Finding reliable and reasonable support services can be like swimming in shark-infested waters.
When we find a treasure, we’ll share it here…
Have you found a great marketing website? Or one with useful information? If so, share your useful links with all of us in the comments below. Do post the website address and mention why you like it.
Cover Artists
Melody Simmons is a qualified graphic designer that has been specializing in book cover design for the last seven years. Many of the books she designed covers for have reached New York Times and USA Today Bestselling status. She sells a variety of premade covers and also accepts custom commissions. She has worked with a large number of self-publishing Indie authors.
Editors
If you’ve ever thought about managing without an editor, think again. Stats show that edited books earn more money. Laurie Boris is a treasure of an editor, as well as being an indie author who uses an editor herself. She knows how it feels. Find Laurie at her website.
Carrie Cantor is an eagle-eyed NYC-area editor, agent, and published author with many years’ experience. Services: critiquing; development editing; line-editing. Fees: Ask for quote. Competitive rates. Website: www.carriecantor.com.
Sheryl Lee, editor
Sheryl Lee is an indie author and editor. She loves working with and helping fellow indie authors to polish their books. Knowing only too well that indie authors have to stretch budgets to cover all aspects of publishing she keeps her rates low, and is always ready to help in any way she can. Fees fall between $150 and $300 depending on the amount of work needed. A quote offered based on the sample. No charge for a sample edit.
- Contact her by email: sherylleee@hotmail.co.uk
- Website: http://sherylleee.wix.com/editor
- Amazon link to recently edited member book: Count the Roses
Anne Pottinger, Editor
Anne Pottinger is a freelance proofreader and editor with 30+ years’ experience. She is an indie-author herself (writing under her maiden name) and loves working with fellow indies. Born in the UK with a UK English degree, Anne has lived in the US for many years and is proficient editing in either convention. eNovel members: Use Code eNovel* for a 10% discount. Website: annexperteditor.com Recent book edited, a medical Thriller: Forbidden Beginnings.
Editor Kae Bender
Kae Bender: Everyday Editing. Amazon links to recently edited member book edited: No Perfect Secret Email Kae: kae@everydayediting.com
Krystallia Papadimitriou
Krystallia Papadimitriou: For an all-around editor and proof reader, you can’t go wrong with Krystallia. Her fees range from $200- $350. 50% paid up front, 50% at delivery. Fee includes one review for typos and corrections. $20 for add-on scenes. email Krystallia: krystalliabooks@gmail.com Most recent jobs: Dominion of the Moon. Eaux Infinies. Most recent Member book edited: All Tomorrow’s Memories.
Krystallia can also be hired as a Virtual Assistant: Fee for 3 months $150, payable $50 monthly. She handles AMS. Facebook ads and Bookbub ads, keyword research. She builds memes and banners for use on Facebook, blogs, newsletter headers. She can create blog posts and Word Press newsletters and Instagram. No Twitter.
Web Design
Nicholas C. Rossis, author, web design
You may know him as the author of Pearseus, short stories, and children’s books, but for the past 25 years, Nicholas C. Rossis has also been developing websites through his online media company, Istomedia. He is now specializing in the author market, offering a great service at affordable prices. With hundreds of satisfied clients, why not contact him to see what he can do for you? Indicative prices (these include a 30% discount for eNovel members):
An author website costs $600. Hosting and domain name registration cost $100.
Newsletter service: $250. This includes MailPoet’s annual fee, setup fee, and SendGrid fee for up to 20K monthly sends.
Book covers cost $150 for both a Kindle and a full jacket version~print edition.
You can contact Nicholas at nicholas@istomedia.com.
Books for Authors
There are over 1.5 million books in the Kindle Store, with thousands more added every day. How do you get yours noticed? Visibility isn’t a challenge that can be bested once – it requires continuous work. But there are tools and strategies to do much of the heavy lifting for you. This is our indie bible: LET’S GET DIGITAL will teach you how to get your book noticed. And getting noticed is key to growing your sales.
