Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

admin May 27, 2020 0 Comments

This is part of the WriteZero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

It covers the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites for Non Fiction

The Top 10 – The 10 Best Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

  1. BookBub
    1. Main Pro: The largest book promotion site with 10 to 15 million readers
      1. Has dedicated lists for 11 Non Fiction categories – Advice & How To, Biographies & Memoirs, Business, Christian Non Fiction, Cooking Books, General Non Fiction, History, Parenting, Politics and Current Events, Science, True Crime
    2. Main Con: Accepts only 10% to 20% of submitted books
  2. Books Butterfly
    1. Main Pro: The 2nd largest book promotion site with 4 million readers
      1. Has dedicated lists or blogs for 15 Non Fiction categories – Biographies & Memoirs, Business, Conspiracy, Cooking Books, Do It Yourself, General Non Fiction, Health & Exercise, Herbal Remedies, History, How To, Prepper Books, Gardening, Self Help, Travel, True Crime, Parenting & Relationships
    2. Main Con: Runs multiple books per Non Fiction category and if your book is not well polished it will be in the 10% of book promotions that do not do well (generally 90% do well to very well)
    3. Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our sister company which has successfully run $1.9 million of book promotion packages
  3. Buck Books
    1. Main Pro: Very strong for Non Fiction and uses very innovative marketing methods
    2. Main Con: A bit different from all promotion sites in how they work, as they focus on New releases, and have very specific requirements including only promoting $0.99 and free books
  4. eReader News Today
    1. Main Pro: A very large and trusted book promotion site that has been helping authors for 8+ years
      1. Has 3 dedicated types of Non Fiction promotions (Cooking Books, Biographies & Memoirs, General Non Fiction)
    2. Main Con: Only Accepts books up to 30 days in advance, making it difficult if you are putting together a launch or a promotion that is further into the future
  5. The Fussy Librarian
    1. Main Pro: A good book promotion site which gets good results for the majority of authors who use it
      1. Has 9 separate Non Fiction categories – Biographies & Memoirs, Business, Cooking & Food, Health, History, How To, Inspirational & Devotional, General Non Fiction, Technology
    2. Main Con: Results vary based on the quality of your book
      1. The lists are smaller and your book quality determines results to a much larger extent
    3. Free Books Newsletter for Fussy Librarian – There is a separate email list for Fussy Librarian to promote Free Non Fiction Books. It has 230,000 subscribers and one General Non Fiction category
  6. BookSends
    1. Main Pro: A large and trusted book promotion site that has been successfully helping authors for 5+ years
    2. Main Con: Has just one General Non Fiction list and no subcategories within Non Fiction
  7. RobinReads
    1. Main Pro: A very good and fast upcoming book promotion site that gets very good results
    2. Main Con: Has just one General Non Fiction list and no subcategories within Non Fiction
      1. Additional Con: Less than 10% acceptance rate
  8. To Be Updated – Please see the Honorable Mentions section below
  9. To Be updated – Please see the Honorable Mentions section below
  10. To Be Updated – Please see the Honorable Mentions section below

Please make sure to read through the Book Promotion Site websites as they usually have very important information on both

  1. How to get approved for a book promotion with them
  2. How to get good results with them

Non Fiction is a Lot of Different Categories clubbed together as one

Later, we will be introducing Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Lists for various sub categories within Non Fiction

These will be linked to, from the Write Zero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

For now, please keep in mind that

  1. Non Fiction is a collection of lots of different categories, which are quite different from each other
  2. Different book promotion sites specialize in different Non Fiction categories
    1. One book promotion site might be very good in Biographies & Memoirs and in Cookbooks
    2. Whereas, another book promotion site might be very good for How To and Do It Yourself and Gardening books
    3. There might be a third book promotion site that specializes in promoting Business books and How to Make Money Books and Investing Books
    4. Please keep in mind that you have to find what book promotion site is best suited to your category
    5. We will do our part to point you in the right direction
      1. Please also do your own Due Diligence and confirm you are promoting to the right people
  3. Some book promotion sites specialize in Non Fiction, while others specialize in Fiction
    1. You will not gain anything at all by promoting with a book promotion site that does not specialize in Non Fiction
  4. You will have to do the research to find out not just
    1. What are the best book promotion sites for Non Fiction
    2. But Also
    3. What are the best book promotion sites for your specific sub category within Non Fiction
  5. The nature of Book Promotion is that some marketing methods will work for your book, and some will not
    1.  Therefore it is critically important to establish beforehand that the book promotion site works for books in your category
    2. So that, if the book promotion does not work, you can start looking at the reasons it did not work
    3. Instead of the reason being that you used a marketing method that is not an established method for books in your category

Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites – Details & Insights

To Be Updated. We will be adding various details and insights about the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

These will be tailored around getting approved, getting good results, and getting good follow on sales

Honorable Mentions – Top Book Promotion Sites that missed the Top 10 and are still good choices

This section is under progress and will be updated later

  1. FreeBooksy
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  2. BargainBooksy
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  3. Free Kindle Books and Tips
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  4. Book Gorilla
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  5. Kindle Nation Daily
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  6. eReader IQ
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:
  7. One Hundred Free Books (OHFB)
    1. Main Pro:
    2. Main Con:

Important Guidelines for Promoting Non Fiction Books with the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

Here are some important things to keep in mind when promoting a Non Fiction book

  1. Your results will be directly proportional to three main things
    1. First – How good your book is i.e. how much value it provides to the reader
      1. You control this 100%
      2. Make sure your book is very good if you want good results
    2. Second – Whether you promote it in the right category for your book, or not
    3. Third – How polished your book is i.e. book cover, book page, editing are all top notch
      1. The PACKAGING for your book must be top notch
      2. Readers do not see a thoroughbred dressed up as a rent mule, because they can only see the rent mule
        1. They cannot see the thoroughbred hiding beneath
      3. They only see the PACKAGING of the book and there is no way for them to know that beneath that poorly done $10 cover there is a very well written book
  2. If your book is getting rejected by most of the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites
    1. Then you have to improve your book
  3. If your book is getting accepted but is not doing well with most of the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites
    1. Those promotion sites have been around for a long time, and work for most authors with polished books
    2. Your book is on the Fence – it is good enough to get accepted, and not yet good enough to sell well
    3. There is also the possibility that you have put your book in the wrong category
    4. You either need to improve the quality of the book
    5. OR You need to find the right category to put it in
  4. [Very Important] Your book will not do well with each and every book promotion site
    1. Generally speaking, it should do well with 70% of the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites
      1. Most well written, well polished books will do well with 7 or 8 of the Top 10 Sites and not do well with 2 or 3
      2. Which book sites you do well with, will vary from book to book
    2. Generally speaking, it should do well with 50% of the Honorable Mentions Book Promotion Sites (the ones that just missed the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites)
    3. If you can somehow do well with each and every one of the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites then it means you have a real winner and should consider investing more into it

Non Fiction book promotion is completely different from Fiction book promotion

  1. Perhaps the most important difference is that there is much more of a focus on PROVIDING VALUE via what you write in Non Fiction
    1. Fiction focuses on providing Entertainment
    2. Ideally, you can Provide Value while also writing a book that is enjoyable to read
    3. However, the main focus must be Providing Very Solid Value
  2. The second major difference is that the categories and sub categories in Non Fiction are very set in stone
    1. Fiction can be fluid and can be multi category
    2. Non Fiction books must be super clear about who they are written for and what value they provide
  3. Non Fiction requires establishing a lot of credibility
    1. As the whole premise of Non Fiction is providing value
    2. You have to be crystal clear about who you are, why you are able to provide value, and what value you are providing
  4. Sites that work well for Fiction book promotion do not necessarily work for Non Fiction book promotion
    1. Check out some book promotion sites yourself
    2. Book Promotion Sites that have just one Non Fiction category by their very nature are not as good as choice as book promotion sites that have 10 or 15 Non Fiction categories

The most important thing, which authors keep forgetting, is that

  1. Your book’s performance is mostly controlled BY YOU, The Author

Write a very good book. Package it very well. Polish it again and again. Pick the Right Categories. Pick the right marketing methods

Important Tips & Insights for Getting Accepted into the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

