Book promotion sites: what they cost and what to expect
By R. S. Breed · Updated
Book promotion sites send daily emails to readers who have signed up for cheap or free books. You pay for a slot, discount your book for a day or a few days, and hope the list's readers pick it up. For many indie authors this is the first paid marketing they try.
It can work. It can also burn money quickly. This guide lists what the main sites charge, what they're good for, and how to tell whether a promotion earned its keep.
Prices at a glance
These are prices at the time of writing (September 2026), in US dollars. Every site changes its prices, and most charge different amounts by genre and by the price you're discounting to. Check the site's own pricing page before you book.
Deal and freebie newsletters
| Site | Price range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BookBub Featured Deal | About $122 to $4,216 | Varies by genre and price tier. Romance subgenres run from $206 (Time Travel Romance) to $3,057 (Erotic Romance); Contemporary Romance is $620 to $2,910. Heavily curated. |
| Freebooksy | $30 to $245 | For free books |
| Bargain Booksy | $25 to $240 | For discounted books |
| Bargain Booksy Deal of the Day | $95 to $240 | A separate, pricier Bargain Booksy option |
| The Fussy Librarian | $10 to $79 | Free books $20 to $79; discounted books $10 to $22 |
| Robin Reads | $40 to $85 | |
| ENT (eReader News Today) | $40 to $140 |
Reviews, advance readers and giveaways
| Service | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Reedsy Discovery | $299 per review | Charged only when a reviewer completes a review; reviewers can pick it up for up to three months, and no review is guaranteed |
| BookSirens | $100 a year, or $10 per book plus $2 per reader | Advance-copy distribution to reviewers |
| Booksprout | $9 to $59 a month | Advance-copy and review management. Prices from third-party comparisons; Booksprout's pricing page wouldn't load for checking. |
| NetGalley | $575 for a six-month listing | Optional one-week Featured Title for $150. Co-op listings are reported to cost less |
| Goodreads Giveaways | $119 or $599 | Standard or Premium package. Entrants must live in the US (ebook) or the US or Canada (print) |
What each type is for
Deal newsletters
Most of the sites in the first table do the same job: they put your discounted or free book in front of readers who like deals. The differences are list size, genre mix and how picky they are.
BookBub is the largest and the hardest to get. Its pricing page lists more than a million subscribers in some categories. It is heavily curated, and its editors turn down many submissions. If you're not selected, BookBub says you can resubmit four weeks after your original submission, or straight away if you switch from a discounted deal to a free one. Plenty of authors are turned down repeatedly before getting a Featured Deal. Treat it as a bonus, not a plan.
Freebooksy and Bargain Booksy (both from Written Word Media), The Fussy Librarian, Robin Reads and ENT are easier to book. Book ahead of your promo dates and check each site's own lead times and eligibility rules.
Review and advance-copy services
These are for getting early readers and reviews, not direct sales. They work best before or at launch.
- Reedsy Discovery puts your book in its review library for reviewers to browse for up to three months. You pay for each review a reviewer completes, not for the listing. A reviewer may pick it up, or no one may, so you can't count on a review.
- BookSirens and Booksprout send your advance copy to readers who have signed up to review. Reviews aren't guaranteed, and readers must be free to leave honest ones.
- NetGalley is where many librarians, booksellers and trade reviewers look for upcoming titles. It is expensive for a solo author, which is why co-ops (several authors sharing one listing) exist.
- Goodreads Giveaways put your book in front of Goodreads users who enter to win it. Goodreads requires entrants to add the book to their Want to Read shelf, and followers and Want to Read readers are emailed about the giveaway. Only US residents can enter ebook (Kindle) giveaways, and only US and Canadian residents can enter print giveaways, where you buy and post the books yourself. From Australia, that means international postage. Whether any of it turns into sales is another matter.
Honest expectations
A few things authors learn the expensive way:
- Promos move fewer downloads than they used to. Many authors report that the same site at the same price produces less than it did a few years ago. More books are competing for the same inboxes.
- Free downloads aren't readers. Plenty of people who grab a free book never open it. The number that matters is how many go on to buy your next book.