In February 2012 Martin Crosbie’s self-published eBook “My Temporary Life” hit Amazon’s top ten overall bestseller list. The next month Amazon posted a press release revealing that Crosbie had made $46,000 in one month with one book. His book outlines the methods the top 5% of successful self-published authors utilize to produce their eBooks in a professional, cost-effective manner and to adopt the philosophy that will allow promotional opportunities to come to you. Updated often, it includes a list of promotional sites–not all vetted. eNovel authors use Martin’s list. It is our base.
Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings: An award-winning Finalist in the IPA 2017 Awards.
Do You Want To Show, Not Tell, Emotions?
Because of the way our brains are wired, readers empathize more strongly if you don’t name the emotion you are trying to describe. As soon as you name an emotion, readers go into thinking mode. And when they think about an emotion, they distance themselves from feeling it.
A great way to show anger, fear, indifference, and the whole range of emotions that characterize the human experience, is through beats. These action snippets that pepper dialogue can help describe a wide range of emotions while avoiding lazy writing. The power of beats lies in their innate ability to create richer, more immediate, deeper writing. This emotional thesaurus includes hundreds of examples that you can use for your inspiration, so that you, too, can harness this technique to easily convert your writing into palpable feelings. Genre fiction authors can use Emotional Beat as a feeling thesaurus and watch their writing take off!
Author Tips
The Indie Book Reviewers List Big Al’s comprehensive list of more than 200 active reviewers. All tried and tested, the list tells you what genres each site accepts and where the reviews are posted. Do follow submission guidelines.
Amazon’s Author Central ~ Start here to set up your author page. This is a must for indie authors. In your author bio, do include links to your Website/blog/Twitter/Facebook. Read Here the basic Five Steps to get you started.
eNovel Authors at Work recommends Kindle Nation Daily eBook Tracker. It’s free. Read about a tracker’s usefulness here.
Here is the very best tip for gathering organic reviews. Put this gem right after The End in your books.
Thank you for taking time to read [title]. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated. Again, thank you. ~ [author name]
Lastly, rumors fly about Bookbub, the premier ebook promoter in our indie universe. Read THIS by Bookbub. It lays those myths to rest.
Keep up with the good stuff. Follow Jackie on Twitter
©Jackie Weger. I’m founder of eNovel Authors at Work. I know that sounds upmarket or entitled, but it just means I gathered together a group of hard-working indie authors and laid down a few guidelines. The main one is pay-it-forward. And support your sister and brother authors. The authors in #eNovel are top tier. Nope, we are not all household names or even best selling authors. What we do is work together to market our books. We do it every single day of the year.
Indies Unlimited has a fabulous list of review and promotion sites in their drop down menu. Martin Crosbie put it together. You gotta know to look. If you have a perma FREE title or a 99 cent title–get busy and promote it. Go Here for the list. Download it FREE.
Martin Crosbie
Jackie Weger
#eBook Discovery.com
I’m adding this FaceBook site: Savvy Readers and Authors spend time time on this and buy books. You can do the little tweet and follow dance, which I have done and or you can spend a few $$$. This is one FB site worth the bucks, especially for new indie authors with few reviews.
http://ebookdiscovery.com/promote
I like this promo site. It has a very good reputation. I found it on Jerri Hines site. Jerri put in the path of a great cover artist. so–I’m going with unless I learn different. Adverts start at 7.95 to advertize FREE days up to 5. That’s a great deal.
http://www.peoplereads.com/freebie-spotlight-listing.
June 16, 2014 I don’t know how I missed telling you about Martin Crosbie’sMartin Crosbie’s Blog. There is a wealth of information that Martin shares with us. Need reviews? He posts a list of reviewers. Planning a free promo? He posts a list of Twitter sites to notify. Helpful hints and info just goes on and on. Check it out!
For all who have audio books: Gaele Hince of I Am Indeed is reviewing audio books on her The Word I Am Facebook page: Go follow the FB:
https://www.facebook.com/TheHeardWord.
