How I Promote My Books To Increase My Book Revenue

The #1 Secret to My Success

Photo by Stefan Steinbauer on Unsplash

I have a secret.

It’s the secret way that I promote my books.

It has helped me get books to #1 bestseller status. It creates revenue and reviews. And it always jumpstarts my royalties.

It’s a very simple secret too. 

But, before I share it with you, I need to tell you all the things I have tried to promote my books. Chances are, you have tried these too.

1. Facebook Ads

2. Amazon Ads

3. Paid promotion email lists

4. Fiverr Gigs

5. Social Media

6. Spamming Medium

7. Substack

8. Email lists

9. Texting friends and family

10. Guest posting/podcast appearances

All of these have worked to some degree or another, but none of them have worked as well as my super secret way to promote and sell more books.

Are you ready for this secret?

I know this is going to be controversial with some. And it is counter intuitive. But it seems to be working. Here it is:

Give your books away for free.

That’s right. Give your books away for free. Yes, hundreds and thousands of people will pick up your book for free. 

And when they read it, 2–3% of them will leave reviews/ratings.

When they do that, your book begins to sell. You see, Amazon favors reviews and ratings. 

And while you could go out and purchase some of these reviews and ratings, you will spend more money doing that than simply giving your book away for free.

I am jumpstarting my book sales again with a free giveaway.

This week, I am giving away three of my books:

• The Gospel of John

• The Gospel of Matthew

• The Gospel of Mark

All three of these books are free as Kindle books this week. And since I started the free promotion, I have had over 200 downloads for these books alone.

But guess what? That’s not all.

I have had 50 book orders on my other books and on the paperback books for these books. Which equals income. What I have found is that when you give a book or two away for free, people clickthrough to the paid books too. Or people get the Kindle book, but they want to hold a paper book.

I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion. So did Tim Grahl. He shares about this on his YouTube:

So, we know that if we get our books in people’s hands, and they read it, the chances of them sharing it or leaving a review or way higher than any other way of doing things.

Don’t abandon other promotion activities.

Now, I’m not saying you should abandon all other promotional activities. I’m just saying that it might be worth your time and energy to give you book away. 

And you never know, the right person might come across it and your book sales will explode.

I’ve told you what I am doing, but there are probably lots of reasons you might think this isn’t worth it. Aside from the fact that people aren’t giving you money, what might be others?

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My name is J.R. Heimbigner and I am a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon with 15 self-published books. I have two things I want to share with you:

1. A short book to help you write books with your Substack posts called Substack Books.

2. The New Writer School on my Gumroad Store. You will find a free checklist for daily engagement, my Writer’s Starter Pack, and a sign up to have a one-hour call with me to discuss writing or self-publishing.

Also, this post may contain sales or affiliate links, so I might get a little kickback if you purchase anything. Thank you in advance!