TL;DR: Book promo sites give you exposure, not book reviews. You’re paying to reach readers who may download or buy your book. Still, you can encourage downloaders to leave honest reviews by making the next steps easy. Find out how in this article.
Table of Contents
Why Self-Published Authors Consider Running Book Promos?
When’s the Best Time to Run a Book Promo?
- Myth: Your Book Has to Be Free to Run a Promotion
- Myth: Book Promos Are Only for Launch Weeks
- Myth: Downloads = Reviews
Top 5 Ways to Encourage Book Promo Readers to Leave an Honest Review
How to Measure the Success of a Book Promo Campaign
Book Promotions 101
Book promo sites introduce your book to readers through email newsletters, website listings, social posts, or other promotional placements. Basically, instead of building that audience from scratch, you pay to put your book in front of readers the site has already attracted, often people looking for free or discounted books in your genre. Some sites also offer free listings.
What you’re paying for is exposure. Your promotion gives readers an opportunity to discover and download (or buy) your ebook. However, note that such promos don't guarantee that people who download your book will end up reading it or leaving a review.
Why Self-Published Authors Consider Running Book Promos?
If you don't yet have a large reader list, a promo site can introduce your book to people beyond your existing audience. You can use that exposure to find new readers, give an older title fresh attention, or introduce the first book in a series so interested readers can discover the rest. A strong cover, clear description, and audience fit give the placement a better chance of converting attention into downloads or sales.
You may also want a concentrated burst of activity rather than occasional downloads spread across weeks. Some authors believe that this sends Amazon’s algorithm the right signals; i.e., real readers responding to an appealing book offer. The confirmed benefit is narrower. Amazon uses recent and historical activity in its rankings, and free promotional downloads can improve your position in its Free charts, giving readers another opportunity to discover your book.
Note: Amazon maintains separate Free and Paid rankings; free downloads are not equivalent to paid sales.
The longer-term opportunity comes when those new readers actually engage: they may read your book, buy another title, or return after the promotion. Those outcomes can support your author business. Amazon doesn't disclose a formula that guarantees a lasting recommendation or paid-ranking boost from a particular number of free downloads. So aim for interested readers and follow-on activity, rather than a large download count alone. (See Amazon’s Sales Ranking guidance.)
When’s the Best Time to Run a Book Promo?
A common approach is to coordinate your book promo campaign with KDP Select Free Book Promotion days. If your Kindle ebook is enrolled in KDP Select, you can offer it free for up to five days during each 90-day enrollment period. A free offer lowers the barrier for a reader who has never heard of you, while the promo site helps that reader discover it.
For example, say it's Day 1 (launch day), and you price your ebook at $9.99. You then schedule a KDP Select Free Book Promo where you lower that price to $0.00 for five days. Now, you don't have to do five days. You can run a KDP Select Free Book Promo for fewer days. The point is to decide when to run a KDP Free Book Promo and time that with running a 3rd party book promotion campaign.
Remember to book your placement early enough to secure the date, and confirm that your book will show the advertised price in every marketplace the service requires. Check the provider’s full pricing window, including time zones, rather than assuming a feature date and your KDP promotion will always line up.
Myth: Your Book Has to Be Free to Run a Promotion
You don’t have to make your book free to use a book promo site. You can promote a discounted price instead, provided the site accepts paid deals. For example, if your ebook is enrolled in KDP Select, you could use a Kindle Countdown Deal. However, you cannot run a Kindle Countdown Deal and a Free Book Promotion for the same ebook within the same 90-day enrollment period. You must choose one or the other.
What you can do is manually "price down" your ebook. For example, if your usual price is $4.99, you could temporarily reduce it to $0.99 and schedule your book promotions around that offer. Check that the discounted price is live before the promotion starts, then manually restore your regular price afterward.
Note: Ensure your $0.99 markdown meets KDP’s minimum price requirements, which depend partly on file size. Also, note that at $0.99, you’ll use the 35% royalty option, rather than the 70% rate available through an eligible Countdown Deal.
Myth: Book Promos Are Only for Launch Weeks
You don’t have to save your book promotion activities just for launch week! You can use it to:
- Revive a backlist title. If your book’s sales have slowed, a promotion can introduce it to fresh readers who missed its original release.
- Build interest before a sequel. Promoting your first book in a series gives new readers a chance to discover your work and catch up before your next installment arrives.