Here’s the site to submit for review:
http://iam-indeed.com/
04/16/2014
Here is a top notch promotion site for all of you mystery writers and police procedural/thrillers and anything with a touch of mystery including romantic suspense. It’s FREE.
Rebecca Dahlke owns the site.
Here’s the link to the article on Indies Unlimited: http://bit.ly/1m6HDX0
Here’s the link to All Mystery Newsletter: http://www.allmysteryenewsletter.com/
Hop on it!
Jackie Weger
HEADS UP! I’m giving a thumbs up to Van at http://www.peoplereads.com/. Van is a tweeting Dervish and goes over and above to help indie authors get their books in front of buyers and readers. Not only that–he give us Lagniappe–that little something extra on every promotion.
JackieWeger
Hi Jackie, Thank you very much. As you know I am an author as well. I know how hard it all can be. This is why I created PeopleReads. I wanted to give the author another option in the world of promotion. PeopleReads is more intimate than the big guys. I designed it that way. Typically I will list three to ten books a day (usually five or six) not dozens. I am always happy to help if I am able to do so. Thank you again for all the support. I appreciate it very much.
You are welcome, Van. I like your site. I appreciate so much the pay-it-forward spirit of PeopleReads.com.
Thank you, Jackie, for inviting me to post here!
My wife and I run the site Choosy Bookworm, which is a book promo site for free and discounted eBooks.
Having your eBook promoted here is FREE! All we ask in return is for you to spread the word about us.
Your eBooks will be promoted on our website http://www.choosybookworm.com, as well as in our daily email newsletter.
They will also be promoted on our Facebook page and on Twitter.
Come and sign up here for your free eBook promotion:
http://www.choosybookworm.com/authors
Thanks and all the best!
– Jay :o)
Jay Lee! Thanks for stopping in and posting your links. I love Choosy Bookworm! And I adore having you showcase my books. authors can’t go wrong promoting with Choosy Bookworm.
Great to have you on eNovel Authors at Work.
Jackie Weger
Hi Jackie,
thanks so much for your kind words and your support!
I added a link to your site here to our “Friends of Choosy” page. Check it out here:
http://choosybookworm.com/friends-of-choosy/
Hope you like it. 🙂
– Jay
August 19, 2014
Head’s up! Choosy Bookworm has a hashtag now. If you have promoted a book with Choosy Use it! #cbw.
Choosy follows authors who promote with the site. Great news. Short! I Luv it.
Here is a Facebook site with more than 35,000 followers and readers looking for FREE and 99 cent books. I love Korner Kafe. It’s FREE to promote your titles and you can ask your fav reviewers to submit a review of your book to Korner Kafe, too. That’s a double whammy! Don’t Overlook in your promotions:
https://www.facebook.com/EBookKornerKafe
You’ll note the icon to http://fkbt.com on this site. Michael Gallagher owns the site and has above 50,000+ followers and subscribers. He charges a flat $25 to promote a FREE unit. His subscribers buy books. Michael is proactive in building his organic subscriber list.
You can never have too many useful links and here is a dilly! On Twitter with more than 11.7K Followers.
Checked It Out
@checkeditout FOLLOWS YOU
We support INDEPENDENT Authors, Artist, Crafters, Designers, and Thinkers! We will RT promotions IF YOU FOLLOW US FIRST! AND put #checkeditout in your tagline!
Jackie Weger
Jeffrey Bruner owns The Fussy Librarian. It is an incredibly inexpensive promo site. From $3-$6. Easy to submit and no waiting list.
http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-authors/
Update: Jeffry has gone up on prices, but it is still an excellent buy. Jeffrey has spent the past year building an organic subscriber list.
Organic means, book buying readers.
Jackie Weger
Shoot! Now there is waiting list On Fussy. But check it out anyway.
JackieWeger
UPDATE: 10/02/2016. Do check for price increases.
Here is another great site on which to promote your books.
