books, and publish reviews and recommendations of the books you read. People can follow your Author Profile and react to your reviews and recommendations. Bookbub will send a New Release Alert (for free) to your followers when you publish a new book. Bookbub also offers paid Bookbub Ads.

Manybooks.net. I had a good amount of downloads using this site. After one of the site managers read one of my novels, she decided to list me as featured author of the day, which was an added bonus. That same site manager has contacted me periodically to keep in touch. I very much appreciate the follow-up, and will definitely be using this site again.

Bargainbooksy (and its sister site, freebooksy.). This is another promotion site recommended by top-selling authors. I’ve used it and was pleased with the amount of sales/downloads I got.

BooksButterfly. This site will provide you a credit if you don’t make a certain number of sales/downloads. Communication with the people who worked here was professional and prompt. One time I didn’t obtain the guaranteed number of downloads, and was able to successfully use the credit they gave me to promote a different book.

Lastly, if you’d like a list of FREE book promotion sites, I’ve got that here.

Let me know your experiences using the above sites. And, as always, if you have any questions, leave a comment below or send an email to maria@lawschoolheretic.com.

Happy Writing!