Brand, Ideas, Story, Style, My Life: 76+ Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook

76+ Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook

If you are looking for places to submit your free KDP select promotion for your Kindle eBook, you are in the right place! I also share my 11 step checklist with you!

The Power of the KDP Select Program

One powerful way to launch a new book is by using Amazon’s KDP Select program. This program launched in December 2011 and I first enrolled one of our books in the program in early January 2012. The program is no longer as effective as it was in 2012, but we have still seen success with our books as well as the books of other authors.

What we normally do is to use the KDP Select program to launch our new books and then we remove them after our 90 day contract. This allows us to publish them to other eBook platforms. I use Smashwords to distribute my books to Nook, the iBookstore and others. You can find out more about how to do this in my training program here.

Please note, that you have to go in and choose to remove your book from the KDP Select program or else it will automatically renew. You can do this by logging into http://kdp.amazon.com, clicking the link for the bookshelf and then clicking “info” on the right side under the column for KDP Select. There you can choose to remove the check mark that automatically re-enrolls your book in KDP Select.

For books that are part of a series, it may be beneficial to keep the first book in the KDP select program to gain exposure and interest in the rest of the books in your series. Also, make sure you put an excerpt of the next book in the back of your book as well as links to the books from the entire series.

Varied Results But Increased Royalties Overall

Realize that your results will vary. Some of our books have done amazing in a free promotion and others not so great. But, overall, using the KDP select program to launch our new books has increased our Kindle royalties from double digits per month in 2011 to now consisting of more than half of our entire income. This is significant and makes it very worthwhile to me. Realize that we have been writing and publishing books on a full-time basis and have published a new book almost every month.

One of the most powerful aspects of running a KDP Select promotion is the free advertising Amazon will give you afterwards. For each person that downloaded your book, they have also downloaded other free books or bought other books from Amazon. Amazon then figures out which books were most likely to be bought from the same customer and will include them in the list “Customers Who Bought This Book Also Bought.” Therefore, your book starts showing up on other book pages and getting free advertising which often boosts your sales and rankings.

Things change often at Amazon, so I encourage you to do your research and decide what is best for you books.

My 11 Step Checklist for a KDP Select Promo

This is not a comprehensive list, but gives you a good idea of what I try to do for each free promotion I run.

To Do for Free Days:

1.) ASAP: Get 5-10 reviews posted.

2.) Optional: approach blog hosts re: blog tour.

3.) 1-2 weeks before: submit to free sites listed below.

4.) Write tweets, FB posts, blog posts and announcement email.

5.) Send tweets, FB posts and blog post to authors willing to cross promote for you.

6.) Optional: Set up FB/StumbledUpon/Twitter advertising for the day of the free promo at least one day early so that it is approved in time.

7.) Submit to sites that only allow you to submit the day of the promo below.

8.) Post on Facebook profile, Facebook pages and Facebook groups on free day.

9.) Send out e-mail about promotion to your list on free day.

10.) Write tweets for your first paid day after the promo and include #borrow #amazonprime to try to get more borrows.

11.) Optional: Set up paid advertising for the first paid day after your promotion. See options in our book Author Publicity Pack.

47+ Now 76+ Places to Submit Your Free KDP Promotion for Your Kindle eBook

Listings and requirements tend to change. These are updated as of February 2014 and we have added many new sites. We will continue to update this list and add new resources, so share any updates or new resources you find in the comments below.

Free and Paid eBook Submission Tools

Note: An easy way to submit to the tops sites is by using the Author Marketing Club’s free submission tool. Or you can manually go through the links below. Whichever works best for you!

Two Paid Options:

Want to save tons of time submitting to these sites? There are two options I recommend.

Option One:

If you plan on submitting free book promotions more than once, I recommend KDROI. You pay a one-time fee for unlimited submissions.

Get KDROI Here Option Two:

However,if you have just one free book promotion to submit, check out this paid (but inexpensive) eBook submission tool below. Right now it costs $29 and takes less than 5 minutes to submit to 25+ sites.

Get this eBook Submission Tool Here

6 E-mails To Send:

Here is a sample e-mail that I use when I sent out information about my free promotions. Feel free to use it and adapt it with your information.

===================

I wanted to let you know that I have a special promotion on Kindle coming up where my newest book (Christian nonfiction) will be available for free.