- Support a relaunch. If you’ve improved your cover, description, or content, a promotion gives you a reason to put the updated book back in front of readers.
- Connect with a seasonal topic. You could promote your journal before the New Year or your gardening guide ahead of planting season, when the subject is especially relevant.
- Give an established book another push. You don’t need a new release or major update. A well-timed discount can give readers a fresh reason to try a book already in your catalog.
Choose your date when your book listing, promotional price, and target audience are ready, not simply because it’s launch week!
Myth: Downloads = Reviews
Your campaign ends with hundreds of downloads, yay! But wait, your review count barely moves. That doesn't necessarily mean the promotion failed. A download shows that someone acquired your ebook. It doesn't tell you whether they opened it, finished it, or chose to share an opinion.
Readers may collect free books for later, start and stop, or enjoy a book without reviewing it. Also, don't forget that those who submit a review must also meet Amazon's requirements (particularly the $50 minimum spend over the past 12 months). Amazon also checks book review submissions before publishing them, and those checks can take a few days or even weeks (long after your book promotion ends). Your cover, sample, opening pages, and genre fit all affect the journey between discovering a book and finishing it.
Bottom line: A book promo campaign primarily supplies reach and an opportunity for downloads or sales. A review-focused reader community serves a different purpose. You can use both, but neither gives you a guaranteed number of reviews or a guaranteed rating.
Top 5 Ways to Encourage Book Promo Readers to Leave an Honest Review
Sure, book promos are for exposure, but that doesn't mean you cannot encourage downloaders to become reviewers. Here are a few tips for you.
#1: Put a Clear Invitation at the End of Your Book
Place a short request for a book review: “If you’ve read this book, please consider leaving an honest review. Your experience can help another reader decide whether it’s right for them.” Keep the invitation open to different opinions. A review should be optional, rather than something the reader owes you for receiving a free copy.
#2: Make the Review Page Easy to Find
Include a direct review link in your ebook’s back matter. When clicked (or typed in a web browser), this link sends the reader directly to your book's review page. This means less searching and fewer steps when they’re ready to share their honest opinion. Making your book's review page easier to find removes friction; it doesn't bypass reviewer eligibility or Amazon’s checks.
#3: Invite Readers to Stay in Touch
A book promo download doesn’t give you the reader’s email address or permission to contact them. Give them a voluntary way to join your newsletter instead. At the back of your book, include a sign-up link offering something relevant, such as a bonus chapter, useful worksheet, or updates about your next release.
Keep joining your newsletter separate from reviewing your book. Once readers sign up, deliver what you promised and share useful or interesting content before asking for anything.
#4: Send a Gentle Follow-Up to Readers Who Opted In
Give readers enough time for your book’s length and format, and provide whatever you promised during sign-up. After a while, send a brief optional review invitation to relevant subscribers. You can ask what they thought and explain that a short honest review is welcome. Do NOT send repeated demands, request five stars, or ask only subscribers who already praised the book.
#5: Keep a Separate Plan for Review-Minded Readers
Alongside using book promo sites, consider building an ARC team or a reader community whose members actively look for books to read and assess. BookMonty can also complement your book promotion plans by providing an avenue for readers and listeners to connect with your books and audiobooks. (See also How to Get Amazon Book Reviews: A Practical Guide for Self-Published Authors.)
How to Measure the Success of a Book Promo Campaign
Start with one clear goal. Is it more downloads, paid sales, new readers for a series, renewed interest in a backlist book, or growth in your opted-in audience? Your goal determines whether the campaign was useful.
Track These Results Separately
- Reach and clicks: record the book promo site’s reported exposure or clicks where available. A click measures interest, not completed reading.
- Downloads and orders: record free units and paid orders separately by title and marketplace. Compare the campaign period with your baseline.
- Royalties and reading: monitor earned royalties and eligible Kindle Unlimited pages read, where relevant. Free downloads themselves earn no sale royalties, so what you're gauging here is "audience match." That is, is the book promo site's audience connecting with your book? If it doesn't, decide if that's really due to the site's audience or your book's cover, description, etc. If it's the former, consider dropping the site from future book promos. If it's the latter, make your edits.
- Series and backlist activity: watch whether other titles gain orders or reading over the following weeks. Record other campaigns that may contribute.
- Opted-in reader engagement: record new newsletter sign-ups and relevant replies. Avoid assuming that you know which downloader finished the book.
- Published reviews: record changes by marketplace at practical checkpoints such as 7, 14, and 30 days. These are observation dates, not review deadlines.
