Book Promotion

Book Promotion Services: What Works for Immediate Sales?

Promotion for eBooks on emailersA lot of the advice you’ll find about book marketing is frustratingly vague. You’ll find a lot of blog posts touting “Top Ten Book Promotion Strategies” with advice like:

  1. Be Active on Social Media
  2. Blog Regularly
  3. Build an Email List of Readers

While these things may help build a readership, they won’t sell books in the short term…or even the long term. A lot of social media is tweeting into the wind, and blogging can sometimes gain a following of five loyal followers, three of whom live in your house. The same goes for email lists: you can only run […]

2019-03-01T13:40:21+02:00March 1st, 2019|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: |

Six Reasons Why Amazon is Not Banning Indie Authors

Five Reasons Amazon is Not Banning Indie AuthorsThere has been a lot of panic recently with horror stories about Amazon banning indie authors en masse for promoting their books. Here’s why that’s fake news.

1. Amazon is a business that wants to make money.

There are millions of books on Kindle, something like 7 million. Around 10% of Amazon’s total book stock. There’s no way Amazon wants to ban indie authors from Amazon, who must account for at least a quarter of those books, just by pure common sense.

2. Getting reviews and promotion for your book is not going to get you banned.

If you do […]

2020-02-20T13:31:33+02:00October 18th, 2018|Categories: Features|Tags: , , |

How to Get Book Reviews in 2018 (Without Going Crazy)

howtogetbookreviews2018

So you want to know the best ways of getting book reviews for your book now it is finally written? Here are some ideas for those glowing reviews to come flooding in, updated for what works in 2018.

What Works in 2018

Use a Reader eMailing Service – Success Rate – 100% + 1- 5% quota met as advertised + high ranking and exposure on Amazon

It’s getting harder to get Verified Customer Reviews, which are the reviews that have most weight for ranking high on Amazon. The only true way to do this is to have access to lists […]

2019-07-01T16:21:20+02:00April 25th, 2018|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: , |

Mythbusting The Amazon Algorithm Part IV – Is Amazon Ranking Broken?

Cate Baum examines the latest author outrage that Amazon is Broken.

Many blogs have been shouting about how Amazon has a loophole that means authors are scamming the system and stealing mountains of cash from the KDP Global Fund. Some authors are being strung up and called out. These shady goings-on must be examined! Welcome to the notorious Mythbusting, Part IV.


MYTH: Amazon’s Ranking is Broken.

Truth: Amazon Ranking is not ‘broken’, but there’s a front-facing issue with how ranking is displayed when switching from Free to Paid that is confusing people.

After reading about several authors that seem to […]

2019-12-16T08:36:28+02:00October 16th, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: , , , |

What Book Promotions Are OK and Not OK on Amazon Now

indie author internet outrageThis is the first in a series on author internet outrage and Amazon adventure by Cate Baum.

There’s been a fair amount of internet hysteria lately regarding Amazon’s court cases against authors, and confusion about getting book reviews through promotional services. Here’s how to tell what’s acceptable, and what’s not, and the truth about those court cases.

First, let’s start with what book promotion techniques are acceptable to Amazon.

What’s OK

1. Using promotional services that promote to reader lists

Examples: BookBub, SPR’s Kindle Promotion Packages, BookGorilla.

Why is this OK?

A UK or US-based service that has built […]

2018-05-10T06:44:47+02:00October 6th, 2017|Categories: Features|Tags: |

Best Free Book Marketing Sites

Most know that BookBub is very expensive, as well as very difficult to get into. SPR’s own BookBub alternative (starting at $199) has no barrier to entry, but it’s also expensive if your budget is…zero. There are a number of BookBub-style newsletter services that allow for free submissions. These submissions aren’t guaranteed, and many offer a paid option to guarantee inclusion, but it’s still helpful if you really have no budget for book marketing, or you want to pad out your paid efforts with some other services.

As with pay sites, it’s best to spread out these listings over 3 […]

2022-09-11T15:55:06+02:00July 19th, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: , , |

15 Places for Authors to Write a Guest Post

Places to Blog

Blogging is an essential part of book marketing. It’s always a bit mystifying to hear authors say, “I don’t know what to blog.” You’re a writer! It’s part of the job. If readers like the way you put together a post, they’ll be more likely to check out your book.

However, blogging can also feel like writing into the wilderness, especially if your site gets scant traffic, which is usually the case for new writer’s sites. If your blog (or book) is hurting for viewers, a good practice is to post on a blog with a built-in audience.

CreativIndie has […]

2018-05-10T06:45:25+02:00June 30th, 2017|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: , , |
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