Book Promotion Links for Authors

These useful, actionable author book promotion links prepare you to expand your writing platform and include: free and paid book promotions, book review opportunities, website testing and SEO, author promotional pages, and more. They are the result of years of researching and promoting books. Learn more about me, author Christina Goebel M.A., here.

Future Book Promotion Links

Topics I will add at a later date for your book promotions include: public speaking, places to publish articles, Fiverr services, and training for joint venture partnerships.

I will add to these promotional links for writers within the days after each week’s Cozy Book Nook X Spaces show (each Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, at noon Eastern Time). Follow the Cozy Book Nook’s hosts on X x.com/lovegoldenheart and x.com/inspiredbylaban to keep-up-to-date with each week’s guest authors. We provide additional resources for the Cozy Book Nook talk show here .

Woman types on her laptop that has a heart on it. [To inspire positive emotion toward writing.] — Inviting all writers! Tune in to X Spaces each Tuesday at noon Eastern Time (New York time) for the Cozy Book Nook X Spaces show. If you follow Christina Goebel at https://x.com/lovegoldenheart , you will easily see when the show is live.

BOOK PROMOTION LINKS FOR WRITERS

BOOK BLOG TOURS

Book marketing has many facets. Think of book blog tours as online book tours, where your book visits blogs that have regular readers. In my experience, book blog tours can help you get website traffic, plus they create inbound website links, so they are helpful in helping search engines to locate your website. This develops your platform as an author.

XPRESSO BOOK TOURS

Note: They have current book tours as of August 2024.

“With connections to thousands of blogs and millions of readers,

Xpresso Book Tours will give your book the exposure it deserves!”

“In this technological age, a virtual book blog tour is one of the best and most rewarding ways to give your book incredible exposure. This is done by appearing on book blogs every day of the tour which is then seen by thousands of readers, giving way to even more word of mouth through several social media perused by even more readers. You get connected with bloggers and readers you may not be able to find on your own. Blogs are hand selected to fit the genre who will promote in the form of reviews, interviews, guest posts, and other various promotional posts.

Not everyone has the ability or time to organize a blog tour by themselves. It’s stressful, incredibly time consuming, and requires a large reader connection. Xpresso Book Tours offers this PR service for you, so you don’t have to take time away from your writing. With connections in the several thousands of readers and bloggers, you have the opportunity to get immense promotion that lasts!

Tours can range from one week to a whole month, where every single day your book will appear on at least one blog (Monday-Friday) and reach thousands of readers’ eyes. Or you might prefer a quick release day blitz, or even a cover reveal to give your book some advanced notice!”

See author reviews:

Testimonials

See their book tour services: https://xpressobooktours.com/services/

MORE TOURS

A list of more book tours that haven’t been verified, so you see what is out there. https://ramonamorrowbooks.com/Virtual-Book-Tours.php

BOOK LINKS: UNIVERSAL LINKS AND MORE

Two types of links help you promote your books quickly for and expand your author platform. Remember, the books may change, but YOU are the common denominator between them.

One book link type connects all of your books at a certain publisher, such as an Amazon Author page, or with social media, such as with Goodreads or BookBub.

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Log in to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s publishing group) to read how to create an Amazon Central Author Page that lists all of your books at one link.

https://author.amazon.com

BOOKBUB AUTHOR PROFILE

“Author Profiles allow all authors to showcase their books on the BookBub website for readers to discover. It’s completely free to claim your profile and list your ebooks on our website. By setting up a profile, you’ll be able to edit your bio, change your profile picture, and add any ebooks you’ve written that are available for purchase on at least one major retailer, regardless of whether those books are selected to run BookBub Featured Deals. This is a great way to help BookBub readers discover your ebooks on BookBub and to learn more about you as an author!”

https://support.bookbub.com/article-categories/author-profiles

GOODREADS AUTHOR PAGE

“Any author, anywhere in the world, can join the Goodreads Author Program for free. All you need is an Internet connection and a published book (or a soon-to-be published book) that can be found in our database. The Goodreads Author Program allows published authors to claim their profile page to promote their book and engage with readers. Once verified, your author profile will include the official Goodreads Author badge, which you can use to tell your fans to follow you on Goodreads.” https://www.goodreads.com/author/program

The other type of link is a universal link, or a link that connects to links to purchase your book at a variety of booksellers.