- One book on its own rarely pays back. Promotions earn most for a first-in-series, where readers who enjoy it buy the rest. A standalone at 99 cents has to earn its costs in a single sale.
- Your cover and blurb still do the selling. A promo gets you seen. If the cover looks wrong for the genre or the blurb is weak, the slot is wasted.
Stacking promotions
Stacking means booking several promo sites across a few days around one discount. The aim is to hold your book high in the store rankings for longer than a single spike would.
Stack carefully:
- Spread the sites over several days rather than putting them all on one. A steady run of sales helps rankings more than a single spike that drops away overnight.
- Put your biggest site in the middle or near the end, once earlier sites have lifted your rank.
- Don't double up on audiences. Two sites with heavily overlapping readers on the same day mostly reach the same people twice.
- Keep the discount running a day or two after the last promo to catch stragglers.
- Match the price to the site. Sites that feature free books and sites that feature 99-cent books have different rules. Check that your price qualifies on every date you've booked.
Don't overspend on a stack for a book with no follow-up. A stack makes most sense when there's a series or a backlist to catch the new readers.
Track the results yourself
Promo sites don't report your sales. You have to do it, and it's worth the ten minutes.
What to record
For each promotion, note:
- The site, the date and what you paid
- Your book's price during the promo
- Your sales rank the morning before, and at a set time on each promo day
- Downloads or sales per day (from your KDP or distributor dashboard)
- Kindle Unlimited page reads, if you're enrolled
- Sales of the next book in the series over the following two to four weeks
A simple log
| Date | Site | Cost | Price | Rank before | Rank after | Downloads | Next book sales (30 days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A spreadsheet is enough. The point is to record the same things every time.
Why log every promotion
- Sites change. A site that worked two years ago may not now, and one you dismissed may have grown. Your own numbers tell you which, and marketing emails from the sites don't.
- Stacks hide results. When five sites run in one week, only a day-by-day log shows which ones did the work.
- Memory lies. A promo that felt like a success can turn out, on paper, to have cost more than it earned.
- It builds your own benchmark. After a few promotions you'll know what a good day looks like for your genre and price, and you'll stop paying for sites that don't reach your readers.
Watch for fake promotion offers
Real promo sites don't usually contact you out of the blue. Writer Beware, the Authors Guild and author Anne R. Allen have warned about bot-driven "book marketing" campaigns, fake book clubs that charge to feature your book, and fake publicity offers aimed at authors.
Red flags:
- Unsolicited, gushing praise of your book, often lifted from your existing reviews or an AI summary of your blurb
- A free email address (such as Gmail) claiming to be a company or a famous author, or a web address made to look like a real service's
- Fees up front, before any work is done
- Requests for payment by wire transfer or Zelle, which can't be reversed, rather than by credit card
- Pressure to decide or pay quickly
Book promotions through the site's own website, which you found yourself.
More: ARC services compared · What self-publishing costs in 2026
Sources
- https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing
- https://support.bookbub.com/articles/how-soon-can-i-resubmit-if-my-book-wasnt-selected/
- https://support.writtenwordmedia.com/article/qxfcolx2fu-how-much-does-a-freebooksy-feature-cost
- https://support.writtenwordmedia.com/article/3vx9ml1zlj-how-much-does-a-bargain-booksy-feature-cost
- https://www.thefussylibrarian.com/advertising/prices--genre-statistics
- https://robinreads.com/author-signup/
- https://www.ereadernewstoday.com/bargain-and-free-book-submissions/
- https://reedsy.com/faq/common-questions/more-about-reedsy/reedsy-discovery
- https://booksirens.com/pricing
- https://booksprout.co/pricing
- https://www.arcroster.com/blog/arc-platforms-compared
- https://www.netgalley.com/packages/order
- https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/package_selection?format=print
- https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/000001795
- https://writerbeware.blog/2025/10/20/army-of-bots-deeper-into-the-vortex-of-nigerian-marketing-scams/
- https://annerallen.com/2026/01/new-scam-alerts-for-authors/
- https://authorsguild.org/bulletin/rise-in-email-scams-targeting-authors/
Platforms change their rules often. If something here is out of date, tell us in the forum and we'll fix it.