Here are the most important things for getting accepted

  1.  Have a professionally designed book cover made by a Top Book Cover Designer
    1. For a book designer, good choices are
      1. www.GoOnWrite.com for $30 pre mades or $150 custom covers
      2. www.Damonza.com for $100 to $200 pre mades or more expensive custom made covers
      3. www.CreativeParamita.com for $80 to $200 pre mades or more expensive customer made covers
      4. www.DerangedDoctorDesigns.com
    2. Do not self design your covers unless you want your book to die a quick and painful death
    3. Do not buy a $10 cover from Fiverr unless you want readers to not only skip your book, but also start thinking all self published authors are cheapskates and unprofessional
  2.  Have your book well edited by a professional editor
    1. Word Spell Check is not a professional editor
    2. Nor is your wife or your brother
    3. Generally, having even one mistake in your first chapter will get your book rejected
  3.  Make sure your book title, book cover, book description are all clear about what your book genre is, what readers it is written for, and matches genre conventions
    1. Romance – Hero and Heroine on the cover, or a Handsome Man on the cover
      1. Don’t put a cute dog there, regardless of how ‘innovative’ you think such a cover would be
  4. Most book promotion sites will not accept short stories. Your book should be over 150 pages for Fiction and over 50 pages for Non Fiction
  5. Most book promotion sites will not accept your book if you are rude to them
    1. This might be a strange thing to write down
    2. However, nearly all of the book promotion sites face cases of authors who approach things in an antagonistic manner
      1. Expecting the book promotion site to bend over backwards for them
    3. Think of a book promotion site as a bookstore
      1. If you treat them with common courtesy, they are more likely to put your book on display in their bookstore
      2. If you come in with a sense of entitlement or are rude, then you will not get a place

Book Promotion Sites which require reviews

  1. Nearly all the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites require 1 or more reviews
  2. Any fake review will be an instant rejection
    1. Please do not use fake reviews
    2. Fake reviews also greatly hurt sales with readers
      1. Readers are smart by the very act of reading books
      2. They are not tricked by fake reviews written by people who can’t even speak English
      3. Please stop self sabotaging your book using fake reviews
  3. You have to figure out how to get book reviews
    1. Using a service such as Choosy Bookworm Read and Review is a good option
  4. A few of the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites will accept books without reviews
    1. In that case you must be keenly aware that a book without reviews will not perform as well as a book with reviews
    2. You should adjust your expectations

Special Considerations for Bookbub.com (which accepts only 10% to 20% of submissions) and RobinReads (which accepts less than 10% of submissions)

  1. Don’t take a rejection personally
    1. Just reapply after a month
  2. The 10% to 20% acceptance rate includes re-applications
    1. Many people apply 10 to 20 times or more
    2. The actual rejection rate is lower
  3. Most of the time, it is worth it to reapply as there are very few book promotion sites that work
    1. The number for Non Fiction Book Promotion is even lower
    2. So you should definitely keep applying to Bookbub and Robinreads
    3. Don’t forget to improve the quality and the polish and packaging of your book

Important Tips & Insights for Increasing Your Results with the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

Here are the Top 10 things you can do to improve results

  1. Improve the Quality of Your Book
  2. Understand and embrace that you are selling YOURSELF and not the book
    1. In Non Fiction everything depends on how much people trust you and like you
    2. You have to show you are a real person
    3. You have to show you know what you are talking about
  3. Provide Immense Value
    1. The more value you provide, the more value readers will give back to you
  4. Pick the RIGHT Book Categories
    1. The entire game is won and lost in Picking the Right Categories
    2. Everything else is secondary – even how good your book is, does not matter if you pick the wrong categories
  5. Have a mix of Categories. For Amazon Kindle Store you can email kdp.amazon.com support to add 10 categories for your book. Take advantage of that
    1. Pick some very big categories
    2. Pick some very small categories
    3. All categories MUST be a good match for your book
  6. Do not use fake reviews
    1. Honest reviews help A LOT
    2. Fake reviews hurt sales by a lot
  7. Improve the Quality of Your Book some more
    1. We all love our books like our children and are reluctant to make changes or see their flaws
      1. We tend to think of them as being born perfect
    2. They are not our children
      1. They are not born perfect
    3. Whip them into shape
      1. They don’t have emotions or feelings
      2. They are not going to hold a grudge for 20 years because you subjected them to one more rewrite
    4. Keep improving them until there are very few flaws
    5. The book will thank you – and, more importantly, you will thank yourself – for not caring about the emotions and feelings of the book and improving it relentlessly
  8. Make sure the Packaging of the Book is top notch
    1. The Book Cover
    2. The Book Page
    3. The Author Profile
  9. Have expectations that match the amount of effort you put into the book
    1. If you bought a $10 cover at Fiverr, then don’t expect great results
    2. If you worked with a world class cover designer (regardless of budget, there are world class designers at every budget), then expect great results
    3. You also need a world class editor and a very good to world class proof reader
    4. What we are basically saying is
      1. To get good results, put a lot of effort into your book
  10. Do the opposite of everything Get Rich Quick gurus are telling you
    1. You know the people who are promising you that you can
      1. Write a book in 3 weeks, instead of 2 years
      2. Make your book cover yourself, instead of hiring a professional cover designer
      3. Edit it yourself, instead of hiring a professional book editor
      4. Put the book in the wrong categories at Amazon, to game the algorithms
      5. Purchase fake reviews, to make it seem the book is better than it is
    2.  They are telling you what you want to hear, as that makes it easier for them to sell you their Get Rich Quick Course
    3. Do the exact opposite of all the ‘Easy Fast Success in 4 hours a week’ courses
      1. You will definitely have a much better chance of success than if you were to actually follow that advice
  11. Embrace Failure as Feedback
    1. Failure is just Feedback on what you did right and what you did wrong
    2. No body succeeds without first failing a lot
    3. Consider Baseball
      1. Ted Williams used to take more batting practice than the rest of his team combined
      2. Ichiro Suzuki’s father used to make him practice using a golf ball
      3. They kept at it through all the misses
      4. That is what made them two of the best hitters of all time