HOW UNIVERSAL LINKS BENEFIT AUTHORS

https://books2read.com/guide/ubl

BOOKS2READ UNIVERSAL BOOK LINK

I use Books2Read (https://books2read.com/ ) to create my universal links. The service is free and you can use their analytics to determine how many click throughs your links receive, as well as which stores readers select to access your book. TIP: Create special links to test free or paid link click throughs.

https://books2read.com/links/ubl/create

Before you scroll through more links, subscribe to the GoldenHeart newsletter to receive heart-filled news and information for authors.

BOOK PROMOTIONS: FREE AND PAID

Paid and free book promotions assist writers in many ways. They can help you increase traffic to your website, which can connect you with an audience that you can update at a later date about your author news and promotions. They can lead to direct sales and downloads for free or discount books. Book promotions can also help readers find your book via social media and help build your social account following. See book promotion as more than making sales. It increases your reach and is the beginning for a developing relationship with your reader base.

FREE BOOK PROMOTIONS

READING DEALS

“You can submit free and bargain books. Read our editorial guidelines before submitting. Qualifications: a minimum of 5 reviews & 4.0 stars on Amazon.com, and a confirmation that the book will be free or discounted the day of the offer.”

https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook/free

PAID BOOK PROMOTIONS

While I can’t recommend a specific paid book promotion that is guaranteed to succeed, I can assure you that many of these promotions did work for me and other authors I promoted. Other authors have mentioned many of these paid book promotions to me too.

AUDIO THICKET

“Audio Thicket drives sales of audiobooks on Audible, Apple, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, Nook Audiobooks, and Kobo Audio.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/audio-thicket

BARGAIN BOOKSY

“If you are planning to discount your book (or if your book is already priced between $0.99 and $5), the Bargain Booksy Feature is for you. With over 365,000 registered users a Bargain Booksy feature can help you to drive sales of your book, find a new audience of readers, generate reviews for your book, and improve your book rank on retail sites.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/bargain-booksy

BOOK CAVE

“118,850+ Unique Subscribers and 255,963+ Social Media Followers. Planning to discount your ebook on any retailer? Try one of our ebook promotional features to boost your sales and ranking. We’ll email your deal to our subscribers and they’ll download your book directly from retailers.”

https://mybookcave.com/subscribers-and-pricing

BOOK CAVE SUBSCRIBER MAGNET

“If you haven’t a clue what a subscriber magnet is or how it will help you sell more books, this post is for you. Basically, a subscriber magnet is an ebook that an author gives away for free to readers in an effort to encourage them to sign up for his/her newsletter and, eventually, to buy more books. Subscribers are thrilled to get a great book for free and often find authors they love this way. So the book becomes a “magnet” for new subscribers. The subscriber magnet program is also a great way to distribute review copies or book samples.

Book Cave hosts your subscriber magnet, with its own landing page, and our programming walks readers step-by-step through downloading your book on their device. If they still need help, we are just an email away. All this leaves authors and publishers more time to do what they’re really good at—writing and publishing!”

Learn more:

https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/what-are-subscriber-magnets-and-how-can-they-help-me-sell-more-books

Submit a book to Book Cave as a subscriber magnet:

https://mybookcave.com/submit-book

BOOK MARKETING TOOLS

A mega submission tool for when you have a free ebook promotion. You will need to schedule the dates for your free ebook promotion before you complete this form.

When I used this tool, some of the submissions didn’t work for me, but I felt it was well worth the money to get me to submit to as many promotions as possible for one price on the same day.

