Would you launch a new product with a single tweet?
Of course not.
The same is true for launching a book. Like any other product, book marketing depends on a strategic plan, not a one-time tweet.
That includes a dedicated book launch, advertising, media coverage, social media attention, reviews, Amazon author pages, and a host of short-term and long-term initiatives.
I have some experience with selling books (I’m a 4x New York Times bestselling author), and this I know to be true.
If you want people to read your book, marketing it is just as important as writing it.
But what if you have a good plan, but are still looking for some additional sales? There is a solution:
Book promotion sites can get you a quick burst of short-term sales, if you choose the right ones.
Unfortunately, most articles about book promotion services are bad. They’re literally just lists that link dozens of sites without any information about how successful those sites are (or aren’t).
This is BS, and at Scribe, we don’t stand for BS. Our mission is to help unlock the world’s wisdom by helping everyone write their book, and I’m going to help you here.
So I’m sharing my list of the best book promotion sites for nonfiction.
We tested 10 of the most popular sites to see what did and didn’t work. For the sites that performed best, I added individualized guides and tips to help you get the most out of each one.
But first, I’ll explain exactly how we put these book promotion services to the test.
Most articles about book promotion services are far too broad, listing sites for every genre under the sun.
We focused our test exclusively on nonfiction.
For each site, we tested 3 to 5 books across multiple sub-genres, such as business books, memoirs, and self-help books.
We noted the average daily book sales before the test, then compared those to book sales on the day the promotion ran and for a few days afterward.
To make it a fair comparison, we discounted each book to $0.99 for every promotion.
Here are the sites that worked, based on the number of additional copies sold.
At 300-500 additional sales on promotion day, BookBub was far and away the best of all the book sites we tested.
It was also the most expensive, but it was worth every penny.
BookBub is a global service that sends daily emails to their subscribers. It offers Featured Deals on deeply discounted ebooks, as well as free ebooks, by category. It also sends emails promoting new releases.
Email subscribers only sign up for the categories they want, and they can indicate their preferred retailer. So the email list is extremely targeted.
BookBub runs ebook promotions for:
Your book needs to be in at least one of those to be eligible, but I strongly recommend Amazon. Kindle is by far the largest player in the digital book market.
You can also run your promotion by region:
Although BookBub does have a significant international presence, the vast majority of BookBub subscribers are in the US.
This is a very important point:
Getting a BookBub promotion is not guaranteed.
You’ll have to:
Don’t confuse BookBub’s Featured New Releases with New Release Alerts. Featured New Releases are paid promotions sent to BookBub’s 6 and 7 figure email lists. New Release Alerts are free, automatic emails sent only to an author’s BookBub followers when that author releases a new book.
To qualify for a Featured Deal, your book must be:
To qualify for a Featured New Release, your book must be:
If your book has a print edition, that determines the page count. If your book is only digital, check the Amazon book listing: look for Print Length under Product Details. Amazon estimates the print length of Kindle-only books based on word count.
When you apply, you’ll choose your preferred category, but BookBub reserves the right to change it. The nonfiction choices, along with the number of subscribers, are:
The category affects the promotion price, ranging from $164 to $944 for a $0.99 Featured Deal, or $80 to $710 for a Featured New Release, based on the number of subscribers.
Even if your book qualifies for a Feature, that is not a guarantee it will be chosen. BookBub only accepts about 10-15% of the books submitted for deals in the US.
The three most important things you can do to improve your odds are:
For more tips on BookBub features, read the section below on getting the most out of your next book promotion.
At 30-40 additional sales on the day of the promotion, Bargain Booksy was the second-highest performer.
The service is significantly less expensive and also much less complicated.
There are only three categories of nonfiction offered:
To qualify, your book must be:
There’s no minimum number of reviews, but Bargain Booksy reserves the right to refund your money if it decides your book doesn’t meet its standards.
PRO TIPBargain Booksy is a division of Written Word Media. Start here to see other promotional options, including free ebooks, new releases, books in Kindle Unlimited, and audiobooks.
BookSends came in third at 20-30 additional sales on promotion day.
All nonfiction books are lumped together in a single category, with 30,500 subscribers.
The price of the promotion changes by the book’s sale price:
We can’t speak to the “Expand Your Audience” or “Facebook” options because we didn’t use them.
To qualify, your book must:
Even if your book meets these minimum qualifications, it still might not be accepted. BookSends may refuse a book based on quality, subject matter, or limitations of space in the newsletter.
ManyBooks came in fourth at 10-20 additional sales.
For a ManyBooks Newsletter Promotion, your book must:
Promotions are $29.
PRO TIPManyBooks also offers other author services, including special promotions for free books, reader reviews, and editorial reviews.
Books Butterfly was an unusual case. We saw, on average, 30-40 additional sales spread out over a week.
The rest of our success stories saw the bulk of the sales on the day the email went out.
There are a lot of choices on the promotions page, but we chose the “Silver 50.”
It’s $90 for indie authors and guarantees 50+ sales in a week, so we found that it underperformed on the promise.
But we’re including it here because it did generate enough sales to be worth mentioning.
Awesome Gang generated fewer than 10 additional sales in our test.
Their featured book listing is only $10, but the form allows you to add the book to their database for free, without the feature.
Ereader News Today also generated fewer than 10 additional sales.
At $50 for the nonfiction promotion, we found this one not to be worth the investment.
Finally, Fussy Librarian generated fewer than 10 additional sales.
Even at only $14-$20 for a nonfiction promotion, depending on the sub-genre, it wasn’t worth the money.
No matter which site you choose, you’ll get more out of any promotion by following a few simple book marketing tips.
A great retail book listing will attract new readers. Make sure every aspect looks professional and projects your book positioning:
Has your book ever been a bestseller? Does it have great reviews on Goodreads? Has it appeared in the media? If your book has received any accolades, be sure to include them.
Putting your book in Kindle Unlimited (KU) can add a new source of readers to any book promotion.
KU subscribers read KU books at no additional cost, and Amazon pays authors based on the number of pages they read.
For many authors, this is a significant source of income.
If you are a Kindle Direct Publishing author, you can put your book in KU by registering it for KDP Select through your author dashboard. But read the terms carefully.
Once you enter your ebook in KDP Select, it must be on Kindle exclusively for the next three months.
For many authors, this is a good tradeoff. But if your book is selling well on other digital platforms, KDP Select might not be the best fit.
In the nonfiction market, your author brand is as important as your book.
Make sure you are projecting your brand on your author page, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, WordPress blog, Goodreads profile, other social media sites, and anywhere else readers might find you.
That includes the right bio and the right author photo.
If you’re an indie author, I strongly recommend our course on self-publishing.
It’s 100% free, and it will teach you everything you need to know about author marketing; book positioning; and producing a high-quality, professional book.
Marketing is always an investment, and book marketing is no different.
I strongly recommend developing an integrated marketing plan for every book you write.
But when you need a quick burst of digital book sales, nothing out there beats BookBub. It’s expensive, but that’s because it performs.
BookBub is not easy to get into, and the other sites that performed well are worth considering.
But all the promotion sites that performed well have strict requirements for the books they accept.
So put the time in:
If you’d like some help, we’re here.
Slow Virality Beats Flash Virality
Book Signing Events: How to Plan a Successful Author Signing to Promote Your Book
More Book Marketing