This is a really, really good time to be an Author. However, you will have to work hard to succeed

While everyone else is looking for an Easy Button and dreaming of 4 hour work weeks, you will be working hard and finding actual success

Best Things you can do to Get Reviews after your Book Promotion with the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

These are all going to be painful. So please don’t read this section if you think you’re already a great writer or your book is already perfect

The First Thing you can do to Get More Reviews is to Greatly Improve Your Book

  1. The Better Your Book, the more reviews you will get
  2. If you are getting sales and not getting reviews
    1. It means your book is good enough for readers to buy it and take a chance
    2. However, it is not yet good enough to get them to review
    3. Readers only write reviews for books they like a lot
    4. You have to improve your book
  3.  If you are getting sales and getting very few reviews
    1. It means your book is almost there
    2. One rewrite or some more polish will push you into the promised land of people leaving reviews for your book

We have talked to a lot of authors

There are always so many theories about why their books are not getting as many reviews as they would like

There is only one real answer

  1. Readers only review books when they like them a lot
  2. If you want to get reviews, then Greatly Improve Your Book
  3. No one writes a review for the Television that was barely good enough
  4. Everyone writes a review for the Television that was marvelous
  5. If you cannot get to marvelous
    1. Get to Very Good
    2. Get very good at requesting reviews (see ‘The Third Thing’ below)

The Second Thing you can do to Get More Reviews is to Sell Your Book More

  1. If you are getting only a few sales, then you will not get reviews
    1. The ratio of reviews to sales is generally 1 review for every 1,000 sales
    2. For exceptionally good books, it is 1 review for every 100 sales
    3. First start generating a significant number of sales
  2. While it makes perfect sense, very few authors realize that
    1. The more books you sell
    2. The more reviews you will get
  3. Focus on getting book sales if you want more reviews

Yes, it is a Catch 22 situation

  1. To get more sales you need Reviews
  2. To get Reviews you need more sales

However, pushing the book and getting more sales is the only way to get through the No Reviews dead zone

The Third Thing you can do to Get More Reviews it to Ask for Reviews

Please note that this is a very tricky area. Using these methods you can get more reviews than your book would otherwise get

However, you are bypassing what helps a lot more – writing such a good book that people are compelled to review

So use these secrets AND ALSO keep improving and polishing your book

  1. Ask for a review at the beginning of the book
  2. Ask for a review at the end of the book
    1. On the very last page, where the book ends
  3. Be polite
    1. If you like the book, could you please leave a review
  4. Thank them in advance
    1. Thank you very much for a leaving a review
  5. Don’t be pushy or passive aggressive
    1. Nothing like – you finished the book, so you better be leaving a review
    2. Nothing such as – if you don’t leave a review, I’ll get upset
  6. Ask for a review in the Book Description and in the Author Profile
    1. Something polite such as – If you like the book, I would really appreciate a review
    2. For your Author Profile you can leave something such as – I love hearing from my readers and getting reviews. If you like the book, please do drop me a line or leave a review
  7. Keep in mind that most readers have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE that a review will help the author
    1. While you live in a world where you know Reviews are very powerful
    2. Readers have very little idea that the author of the book they just enjoyed would appreciate a review greatly
    3. THAT is why we suggest asking for a review on the Last Page of Your Book
      1. Catch your readers at their point of Highest Satisfaction
  8. Ask and Ye Shall Be Given
    1. Yes, asking really is that powerful
  9. Do get people who write to you, to leave a review
    1. If they liked your book enough to write you, do ask them for a review