“Join Book Marketing Tools and purchase credits via PayPal. Each credit costs $29 and allows you to submit one free ebook promotion to 25+ sites in minutes.” That means that you enter the data in forms and they walk you through submitting your free ebook promo to 25 websites. Add your name and book details to our form just once. Some of the information is pulled directly from your Amazon.com listing to make it quicker. Start submitting to our latest list of free promotional sites that could deliver your book to more than 100,000 eager readers during your promo days.”

https://bookmarketingtools.com/submission-tool-features

E READER IQ

“Boost your book’s visibility by easily stacking an eReaderIQ and Bargain Booksy promo with one-stop checkout. Promos are available now for select genres on $0.99 books.’

“If you are currently offering your book for $0.99 or plan to discount it to $0.99, then an eReaderIQ promo is just what you need. With thousands of registered users, an eReaderIQ promo provides the perfect boost to a Bargain Booksy promo. Simply pick your date and add an eReaderIQ promo to your cart to build your own promo stack. Your book must be $0.99 on the day of your eReaderIQ promo.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/eiq

FIVERR BOOK PROMOTIONS

Promote your fiction book to 97,000 X (formerly Twitter) followers. Prices range from 1 week of promotions 2-3 times a day for $10, to 3 weeks of promotions, 2-3 times a day for $25. (Promoted by X’s @jgmacleodauthor [twitter.com/jgmacleodauthor] ) On 8/9/24, she had a 5-star rating from 121 reviews for this Fiverr service. She also offers some beta reading services on Fiverr. Scroll down to see the options.

https://www.fiverr.com/jgmacleod/promote-your-book-to-73k-twitter-followers

FREEBOOKSY

“Have a permafree book or a KDP Select promotion coming up? We have over 519,000 registered readers with a voracious appetite for books. Buying a Freebooksy Feature is the surest way to boost downloads.Your book must be free in order to qualify for a Freebooksy Feature.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/free-booksy

THE FUSSY LIBRARIAN

THE MOSTLY BARGAIN EBOOK NEWSLETTER (125,000 subscribers)

“This newsletter is mostly bargain ebooks, as the catchy name suggests 🙂 You can promote free ebooks here if you want and they will be included in our other newsletter.

order to be considered, your ebook should have:

A quality cover.
A price of $5.99 or less on the day of the promotion. We strongly recommend putting your book on sale for 99 cents or $2.99, but it is not required.”

THE FREE EBOOK NEWSLETTER (570,000 subscribers)

The book must be free to everyone for the entire day of promotion (U.S. time).
Your book will be included on our free ebook page on the day of your free promotion.
You can include links to Book Funnel or your website. Everyone must receive a copy of the ebook, though.
We recommend making the book free for at least two days. Some readers don’t open their email until the second day.
Permafree book? We offer a subscription model if you want to promote regularly. Details here. (Note: Program currently at limit and has been paused. Email us if you want to be on the waiting list.)

https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/advertising

GOODREADS GIVEAWAYS

There are two types of Goodreads giveaways.

Kindle Book Giveaway

Goodreads delivers books to winners

Instant delivery means winners can start reading your book sooner
Give away up to 100 copies with no book cost or shipping hassle
Available to publishers and self-published authors who use Kindle Direct Publishing

Print Book Giveaway

You mail books to winners

A do-it-yourself option to get print books in the hands of readers
Ideal for giving away a small number of copies to readers
Available to all publishers and authors
Now offering targeting for U.S. and Canada marketplaces

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show_create_options

GOODREADS GIVEAWAYS PRICING

Standard pricing is $119 per promotion. Premium pricing is $599 (premium listing, email sent to non-winners [an opportunity for a follow-up purchase]).

https://help.goodreads.com/s/announcements/a031H00000RKE8VQAX/giveaways-for-authors-frequently-asked-questions

HELLO BOOKS

“Ignite your US & Global eBook downloads with a powerful punch: Feed insatiable readers with Free & $0.99 books. Unleash your success with promotions starting at $35.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/hello-books

NEW IN BOOKS

“Our NewInBooks launch packages will give your book its best start. This is a great option for titles that are due to be published, or that have been published in the past 3 months.’

