The Proliferation of Small Book Promo Sites

I get pitched to join new book promo sites a lot. The invitations I receive via email are the most suspect, although I can vouch for BookSignal, whose invitation actually arrived via my website contact form. The owner is diligently working to grow his site, and I appreciate hard work. BookSignal does a lot of neat things, which you should check out for yourself. It's still in its germination phase and so I'll gladly cut it some slack.

But there are some sketchy ones. Apparently, I subscribed to a Substack that I assumed was about writing, but I kept getting mysterious emails from various senders about promo sites I've never heard of, sent via "Kevin's Newsletter". I take it that Kevin sells his subscriber list. I hate underhanded moves like that. If I cared enough, I would report Kevin to Substack, but instead I simply unsubscribed. (By the way, Substack has a problem with this. Last week I received repeated messages on two of my email accounts from some old guy who said he's in his nineties, if he's legit, which I question, announcing his new Substack. I did report that to Substack and they quashed it.)

I saw a post on Reddit's r/self-publishing sub announcing a site called WroteaBook.org. Listing a book is free--my magic word--so I took a look at it. (An "org" suffix can be misleading, by the way. Anybody can buy an org domain; they don't have to be affiliated with some professional group. Even I could be an org, but I don't want to be. I'm a loner.)

Among wroteabook's offerings are author spotlights (interviews), free promotional spots, and a newsletter. I have no delusions about this being anything more than a site to make authors feel good about themselves, but again, it's free and it checks out as legit.

That said, the site claims to have 40,000 readers, but how would one know if that traffic number is true? I suspect it's mostly authors, which is how a lot of these sites go. And it lists a ton of traditionally published books, which is both useless and a bit of a red flag. Readers aren't going to a small website to buy a Big Five book. They go to Amazon. This factor reads as "site stuffing" to me. But I have subscribed to the newsletter, so that should give me more insight.

My primary concern with sites like this is whether they're scammy, which explains my unsubscription to Kevin. I've been around long enough to be familiar with the established promo sites, so new names out of the blue raise alarm bells. I certainly don't need my novel stolen, although why anyone would want to do so is beyond me.

I did enjoy completing the author interview, though. I always love talking about my book, even if no one is listening. I was emailed three additional questions today, which likely happens to every author who joins, to make it appear as if their book is "really interesting". (Mine is, by the way.) So, my interview isn't live yet, but I am going to read other authors' interviews to see how much better or worse they are at answering questions.

Like most sites, my genre isn't even listed as a search option, but I long ago made my peace with that. I get it; everyone wants romance and fantasy, but damn, there's sure a glut of those! Why not try something different for a change?

I'm neither recommending nor giving a thumbs-down to wroteabook. I don't know enough about it yet. My initial take is that it's harmless enough, but do your own research, as one should always do.

Just steer clear of Kevin.