Top free and paid book promotions sites - are they really that good? A huge review of sites to advertise your novel

I guess some people may relate to this scenario: you publish a book, then you sell absolutely nothing for the next few months, you get frustrated and you google:

Best websites to promote your book

And then you see huuuuge lists of book promo sites that tempt you with incredible promises. Since your budget is quite limited, you begin to wonder:

Are these websites worth it?

And this is where I come with help.

Here I compare the most popular book promo sites (I also added newsletter builders as a little bonus). Please note that all these promos were for 0.99$ book (except Best Book Monkey in the 5th category).

A few things about my books (to give you some background and context)

my genre: adult dark military space opera, without romance. Maybe it's a bit niche but nothing too obscure.

preferred audience: adult (25+), 60-70% men, English-speaking (I think B1 level is enough to understand my books).

stats (book 1):

Bloodstained Skies: The Core of Rage

Reviews: 2-6, around 4.5 stars

Price: 0.99$ (always), on KU

Pages: 286

stats (book 2):

Bloodstained Skies: The Vanquisher of Kings I

Reviews: 2-4, around 4.5 stars

Price: 0.99$ (always), on KU

Pages: 211

Part 1 - 🏆 nice! I will use again

BookRaid - little sweet site where you pay only when somebody clicks on your book. I have very, VERY mixed results but the price is really tempting (0.20$ per click for 0.99$ book, I usually get around 20 clicks).

IASFA - all SF/Fantasy writers need it. They offer free and 5$ promos, and they promote a different theme every month (like a monthly promo of military SF books, Fantasy short stories, etc.)

Bookspry - this site tricked me. A few people recommended me Bookspry, so decided to visit them. And what's the 1st thing I see? Some suggestive book covers with half-naked humanoid male aliens. Pretty... bleh. But the deeper I browsed, the less weird covers I found, so I thought "Maybe? Come on, it's just 7$". And do you know what? Best 7$ I've ever spent. Just remember that if you don't write romance, add a clear note that your book is not a romance (so some readers won't be disappointed.)

Voracious Readers Only (newsletter builder) - best site to start building your newsletter for free. You're giving 20 (maybe a bit more) free copies of your e-book and you pay absolutely NOTHING. Later you can decide if you want to use their paid newsletter builder. They charge around 0.7$ per new sub, but you will never pay more than 30$, no matter how many new subs do you get. There's a little disadvantage - my subscribers from VRO have around 5% unsubscribe rate, but I think it's still worth it.

StoryOrigin (newsletter builder) - it offers so much options for your newsletter that it deserves a separate blog post. Long story short - the most cost-effective newsletter option for you.

Book Cave (newsletter builder) - good thing? It's 100% FREE. Bad thing? It's 90% romance, but you can make your own group promo (it's a bit harder to get members for the non-romance promos).

Part 2 -🤔 deserve the 2nd chance

SFF Book Bonanza - I tried their free book promo option that collects readers' e-mail. The results aren't that good for now, but I'll try again. The owner of this site puts so much effort into building the sci-fi audience, so he really deserves the 2nd chance.

And this is basically a list of book promo sites that offer free submission option. You lose absolutely nothing and win... well, maybe 3 sales? Paid option not recommended.

Awesome Gang, Book Bongo, Book Circle, Discount Book Man, Free Book Tips, It's Write Now, Best Book Monkey (free), Reading Deals, Self-Pub Man, Book Reader Magazine, Snicks List, Book Preview Club, BooksReadFree.ly, Free99books, humanmade.net, BingeBooks, bestreads.app, bookois.com, Book Luver (free option)

Part 3 - 🤦‍♂️ don't work but maybe I can't use them correctly

AllAuthor - 1000 profile views, 4 book views and that's all. Quite useless, but at least free. And all their contests, like "the best cover art"? You can invest your time and effort into something more effective.

Facebook ads - expensive AF, zero effect, it takes way too much time to learn them, my accounts get banned for some weird reasons, bots everywhere, but at least the targeting options are nice.

Quora ads - cheap (even 0.3$ per click!) but useless. Zero effect. And my audience was super-extra-ultra-targeted here.

BookRebel - I got a few sales but the cost was way too high. Maybe that wasn't my lucky day.

eReaderIQ - one of the cheaper options (10$), didn't work but maybe I'll try again

Book Bub (ads) - thanks, I hate it. I would love to throw it into the 5th category, but I know that authors absolutely praise this site. A whole big ONE $ per click? How am I supposed to get any return of investment here? I appreciate the detailed targeting options but the price is crazy.

Part 4 😒- meh, maybe, quite ok, rather acceptable, but a bit sus

eBookStage - one or two sales, but the cost was wayyyy too high.

Inkitt - I didn't see one single book that ISN'T a romance here. Overall, it may work if you already have a huuuge audience of Twilight fangirls. Oh, and I heard they got banned from Reddit (?) for spamming with their ads.