Free on Wednesday 11/14/12, Thursday 11/15/12 and Friday 11/16/12 ” 21 Stories of Gratitude: The Power of Living Life With a Grateful Heart.” (ASIN: B009YWM3WI) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009YWM3WI

7 reviews with an average 5 star rating

Here is where you can find me online.

Blog: www.bodyandsoulpublishing.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/getfreechristianbooks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/freebookschrist

Thanks for letting your readers know about this free book promotion!

~Shelley Hitz

===================

Send title & dates to staff (at) indiehousebooks.com with Free eBook in subject line. Listed on first come first served basis. Must have at least one week notice.
http://kindlenationdaily.com/contact-us/ – email website owner, Steve Windwalker at KindleNation (at) gmail.com, hppress (at) gmail.com
http://thedigitalinkspot.blogspot.com/p/contact-us.html – send email to thedigitalinkspot (at) gmail.com
Send an email to FreeEbooksDailyBlog (at) gmail.com for listing on Free Ebooks Daily and Free Ebooks Daily Facebook page
AppNewser Free eBooks of the Week: Our editors pick a few free eBooks every week. To submit email your pitch to appnewser (at) mediabistro.com
webmaster@icravefreebies.com from http://www.icravefreebies.com/contact/

8 Contact Forms:

I simply copy and paste my e-mail from above into the following contact forms.

45 Website Forms:

www.pixelofink.com/sfkb
http://ereadernewstoday.com/ent-free-book-submissions/ – Must have more than 3 reviews and a 4 star rating or above. – Contact them at least 3 days before it’s scheduled to go free.
http://digitalbooktoday.com/12-top-100-submit-your-free-book-to-be-included-on-this-list/ – The majority of submitted books that meet the minimum guidelines of 18+ reviews and 4.0+ star average are listed for up to 3 consecutive free days. For a minimal fee they will list a limited number of books that have little or no reviews.
http://www.fkbooksandtips.com/for-authors/free-kindle-promotion/ – first come, first serve $25 flat fee
http://authormarketingclub.com/members/announce-your-free-book – Need to sign up for a free account to announce your book here
http://ereadergirl.com/submit-your-ebook/
http://awesomegang.com/submit-your-book
http://www.thatbookplace.com/free-promo-submissions/
http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-about-free-books.html
http://www.freebookdude.com/2014/03/list-your-free-amazon-kindle-books.html
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFpBd0JUMk9KZzZ0TXJBYXRENFZYMVE6MQ
http://www.totallyfreestuff.com/submit.asp
http://ebookshabit.com/for-authors/
http://bargainebookhunter.com/free-book-notification-form/ – It is recommended that you contact us a week or more in advance of when you have planned your KDP Select free days. Please include the title, dates your book will be free, and the ASIN or a link to your book on Amazon. Do not cloak, shorten or include your amazon affiliate code in your life. Such actions will guarantee your book will be ignored!
http://indiebookoftheday.com/authors/free-on-kindle-listing/
http://ebooklister.net/submit.php
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFEyLTFUSHREd05KaVItaDdUUkVVNGc6MA#gid=0
http://www.frugal-freebies.com/p/submit-freebie.html
http://www.theereadercafe.com/p/authors.html
http://onehundredfreebooks.com/author-free-kindle-book-submission.html
http://igniteyourbook.com/free-ebook-submission – They only accept eBooks that are currently available through Amazon.com, books can only be listed once andd duplicate submissions will be deleted, your book must be free for the entire time period you indicate on your submission page and your book can only be featured for a total of 14 days, so choose wisely.
http://ebookdealofday.com/free-book-feature/ (Romance only, $5 to be featured)
http://ebookdealoftheday.co.uk/free-book-feature/ (UK – Romance only)
http://www.armadilloebooks.com/submit-free-ebooks/
http://bookfreebies.com/submit-book.php
http://bookangel.co.uk/submit-your-book/
http://bookdealhunter.com/submit-free-book/ (must be an e-mail subscriber to their blog)
http://bookgoodies.com/submit-your-free-kindle-days/
http://bookpinning.com/?sws=home/submit-book
http://contentmo.com/submit-your-free-ebook-promo
http://freekindlefiction.blogspot.com/p/tell-us-about-free-books.html (fiction only)
http://form.jotformpro.com/form/21078469493969 (for the Kindle Book Review)
http://www.ereaderperks.com/authors/
http://www.ereaderutopia.com/
http://www.freebooks.com/submit/
http://freedigitalreads.com/author-submissions/
http://free-kindle-books.deha-solutions.com/promote-your-book/
http://www.itswritenow.com/submit-your-book/
http://kindlebookpromos.luckycinda.com/?page_id=283
http://slashedreads.com/free-book-page-promotions/
http://freediscountedbooks.com/submit/ (must sign up for a free account)
http://lovelybookpromotions.com/?page_id=124
http://bookcanyon.com/submitbook/
http://www.mommasaysread.com/author-reviews/author-services/
http://www.iloveebooks.com/for-authors.html