And of course...
Calculate cost per download as promotion spend divided by promotional downloads. For example, suppose you paid $50 for a book promo, and your ebook received 675 downloads during the promotion. Your calculation would be $50 ÷ 675 = approximately $0.07 per download.
This tells you how much you spent to get your book into a reader’s hands, but NOT whether they read it, reviewed it, or bought another of your books. You can use this figure to compare promotions, then look at later sales, newsletter sign-ups, and other results to judge their wider value. (If you booked several book promos on the same day, calculate the combined cost per download. You may not be able to tell which site brought each download, though.)
Here's another example: suppose your book promo resulted in 1000 free downloads, but you gained only a few newsletter sign-ups, your KENP barely changed, and you received only a handful of new reviews. Was the promotion a bust? Not necessarily. Did your book climb Amazon’s Free charts during the promotion? Did your paid sales increase after you restored the book to its regular price? If you promoted a series opener, did you earn more royalties from later books over the following weeks?
Those results can help you assess the promotion beyond downloads alone. However, a higher Free-chart position doesn't automatically translate into a better Paid ranking, and free-copy reading doesn't generate KENP royalties. Judge your campaign against its original goal, give readers time to read, and wait a few weeks before drawing conclusions about reviews or series sales.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Book Promotion Sites Worth It?
They can be worth testing when their audience matches your book, and the cost fits your goal. Compare downloads, incremental royalties, and later reader activity with your normal results. No service is equally effective for every genre or book.
How Much Does a Book Promo Cost?
You can find free book promo listings, while paid placements can range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars or more. The price depends on the site, your genre, the audience you’re reaching, and whether your book is free or discounted. Check each site’s current rates and requirements before booking.
If you’re new to book promotions, start with a budget you can comfortably test. Track your cost per download or sale, then watch for later results, such as newsletter sign-ups and sales of your other books. Remember, you’re paying for exposure, so a higher price doesn't automatically mean more readers... or more reviews.
What Is the Best Way to Select a Book Promo Site?
Choose channels that reach readers who already enjoy your genre or subject. For example, you could consider Freebooksy for a free fiction promotion, with categories including romance, mystery, and fantasy. For nonfiction, BookBub offers targeted categories such as Advice & How-To and General Nonfiction, although Featured Deals are selective and acceptance isn’t guaranteed. Both platforms cover fiction and nonfiction, so choose by your book’s category, offer, and budget. Your book listing, reader newsletter, relevant promo sites, and ongoing reader outreach can work together. Start with a manageable test and expand based on your own results.
Disclosure: You’re reading an independent guide. BookMonty is not affiliated with Freebooksy or BookBub; they’re included as examples to help you explore your book promotion options.
When Is the Best Time to Run a Book Promotion?
Run it when your book page and offer are ready, and the timing serves a clear goal. That could be a KDP Select Free Promotion, a discounted launch, a sequel release, a backlist revival, or a relevant seasonal opportunity. There is no universally best weekday for every book.
Does Your Book Have to Be in KDP Select to Use Promo Sites?
No. KDP Select is required for Amazon’s Free Book Promotion and Kindle Countdown Deal features. Promo sites can accept other eligible offers, including discounted books outside KDP Select and books on other retailers. Please check each service’s requirements.
Do Free Kindle Downloads Improve Your Amazon Sales Rank?
Free downloads can improve your book's position in Amazon’s Free rankings while the promotion runs. However, Amazon separates Free and Paid rankings, so you shouldn't treat free downloads as paid sales or assume they guarantee a lasting Paid-chart boost.
Having said that, a boost in visibility can still be valuable. You may reach readers who would otherwise never discover your book. If that attention leads to paid purchases after the promotion, or purchases of your other books, it can support your sales beyond the free offer. Track those results separately rather than assuming a higher Free ranking will carry over.
Can Readers Review a Book They Downloaded for Free?
Absolutely. They may submit an honest review if they meet Amazon’s account and review requirements. Note, though, that their reviews will not have Amazon's Verified Purchase stamp.
How Long Does It Take to Get Reviews After a Promotion?
There is no fixed timetable. For one, readers need time to read and decide whether to review, so watch results over several weeks, while remembering that some readers will never review.
Your next book promotion can bring new readers through the door. If you also want to reach readers who actively look for books to read and review, consider making BookMonty part of your ongoing plan. Explore how it fits your books with our free 10-day trial below.