The Fussy Librarian - 10 sales, a few page reads from KU, overall... meh. I heard many positive opinions about them so that's why I'm really disappointed. But I'll try again (look at the 6th category).

Geektastic Books - it's only 5$! Cool, but it's only 1 sale. I wouldn't buy their more expensive options.

Nebula of Books - the same situation. Only 9$, and a few sales. Maybe, just maybe I'll try again.

Reign of Reads (book promo) - just like the option above. They offer mailing list building too but when I asked them about the average number of subs, I got no answer. Shady.

Royal Road ads - it you write simple LitRPG/GameLit for an easily pleased audience, then you should invest this 50$. And any other genres? Nope. Not worth it. No one is going to read the next "Dune" or "Lord Of The Rings" here.

Part 5 - ☢️ better call the liquidators! Worse radioactive waste than whole Chernobyl!

KU Addicts Express - they took my 20$ and I didn't get even one page read on KU. The people here didn't even check my book. 20$ for something like this is a pure extravagance.

Best Book Monkey (paid) - ewwww, paying that much for nothing? Even my free book got around 20-30 downloads here.

Pinterest ads and Instagram ads - sweet targeting, TERRIBLE result. Especially with Instagram. 2$ per click? No, thanks.

Reddit (overall) - ewwww x2. I heard a perfect conclusion about this site:

"People on these subreddits seem to be stuck in the 80s' and they will ignore everything that isn't Dune."

Part 6 - 👀 looks good, I will try it

This Is Writing - they let you submit a guest post, short stories, poems etc. Looks like such a huge effort for a pretty small exposition but maybe, when I'm bored as hell, I will try it.

Bargain Booksy - looks quite expensive but they offer a newsletter builder too. Maybe. Just maybe.

Book Adrenaline - I write sci-fi and they accept thrillers, mystery etc. so when I write a typical thriller in SF setting, I will check them out.

Book Barbarian - they're PICKY AS HELL. Maybe in 20 years, when I become a famous writer with tons of pro reviews, I'll give them a chance. Or more like, they will give me a chance.

Book Bub (featured deal) - let's ignore all my terrible experiences with BB for a moment. The featured deal seems cool but it's very, very risky. The price is very high (hundreds of $) but the earnings may be stellar too. Right now, I'm not ready to take such a giant risk.

Book Cave - I'm waiting for my 10 Amazon reviews (their requirement) and LET'S GOOO

BookDoggy - I want to promote my free reader magnet here.

The Fussy Librarian (free reader magnet) - maybe this time I'll be more successful?

Ebook Hounds - their number of subscribers is very clear, everything looks professional overall. But this price...

LitNuts and BookRunes - I heard mixed opinions about them. Maybe.

Book Below - little mailing list, the price isn't encouraging, but they offer a huge discount for the 1st order.

PriceDropped Books - did you ever heard about them? Me neither. But these 3 people (who ever heard about it) say it's quite ok.

BookClicker (newsletter builder) - I plan to try this one next year because it's free

Fiction-Atlas (newsletter builder) - trying it right now

Aconite Cafe (newsletter builder) - I'm waiting for any SciFi promo on their site

Book Boast (newsletter builder) - similar to StoryOrigin but with smaller audience. Still worth a try (because when you use one site only, you will end up with newsletter swaps with the same authors all the time)

Readers' Favourite - in theory, I used their "free review option", but getting a free review takes ages. I need their review to use other tools on their website so... we will see.

BKnights - I heard they're way less effective than they used to be, but spending 5-10$ to try them isn't a huge fortune.

Amazon ads - trying this one right now

Bonus - how to check if the book promotion site is legit

Avoid any social media promos. It doesn't work anymore. 1000 tweets for 50$? Cool, but "twitter stopped selling books around 2011". And overall, the organic reach on social media is embarrassing.
Be careful with testimonials. Some reviews of these sites may be sponsored, and the negative opinions aren't displayed willingly. Remember - Reddit will tell you the truth. Yeah, I don't like its audience, but at least they're honest to the bone and they enjoy exposing scams.
"Promote your book to the 500 000 visitors on my site!" Wait. First, you have to check their a) number of visits, b) the source of visits. https://www.similarweb.com/ will show you the numbers and the countries. Countries, as the source of visits, are very important. 3rd world countries, Africa, Asia and sometimes Eastern Europe aren't a good source of traffic. Why? Because of bots. It's all because of bots. These countries are considered "bot farms", and the clicks are made by the computer or by people who earn money by clicking things.

That's all for now. I will post updates whenever I try any of these promos. Everything here is based on my experience (unless stated otherwise), so feel free to disagree. Maybe you were more or less lucky with some of these sites, so share your experiences in the comments.

If you know a website that:

promotes non-romantic sci-fi
costs less than 30$-40$
isn't mentioned on this list

recommend it in the comments too.

If you found it useful, please share it with other writers.

Search

BloodStained Skies