“We provide you with personalized support, and targeted book promotion placements and PR so your book reaches the right readers.”

Choose from 2 launch packages:

1) Book Launch Complete Includes:

* A Dedicated Book Launch Specialist

* Inclusion in the NewInBooks Weekly Newsletter

* Professionally Designed & Targeted Facebook Ads ($75 value)

* Placement in Promotional Newsletters (Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy, Red Feather Romance, Audio Thicket)

* An Exclusive Author Interview on NewInBooks

* A Search-Optimized Listicle That Includes your Book

* Social Promotion on NewInBooks Facebook & Instagram Accounts

2) Book Launch Plus Includes:

* Everything in the Book Launch Complete Package (above) PLUS

* An Amazon Ads Campaign ($75 Value)

* Inclusion in the Best New Books of the Month List and Email

* An Editorial Review Blurb

* Pre-Scripted Social Posts and Images for your Launch Week

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/new-in-books

READING DEALS

$29. “You can submit free and bargain books. Read our editorial guidelines before submitting. Qualifications: a minimum of 5 reviews & 4.0 stars on Amazon.com, and a confirmation that the book will be free or discounted the day of the offer.” https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook/paid

READER REACH: AMAZON ADS

Reader Reach Amazon Ads help expand the visibility of your book to readers directly on Amazon over a 5-10 day period via sponsored display advertising.

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/reader-reach-amazon-ads

READER REACH: FACEBOOK ADS

“Reader Reach Ads use vetted audiences and personalized ad creative to promote your book on Facebook and Instagram.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/reader-reach

RED FEATHER ROMANCE

For romance books.

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/red-feather-romance

SUBSCRIBER SURGE GIVEAWAYS

“Grow your email list hundreds of avid readers at a time!

Subscriber Surge Giveaways are a cost-effective way for you to grow your email list so you can reach qualified readers and sell more books. Readers flock to enter our Giveaways which boost your book’s exposure and connect you with a qualified audience who love books just like yours.

Each giveaway lasts for 60 days and features multiple eBooks (including yours!) in a genre-specific giveaway offering readers a chance to win these books PLUS a Free Kindle by signing up for author email lists.

The more readers you add to your email list, the more chances you have to sell new releases, ask for reviews, find ARC readers, and much more!

What Makes Our Giveaways Special? We

heavily promote the giveaway both organically and with paid advertising.
fulfill your eBook prize for you. This saves you time and garners you a paid ebook sale (win-win!)
The quality and percentage of new subscribers are high because we focus on attracting new, fresh readers to each Giveaway.
You’ll have access to your new subscribers much faster—we share your new readers with you in your Author Portal throughout the Giveaway.

A limited number of eBooks are selected per Giveaway so be sure to reserve your spot early.

Want to see how our Giveaways look to readers? We’re glad you asked!

Authors may submit only one Book per Giveaway. To qualify for inclusion, books must be a minimum of 50 pages and priced between $0.99 and $14.99.”

https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/features/subscriber-surge-giveaways

WRITTEN WORD MEDIA PROMO STACKS

These packages include multiple book promotions for a single price and registration, expanding your reach and reducing your workload. The promotions work with multiple newsletters or sources, and reach more potential readers. Stacks promote your book’s genre, and the cost of your book, and can even promote a books series. https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/promo-stacks

BOOK REVIEWS AND ADVANCED RELEASE COPIES

Many readers prefer to purchase books that have reviews and several book promotion sites refuse books without five or more reviews.

You have several options to get book reviews.

Offer Advance Release Copies (ARCs) of your book to social media followers (via your Goodreads followers is a great option https://www.goodreads.com/, as well as posting a call for readers via #bookstagram #ARC #reviews and with hashtags for your genre, such as #SFF or #YA). Advanced Release Copies can be made available to pre-release reader / reviewers at least 30 days and up to a year before publication in some cases. Allow several months for readers to read your book and prepare to post their review.

You can also post selected groups you trust with your pre-publication manuscript, such as with Facebook ARC groups.

Reedsy compiled a great list of book reviewers: “Best Book Review Blogs in 2024”: https://blog.reedsy.com/book-review-blogs/

Share copies of your book through NetGalley https://www.netgalley.com/ , where reviewers seek pre-publication reads to review. Among review options, Net Galley has the most professional reviewers. They also do not post their reviews with haste.

BOOKROAR

Bookroar works on the principle of reciprocity. You purchase (or download free from Kindle Unlimited), read, and review a book and then receive credit to have your book placed in the review pool. A Redditor recommended it (https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/127v5a9/launched_a_booksprout_first_time/ ). If you are an avid reader with a low book budget, this option might serve you well. https://www.bookroar.com/

BOOKSIRENS

BookSirens was recommended by several Redditors. Their website has extensive reviews. “Get more Amazon, Goodreads, & BookBub reviews from your ARC readers and our community of 50,000+ book reviewers & influencers.” This platform gives you the option to publicly or privately share your Advanced Reader Copies.

https://booksirens.com/

BookSirens has a free do-it-yourself option, as well as other pricing. https://booksirens.com/pricing#pricing-plans

Note: “The Author Plan is best suited if you’ve published several books in the last 30 days and / or plan to publish multiple books over the next 12 months.”

BOOKSPROUT

Book Sprout’s website claims that their authors have had more than 4 million reviews on sites like Amazon. “Find readers looking for new books in our community of over 75,000 active reviewers. Create discoverable ARC then watch as reviews come in! Get more reviews on sites like Amazon, Bookbub, and Goodreads with your Booksprout account.” Affordable rates run from $9 – $59 a month. https://booksprout.co/ Prices: https://booksprout.co/pricing

Read Redditors discussing BookSprout: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/127v5a9/launched_a_booksprout_first_time/

GOODREADS

While Goodreads offered a lower-priced option before, to get Goodreads to promote your book and send out reminders in eight weeks to review your book, now that is a premium service and will cost $599. For the $119 book giveaway, some readers may leave reviews for your book on Amazon as a courtesy, but there is no reminder email or guarantee of any sort.

https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/What-are-Goodreads-Giveaways-1553870937414

HIDDEN GEMS

“While we now accept reviews on a variety of platforms, we still run our ARC program in accordance with Amazon’s rules and Community Guidelines, which state that authors and publishers can provide free copies of their books to readers, as long as they do not require a review or attempt to influence the review.

Hidden Gem ARC readers are made up of volunteers that enjoy reading and reviewing books. They choose the books they want to read, and although they are not required to leave a review for every book (there are plenty of valid reasons why they may not be able to/want to leave a review for a particular book), we do monitor our subscribers to make sure they continue to have time to participate in general. This has led us to an industry leading average review rate of over 80%, for the books we send to our readers.” https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/arc-program/

Hidden Gems was recommended by several Redditors and even a negative experience received 8-10 reviews. One Redditor said Hidden Gems is romance focused. https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/1d4wnya/do_you_guys_have_any_experience_with_other_arc/

NETGALLEY

If you are self-publishing or if you need more book reviews, allow readers ample time to read and review your book.

“Publishers and authors offer free digital books and audiobooks to the NetGalley community of book advocates and industry professionals.”

https://www.netgalley.com

NETGalley Levels of Service

https://netgalleyclient.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4414517767575-NetGalley-Levels-of-Service

NetGalley Request Form

https://www.netgalley.com/request_terms

NET GALLEY CO-OP

I found out about this resource via a 2024 review of the NetGalley Co-Op on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/1dnbtah/my_recent_experience_on_netgalley_as_a/ Their NetGalley reviews translated into reviews shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon, so those reviews appeared on several sites, not just one. NetGalley is pricey, so this option is affordable and practical for authors on a budget.

