Are you a published author?

Recently, I visited Reddit where I saw this question, “How can authors promote their books?”

The commenter seemed genuinely lost at the prospect of promoting his books.

This feeling of overwhelm is understandable. After all, when people try to market their products and services, they get accused of spamming.

Why shouldn’t book marketing be any different?

This post shares social media sites that allow promotion. Therefore, your book promotion is allowed and even encouraged.

The best part: You don’t need an advertising budget. These strategies are free.

Let’s get started learning where you can promote your books.

Facebook

Facebook has #PromoDays that allow you to promote your books. #PromoDays are easy to find. Type #Promo and the name of the day you want to promote in the Facebook Search Bar. For instance, on Saturday, I type #PromoSaturday.

On Monday, Living the Laptop Life has Promo Day, and on Tuesday, Raelyn Tan’s group, Raelyn’s Online Business Friends, has Promo Day. Yet,, these groups only sporadically post Promo Days, so you need to keep checking back with the group.

However, on Saturdays, the Society Gal Facebook Group consistently has Promo Day. The group has over 37,500 members. Clearly, that’s a massive promotion for you. You don’t need to spend a cent to get in front of that kind of an audience.

In addition to Facebook groups, you can promote on a Facebook business page and on your Facebook wall.

Related Reading: Here you will find Facebook groups that allow daily and weekly promotion.

Twitter

On Saturdays, you’ll find Promo Days on Twitter.

Type into the Search bar #ShamelessSelfpromoSaturday. Twitter accounts that promote other accounts will populate.

For instance, the Alice in the Loony Bin account will promote you to her 4,810 followers. The account holder herself is an author.

On Twitter, there is also a #SelfPromotionSunday. Make sure when you share your promotional material on Twitter, you accompany your promos with the hashtags so interested people can find your content.

Also, use the image of your book cover to accompany your tweet. Tweets with graphics have a higher chance of being clicked.

Twitter allows you to have a Pinned Tweet. This sits at the top of your Twitter feed. As soon as people look at your account, they see your promotion. You can pin a tweet to your book promotion with the link to purchase.

Make sure you ask people to retweet which furthers your reach. Remember to use hashtags such as #WritingTips, #AmWriting, #AmWritingFiction, #AmWritingSciFi, #AmWritingRomance, or whatever applies to your book’s content.

Related Reading: Here you will find more advantages of Twitter for book marketing purposes.

Instagram

There are many ways to promote content at Instagram and meet other authors as well.

Book Marketing Idea 1: Instagram Feed

Use the cover of your book in your feed. Post an excerpt of your book with relevant hashtags in the caption.

Although Instagram doesn’t allow live links in a caption, you can post a link to your Amazon account where your book is sold in your bio.

You can also use a Linktree link to connect many live links. Linktree is a free service.

Book Marketing Idea 2: Instagram Story

Post your book’s cover in your Instagram Story. You can post an excerpt of your book alongside your cover in your story.

Make sure you use appropriate hashtags. For instance, relevant hashtags include #WritersofInstagram, #AuthorsofInstagram, and #WritingCommunity.

Related Reading: Here you will find free tools to make Insta Stories on your desktop.

Book Marketing Idea 3: IGTV

You can record yourself discussing your book onIGTV. You will need an IGTV app which is free.

When you’re done recording, you can select to post your IGTV video to your Instagram feed.

Book Marketing IGTV 4: Instagram Bio

When people look at your Instagram account, they read your bio to see if yours is an account they want to follow. Make sure your bio clearly states you are an author and your book genre.

Related Reading: Here you will find more information about Instagram marketing in this guide about the advantages of Instagram.

Reddit

Two subreddits allow self promotion: r/selfpromo with 1,600 members and r/Selfpromote with 4,000 members. This is a tremendous audience, and the perk is you don’t need an advertising budget to make Redditors aware of your writing.

Make sure when you post to Reddit subreddits, you follow the rules of the subreddit.They vary from community to community.

Related Reading: Here you will find more information about Reddit subreddits.

Goodreads

Goodreads is a social media site for book lovers.

Goodreads enables users to review and recommend books to other members. When they recommend a book, the link to Amazon or wherever the book is sold appears.

You even get an author page at Goodreads. Each time you publish, add the promotional material to your author page.

Related Reading: Here you will find more information about how to promote a book using Goodreads.

Wrapping Up: Book Promotion Strategies for Authors

This guide shared five social media sites you can use to promote your books without needing an advertising budget. In addition, the effect of promotion is an increase in like-minded content creators and fans as well as book sales.

Author Bio: Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She was nominated as the 2021 and 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack. Join us at Mostly Blogging for more social media and writing tips.