Book Sends. You’ll hear from Jason. For Romance it’s $50 to promote a 99¢ book. $75 to promote a FREE. Your book will get in front of up to 50,000+ subscribers. Other genres are so inexpensive: Y/A $10. All other genre range in price from $10 to $35.00
We romance authors have to pay and pay! But I like Book Sends. Subscribers trust Books Sends and it sells books.
Jackie Weger
I just came off a KCD on the Reluctant Hero. I booked promo with Book Sends. Jason did something I love. He sends emails out to the authors after the promo saying whether or not downloads from his site gives the author a return on investment (ROI). In plain words: The downloads more than covered the promo fee. The author made a profit. He doesn’t tell the number of books downloaded, but he calculates his fee against sales.
JackieWeger
Incredible Useful TIP: I have just learned that when an author engages in a Kindle Countdown Deal that you can price the book for 99¢ for the entire seven day KCD run. 70% Royalty rate. I didn’t know that and was disappointed with my KCD sales as were several other authors in our group. So now we know! Which means we can promote on Bookbub with dates as flexible as Gumby. I am so excited to learn this. Seven days to build sales at 70% Royalties is fabulous. Thank You! #IndiesUnlimited for sharing this useful tidbit.
Jackie Weger
Here is another site I use. Anthony Wessel owns the site.
Digital Book Today. http://digitalbooktoday.com. Very REASONABLE. $12 to promote my Romance Finding Home priced at $2.99 for 14 days. He has sale days, I picked one up. Usually the ad is $20. If your book is sitting on Amazon or any other venue and you aren’t promoting and putting in front of readers, whose fault is it that your book isn’t selling? Yours! I don’t think he charges to promote a FREE book. Plus, he’s got a page for your perma FREE books. Go over there and buy an ad. A title listed on Digital Books Today’s TOP 100 FREE books usually can count on about 8,000 downloads a day.
Jackie,
Thank you for the link and the kind words. We do have various paid and free promo’s. It is free to list your book on your free days – see our promo page for minimum guidelines. Just to clarify we generate between 7,000 – 9,000 downloads on a typical day. Not the largest site out there, but have been serving book readers and Indie authors since 2009. Thanks again and good luck to all the Indie writers out there.
Anthony! Thank you for stopping and filling our authors in on what you can do and what they can expect. I have seldom run a successful campaign paid or free without a boost from Digital Books Today.
Jackie Weger
Authors! If you are not promoting your books–you ain’t selling! Here is another of my fav sites to promote FREE, 99¢ and deeply discounted books. The icon is on the right.
Read Cheaply! http://readcheaply.com/. It is so easy to upload a book on this site. I love Read Cheaply.
Jackie Weger
I have 2 sites to suggest:
Ereader News Today
and
Pixel Of Ink
Donna Fasano
UPDATED: 10/02/2016: Pixel of Ink is out of business.
Donna! Thanks! Those are two of the top sites for promoting paid or free titles. Both sites like a little bit of Lead Time. So submit early when planning a book promotion.
JackieWeger
Pixel of InK has closed as of June 2016.
I was sad when Pixel of Ink closed. 🙁
May 26, 2014
Here is a link to eReaderCafe http://www.theereadercafe.com/
Caroline Lansing is the contact. I like this site because we can promote Free/99 cent and priced books 2.99. It is a very busy and popular site.
If you want to be featured you pay $30. No charge for posting FREE or 99 cents books that I could find. 99 cent books are posted for five days–which is great for Kindle Countdown Deals.
JackieWeger
Hi Jackie!
Thank you so much for mentioning us on Useful Links. Yes, authors may submit to have their .99 books featured in our Bargain store. This is a great way to feature your book without having to spend any of your hardworking money! But, we also offer paid promos on our . Thanks again!
Caroline
UPDATED 10/02/2016 Caroline Lansing!eReaderCafe. You are welcome. And thanks for confirming you don’t charge for FREE and 99¢ book promos. That is so helpful to authors on a budget. eNovel Authors at Work loves eReader Cafe.
Fee for Deal of the Day placement is $30. Often booked solid a one or more months in advance.
JackieWeger
Thanks for the support, Jackie! At BookSends we’re always working hard to gather more readers. We’d love to help you promote your next sale or find your next great read!