Affordable access to NetGalley. Monthly Rental :$55.00 / month for e-book slots; $60.00 / month for audiobook slots.“NetGalley is one of the largest digital ARC distribution sites in the industry. A huge advantage of listing your title on NetGalley’s platform is access to people you might not otherwise reach, from reviewers for major publications like USA Today and Publishers Weekly to librarians and booksellers looking for new titles to purchase.

I’ve been running a NetGalley co-op for over a decade, and mine is the longest-running co-op on NetGalley.” “Marketing extras such as newsletters, category spotlights, etc. have a $25 administration fee in addition to the cost of the promotional opportunity. These optional promo slots are provided by NetGalley.” https://victoryediting.com/services/netgalley-co-op/

READING DEALS REVIEWS

“We know that getting reviews is tough for many authors, especially for those who don’t have an established base of readers yet. We used our connection with readers on Reading Deals and created Reading Deals Reviews. We connect your book with readers who are willing to leave honest reviews to help you get more reviews for your books.” “Note: You aren’t buying book reviews! You’re paying to reach new readers with your book. Our Review Club members do not receive any compensation, aside from the free book, and will include the obligatory disclaimer on their reviews to comply with FCC and Amazon guidelines.” https://readingdeals.com/reviews

STORYORIGIN

Kindlepreneur reviewed StoryOrigin and said: “StoryOrigin has established itself as a robust marketing platform for indie authors, with a ton of powerful features built to help organize all of an author’s marketing resources.” “For most authors (and I include the exception below [those selling their books on their own websites]), StoryOrigin can absolutely be your go-to platform.” The review said that StoryOrigin can also assist with beta readers and general book promotions.

StoryOrigin Review: Pros, Cons, and My Favorite Features

https://storyoriginapp.com

“If you want to build your mailing list, increase sales, and find reviewers, the Standard Plan costs $10 / month or $100 / year.” https://storyoriginapp.com/pricing

WEBSITES

IS YOUR WEBSITE READY TO LIST?

Note: the term SEO is listed a lot in reference to your website. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This includes all of the traits that make your website discoverable by search engines such as Google, Safari, Mozilla, Bing, and more. Optimization includes other details, such as how long it takes to load your website. Your page loading speed might make engines recommend a faster loading website than yours. Businesses pay for Search Engine Optimization so that their website is recommended by search engines on the first page of search results, if possible.

BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR EMAIL LIST

StoryOrigin explains how they help authors expand their email lists. Email is still one of the best ways to sell books.

https://storyoriginapp.com/features/build-your-author-email-list

GOOGLE PAGESPEED INSIGHTS

This tool rates your website on: performance, usability, best practices, and SEO.

https://pagespeed.web.dev

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Techie website verification process that I don’t understand, lol, but you might.

Use the URL PREFIX option to test your website. Add https:// and then your website address.

https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome

GRADE YOUR WEBSITE

SEOOPTIMER

Test your website’s functionality. Provide the link to your website and receive a grade for your website’s SEO, links, usability, performance, and social media.Receive immediate, actionable feedback without entering any personal information.

https://www.seoptimer.com

WORDPRESS WEBSITE PLUGIN THAT HELPS WITH SEO AND MORE

YOAST

For my WordPress website, I use the plugin Yoast SEO. Yoast not only helps me with metadata (information on my website pages that help search engines locate my web pages), but it also does technical things, such as create a site map, which search engines use to crawl my website and know it exists.

https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo

From Yoast: “Our goal is simple: we help website owners get more traffic from the search engines. For example, we help our users keep their content nice and easy to read for their audience. But most importantly, we make sure search engines can find and understand their pages! Because that’ll help with ranking high in Google! Yoast SEO also takes care of a lot of technical SEO stuff in the background. So, you don’t have to write any code to use our software!”

Learn more about Yoast, https://yoast.com/about-us/