Need Free or Cheap Book Promo Sites?

** Updated 4/23/2015 with new information

As indie authors, we all know how hard it is to find places besides Facebook and Google+ to market our books.  You can only post to social media so much before you start losing friends (and family sometimes, too).

The leaders in the book marketing arena (Book Bub and ENT) are expensive and have very strict rules on acceptance.  So what is an indie author to do?

Have no fear, there are other marketing outlets that have good returns for either a small payment or for free.


Below are five websites that I have used with notes on the results:


1. Buck Books - Free (but must join as an affiliate)




I ran a promotion with them back in February 2015 and was blown away by the results. I had over 80 purchases of my book, "Chickens, Hawks and Grumpy Goats" on the day of their ad and had residual sales up to three days later.

They are free (at this time) and slots are filling up fast for their upcoming promotions.  I highly recommend them.



2.  Fussy Librarian - $5 to $17

I ran a promotion with them for $5.00 on my perma-free title, "Fade to Gray"  and received over 200 downloads.  The interesting thing was that my non-free book sales increased on this day as well. Definitely worth the small amount of money.



3. Genre Pulse - starting at $10

For $10, I ran a promotion on "Chickens, Hawks and Grumpy Goats" and received 30 sales.  This was not great, but some other genres do better.  It is worth a try and will not break the bank.



4. Book of the Day - Free

For a free site, this one keeps your listing on-line indefinitely.  I submitted "Fade to Gray" to them several months ago and the listing is still searchable.  The downloads of the book picked up several hundred during the week that the book was featured.  I highly recommend them.


5. Read Cheaply - Free for a Limited Time

I just recently submitted a listing and have not heard back from them yet. However, their $15 and $25 package is free for a limited time, so they are worth a try.

Updated 4/23/2015 - Read Cheaply featured my latest e-book, a memoirette - "I.T. Geek to Farm Girl Freak on April 19th.  For a free promo, I received 20 purchases and 5 Kindle Unlimited units.  All in all, a good bump in sales for a free ad.  I recommend that you give them a try.

Hope these have been helpful and happy marketing to you!