When it’s time to run a book promotion, you’ll find yourself with a lot of choices. Whether you’re in KDP Select and using those 5 free days, or trying to get eyes on your permafree book, or even promoting a discounted backlist book, it can be tough to choose a promotion site that will get you good return in terms of downloads.

Every promotion site differs with respect to its requirements for accepting books for promotion (e.g. some require lots of reviews while others none at all), the audience it promotes to (some specialize in certain genres), the size of its audience (and accordingly, its pricing), and what book platforms it will share links to (some prefer only Amazon, others go wide).

Here, I list a handful of book promotion sites I’ve tried more than once and from which I’ve achieved good results. By “good results” I mean that downloads were decent (ranging from 200 to over 1000 in one day) and the cost per download was somewhere in the $0.04 – $0.09 per download range (with most falling in the middle). Keep in mind that this list includes sites that I’ve tried and had good success with when promoting science fiction. Results can vary quite a bit depending on author, book, genre, etc.

eReader News Today (varies) – One of the better known promotion sites. ENT has a $30 free book promo as well as a $60 Indie Book of the Day. I’ve only tried the former (IBD is only for 99c books and is competitive). I got a lot of downloads plus an impressive slew of reviews the first time I tried them along with FKBT.

Free Kindle Book and Tips ($25 for a free book) – Requires 8 Amazon reviews, 4 of which need to be verified purchases. They want an average rating of 4 stars or more. However, FKBT only promotes Amazon books, not other book sites.

BookSends ($50 for a free book) – Requires only 5 Amazon reviews (good for newbs or new books). However, Like FKBT, Booksends only promotes Amazon books, not other book sites.

ManyBooks ($29) – Another good site for a great price, especially if your books are wide (not just on Amazon). Requires 10 Amazon reviews. Book must be free or discounted by 50%.

Book Barbarian ($50) – This is a relatively new book promotion site that specializes in sci-fi and fantasy books. In other words, your target audience. I tried them recently with excellent results. Need 10 reviews, 3.5-star minimum rating. This one books up, so think at least a month in advance.

FreeBooksy ($70) – What sets FreeBooksy apart from the others is they don’t require a specific number of reviews, which makes them ideal for newer authors or new book series that haven’t found their audience yet. You pay for this with a steeper price — a sci-fi promo is $70. However, the cost per download is as good as any other site I’ve listed here. There are cheaper or even free sites that don’t require reviews, but in my experience you won’t get a fraction of the downloads.

Fussy Librarian ($18) – A popular, low-priced site. This yielded my weakest results (less downloads, highest cost per download), but I think it’s a good site that others have reported great results. Fussy is popular and you have to schedule your promo at least a month in advance. Fussy has a 10-review minimum.

Let me know your opinions, and which sites have worked well for you.