Becoming a Bestseller by Leveraging the Top Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

IMPORTANT: This is a stub and To be updated Later

Mostly, it is about picking the right categories

  1. Pick a few very small categories
    1. Such that even 10 to 30 sales over a week will make you a bestseller there
    2. Any of the Top 10 Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites will get you to Bestseller status
  2. Pick a few large categories
    1. Such that you need 100 to 500 sales over a week to become a bestseller there
    2. Bookbub is the best choice
    3. Books Butterfly is the fallback option if you can’t get Bookbub
      1. However, they can only get you 100 to 200 sales over a week
  3. Pick a few medium categories
    1. Such that you need 30 to 100 sales over a week to become a bestseller there
    2. Bookbub, Books Butterfly, Buck Books are all good choices

IMPORTANT: We will be updating this section later with more tips

Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites vs Facebook Ads

This is what we generally see for Non Fiction book authors

  1. Your book may or may not do well with Facebook Ads
    1. 75% or more of Authors will see results with Facebook Ads
    2. Of those, 50% or more of Authors will see good results with Facebook Ads and positive Return on Investment
      1. However, you will have to learn Facebook Ads or hire a professional Facebook Ads marketer
    3. 25% will see little to no results

Facebook Ads are very targeted. The game is won and lost on whether or not you are targeting the right readers for your book

Of course, if you have not polished your book and not gotten a professionally designed book cover then no amount of ‘right targeting’ of readers can help you

Facebook Ads are better than Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites if

  1. You are getting better results from Facebook Ads
    1. Generally, this depends almost completely on finding the right readers
    2. And establishing a good Return on Investment from Facebook Ads
  2. You find a good Facebook Ads marketer who handles all the market for you
  3. You want slow and steady sales and don’t need or want spikes like book promotion sites will give you

Book Promotion Sites are better than Facebook Ads if

  1. You are not tech savvy and can’t figure out Facebook Ads or don’t want to
  2. You don’t have the money (or the time) to learn Facebook Ads
  3. You are getting good Return on Investment on Book Promotion Sites

It’s best to use Book Promotion Sites alongside Facebook Ads if

  1. You have a very polished book that performs decently well with both book promotion sites and Facebook Ads
  2. During Book Launches
  3. If you can get good Return on Investment from both

Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites vs Amazon Marketing Services Ads

Amazon Marketing Services is one rung below Facebook Ads in effectiveness

  1. 50% or so of Authors will see results with Amazon Marketing Services Ads
  2. Of those, 25% of Authors will see positive Return on Investment from Amazon Marketing Services Ads
    1. However, you will have to spend time and money to learn how Amazon Marketing Services Ads work
  3. 50% of Authors will see little to no results with Amazon Marketing Services Ads

It is impossible to run Amazon Marketing Services Ads alongside Book Promotion Sites because if you run both together the sales will be attributed in very erroneous ways

If you’re in the 25% of authors that see positive Return in Investment from Amazon Marketing Services Ads, then they are a better choice than Book Promotion Sites

If you’re in the remaining 75% of Authors then you should use Book Promotion Sites or Facebook Ads or a combination of both

Important Lessons to Take if Your Non Fiction Book Promotion Fails to Do Well

It’s all Feedback

For Non Fiction Book Promotions you have to

  1. Package the book very well and professionally
  2. Provide a LOT of actual value in the book
  3. Be a subject area expert in the subject you are writing in
    1. You must really know what you are writing about
  4. Convince the reader that you are a Subject Area expert
  5. Do a lot of polishing and rewriting of the book
  6. Pick the right categories – where the readers in those categories are a good match for your book
  7. Pick the right non fiction book promotion sites for your book

That’s a lot of different areas you have to master. If at first you fail, take it as feedback and learn and improve

If you are writing in an area you are passionate about and a subject area in

  1. Improving your book will improve your skills
  2. Making it work and becoming successful in selling your book, will give you great credibility
  3. A lot of benefits await people who can show they are a subject area expert and can sell books about their area of expertise
  4. Keep at it and keep improving the value your book provides
  5. Keep improving your targeting and your book categories

If you are writing in an are you are not passionate about and are not a subject area expert

  1. Why write in such an area?
  2. There are very few occupations where you can ‘get rich quick’
  3. Books is definitely not one of them

Much better to write what you know about, and what you are passionate about. That is what will give you both success and satisfaction

All the best!

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