8 Places To Submit Your Book On Your Free Days:

You are not able to do this tasks ahead of time, but for extra exposure can submit your book to these sites the day of your free promotion when you book is actually free.

http://snickslist.com/books/place-ad/
http://www.kornerkonnection.com/index.html
http://addictedtoebooks.com/free – you must have an account and must post it only on the day it is free
http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/171 – you must have an account and must submit it on the thread for the day it is free only
http://www.indie-book-bargains.co.uk/addBook.php
Stumble your book sales page on Amazon.com. See this video tutorial I created if you’re not sure how to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5vIADBqbyQ
Add your book page to Reddit.com and use an appropriate subreddit. See this video tutorial I created if you’re not sure how to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO2VTIeBYq4
http://www.freeebooksdaily.com/p/blog-page_17.html – send her a tweet or Facebook message and she will promote it as able

{Bonus } 7 Christian Genre Specific Websites:

Christian Kindle News – $10 to submit your book, http://christiankindlenews.com/submit-0-99-ebook-listing/
Spirit Filled Kindle http://spiritfilledkindle.com/ – contact Pauline at hosannahighest (at) hotmail.com. Also you can add @P_Creeden #RT to your tweet, and they will retweet you to their twitter followers once/week!
Faithful Reads – http://faithfulreads.com/authors/
Inspired Reads – Christian bargain ebooks http://www.inspiredreads.com/contact/
http://christianbookreaders.com/submit-your-free-books/
Post on CrossReads forums on the thread for the date your book is free (requires a free membership) http://crossreads.com/community/forumdisplay.php?10-FREE-Books
Christian Women Reader’s Club – Must register for a free membership prior to submitting your book. You can then promote up to two books a month free of charge: http://cwwriters.com/readers/for-authors/submit-your-book/

Purchase Advertising for Your Free Promotion

It is a TON of work to submit to all of these sites and go through my 11-step checklist. Therefore, you may want to consider purchasing advertising instead.

2/26/14 UPDATE: Previously we recommended a service called, “Free Book Service.” In December I had e-mailed Amazon to make sure it was okay to use a service like this and they said yes. However, Amazon has changed their mind. This was brought to our attention from other authors and we e-mailed Amazon directly to confirm. This was their reply…

While we support the legitimate promotional efforts of our publishers, we have determined that Free Book Service’s services manipulate Kindle sales rank. We take activities that jeopardize the experience of our customers and our publishers very seriously and may take action against publisher accounts that engage in sales rank manipulation.

Therefore, we no longer recommend you use that service. However, there are many websites you can get paid advertising and we outline these in our book, Author Publicity Pack.

One such site is BookLemur. This website promotes eBooks priced under $2.99 (including free book promotions) on their website, via genre targeted e-mails and on social media. They allow you to select the date of your promotion, however, they do fill up fast, so make sure you purchase your ad in advance here.

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I operate in an ethical way and will not do anything that puts my KDP account in jeopardy. If I have a question about something, I will e-mail Amazon directly. If they say it is okay, then I trust their word and vice versa. For example, last year, many authors were using fancy HTML code in their book descriptions on Amazon. I e-mailed Amazon and they said it was against their terms of service to use that kind of code. Therefore, although I wanted to use the fancy HTML code, I didn’t.

I want you to be able to trust our recommendations and know that we do thorough research before recommending any product or service. If you have any questions on this, please let us know.

Reaching an International Audience

Kindle books do reach an international audience. However, there are some countries that are not currently able to download free Kindle books. If your targeting these countries with your promotion, you may want to try a different method.

Kindles and Kindle content are NOT available in the following countries: (as of December 2014)

To get the most updated information, simply contact Amazon via your KDP dashboard.

United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Islamic Republic of, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Maldives, Malaysia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Syria, Chad, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Yemen

What Has Worked for You?

Have you used the KDP select program? If so, share your results with us below. Also, if you have any other websites to add, share them in the comments so we can add them to our list.

Be Social! Share These Resources With Other Authors Below: