This is an update to an article from 2016 by our awesome staff writer Melissa Bowersock. A few things have changed since then, so here’s a reminder of how Indies Unlimited (IU) is here to help you, and all for free. – The Admin
Indies Unlimited is one of the only (if not THE only) place where indie authors can promote themselves and their books for free. That’s really the heart and soul of IU; helping each other without trying to make money off our friends and colleagues. And the really good news is that there are lots of ways to take advantage of these opportunities. We’re going to break those down for you here.
Book Promotions
Every week, IU has a minimum of three types of free book promos that everyone can use. They’re simple, and they get a ton of participants, which means there are a lot of books for readers to browse through. This is one place where you don’t need to be shy — list all your books, as long as they comply with our rules of usage and do not include erotica, religious, or political books. All you have to do this is enter the requested information as a comment down below the main post. This is what we request (and only these things):
1. Book title and price
2. Author name
3. A short one sentence book description (140 characters ONLY please)
4. One AMAZON link to purchase the book.
Comments that do not follow the above format may be removed by the administrators, so please color within the lines. [Please please please don’t put extra information – like copying the info above and adding your own. It makes the admin cranky because she has to delete it all.]
These promos appear as follows:
Thursdays: Free and 99 cent eBooks — any eBooks you have that are currently free (for everyone) or 99 cents, whether permanently or on sale. If it’s a temporary sale, note the dates the sale price is good. A Kindle Unlimited book is not FREE for EVERYONE, so those books are not eligible. We have our own feature for those.
Sunday: Paperbacks — any print books you have that are $15.00 or less. Books priced over $15 will be deleted. This feature runs on the first Sunday of the month.
Fridays: Kindle Unlimited — any books you have enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. For these postings, also include the regular price of the book, so the KU users know how much they’re saving. These features run once a month, usually on the third Friday.
Author Promotions
At other times, IU allows us to promote ourselves in an effort to connect with others and boost our online presence. We sometimes will have likefests of one sort or another: Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Author Central pages on Amazon, Wattpad, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Tumblr, etc. Again, simply post in the comments a link to your profile in the social media site featured that day. Don’t forget to reciprocate by liking the profiles of everyone else who lists that day. Remember, we’re all helping each other out. We do these upon request – if you’d like us to run one, just drop us a note and we will make it so.
Writing Skill Promotion
Last but not least, IU has ways to showcase our writing skills. Every Saturday is a Flash Fiction contest. If you’re not familiar, the IU administrators post a picture prompt — then leave it to the rest of us to finish that story in 250 words or less. As always, post your story in the comments, and make sure you stay within the word limit or your work won’t be eligible for the voting. The voting takes place every Wednesday, and the winner is announced on the following Sunday. If you enter, you may win a spot in the yearly Flash Fiction anthology published by IU – and that is free as well.
Finally, there is always the opportunity to write a guest post for IU. Indies Unlimited is absolutely a superblog, rating in the top percentage of websites out of the 1 billion in the world. We have tons of faithful followers and appearing on IU can be a big boost to your online presence. Remember Lynne Cantwell’s post about effective frequency? Here’s a great way to get your name in front of lots and lots of readers. If you have an idea for a blog post, contact the administrators via the contact page. We’re always eager to hear about lessons learned, things that have helped you in your writing, marketing, and promotion efforts, what works and what doesn’t.
If all of this sounds a little overwhelming, don’t forget that by simply commenting on a post, you post your gravatar and website link as well. If you leave helpful advice, insightful alternatives, even thoughtful arguments, you’re still increasing your online presence. People can get an idea of who you are and what you’re like from your comments, and you never know — they might just look you up and buy one of your books! Remember that we’re all in this together, and high tide raises all boats.
As we head into our tenth year, we here at IU want to thank all of you who make up our community. You’ve made IU a safe, happy place. Thanks for being here. – The Admin
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