Thank you Jason! I always engage Book Sends in my promotions. Books Sends has my THUMBS UP.
UPDATED 10/02/2016
I am adding
askDavid right at the top of our useful links. He charges a small fee. Worth every $$$. David tweets your books to 52,000+ followers and you get RTs. That is fabulous visibility. I often overlooked askDavid.com but now that I am an indie author, I won’t.
JackieWeger
1)For a book promoted FREE do not over look:
http://www.frugal-freebies.com/p/submit-freebie.html
No Charge!
UPDATE: Abhi has spent a few years building his subscriber list to above 100,000 active readers.
He now has this promotion available for book on FREE. Now Books Butterfly promotes 99c books, too.
If you are going to use your KDP Select days do not bypass this site.
http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/?tag=kindleemails
10/02/2016 NOTE: Some authors are reporting less than stellar result on 99c promos.
I like Books Butterfly for Free units.
Dionne Lister administers http://booktastik.com/I love this site. Dionne is fab to work with. She promotes discounted books–which means authors can earn a few $$$. I always promote with Booktastik.com. Do not pass this site up when you promote!
Thanks for mentioning us, Jackie. We love working with you too!
I want to share a site that goes above and beyond and will work with authors to get your book the best placement on its sites for downloads and sales: https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/advertise-books-2/.
I’m giving this site a 10. Amber is my contact and just beyond gracious.
JackieWeger
12/08/2014
It has been a while since we added a new favorite promotion site. We found a startup site owned by #PatrickPort that we like: http://www.ebookhounds.com. Patrick is doing things right. He is building a subscriber list, has an active Facebook community and is on Google+ and Pinterest. He is promoting FREE and discounted book at no charge at the moment. Check out the site.
Updated: Sharrel administers Free eBooks Daily. It is on my fav list. $3 and $5 to promote your book on all of your KDP FREE days. Go here to submit a book: http://freeebooksdaily.com/submit-your-book/. Sweet and Clean romance novels, children’s books.
Info update : “Cheap Dirt Mystery Reads” (that your link to on your Usefuls Page) is closed, so you might want to remove the link. However, the site runner has left behind a list of his/her own useful links.
Ian Thompson. Thank you for that heads up. Rebecca Dahlke who owned the site is now a fabulous member of eNovel Authors at Work.
Done! Thank you.
Lazy Beagle has gone out of Business. Strike from your promo list.
Always updating my list, and thanks for showing us more!
I’m feeling confused: where is this Above the Fold and Below the Fold list? There are five links in the body of this post, and a few in the comments, but I don’t see on my computer anything about ‘the Fold.’
What am I missing? Thanks.
Alicia: Above the fold are my go to promoters who always produce results. Below the fold are promoters we love, but are smaller sites.
Alicia: Several times we’ve considered posting list in a drop down menu, we may yet, but each time we get a list together, prices change, a site falls out of favor and it subscribers moved onto an genre. Some sites that used to move Romance, now move more paranormal or thrillers. Effrosyni Moschoudi has a nice list on her site you can download. http://effrosinimoss.wordpress.com. But thre are not all eNovel vetted, so do your homework.
Alice; You are not missing anything. eNovel does not post a list of promotion sites. We mention sites that we use and like as above the fold: We always see results and an ROI. Below the Fold: Often smaller sites, but doing it right. On the approved list: Perhaps new sites we are using with mixed results, but we’ve talked with the administrators.
http://beezeebooks.com/ has had difficult years 2015-2016. the site has been hacked twice. I like Mike. but I really don’t fine the site useful.
Wonderful resources every author will be thrilled to discover and bookmark, I am sure. And thank you so much for including my site, Jackie 🙂
Sadly, Caleb is no longer doing formatting and The Book Review stopped taking review requests last year.
G.G. Thank you for the update about Julie. We haven’t heard from her for a bit. Caleb let me know today, he’s got a full schedule Fall semester. Once out from under a few tough subjects he’ll be back with us.