Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm trying to increase book sales/reads, so have decided to try listing my books on various ebook sites. The trouble is, many of these sites 1) demand a fee, 2) will only list your book if it's free and you put in the request months in advance and 3) have incredibly picky criteria, e.g. they will only consider your book if it has ten 4 star and up reviews - difficult for an unknown author! Are there any sites that buck this trend?

I have gone through awesomegang.com but I don't know if they are reputable or widespread. There was a small fee.

If you are on Twitter many of the groups there will give a free tweet. I have spent money also on a facebook ad. Only thing that helped so far was an Amazon giveaway. I am pondering a free promotion but would rather do a "sale promotion." 1.99 instead of 2.99.
I feel the need to further promote but can't spend the money for another week. This one sounds good: https://t.co/RMBu4Uv0wf but I have to wait a week. :( Do you have any thoughts on the Amazon promotions?

BTW, I am just starting out. I followed you...can you follow me on Good reads?

Sure, will do!

AwesomeGang
Discount Book Man
Pretty-hot.com

These type of sites will interview you and feature you for free however I'd say you need to promote this feature as well. Does it help gain sales? Perhaps but my few times using them I haven't seen any dramatic spike.

Its definitely worth doing and you never know, it may help out significantly.

humanmade.net is another one. Awesomegang and pretty hot.com are both ones I used. I don't know if it helps any, but it's free and it can't hurt! If you stumble on something great, let us know!

I just found this list of promo sites: http://zombiebooks.net/ee-isherwoods-...
The guy who made the list has little notes next to each site, saying whether they have a free option and that sort of thing. Some of it is out of date, but it's a good starting point.

One way to get some reviews is do a paperback book giveaway on goodreads. Signing them gets you an extra star on average.

Thank you Melody, that was an amazing list! I bookmarked it.

Thank you Melody. And let me echo Morris's suggestion on how to get some reviews.

Rachael wrote: "I'm trying to increase book sales/reads, so have decided to try listing my books on various ebook sites. The trouble is, many of these sites 1) demand a fee, 2) will only list your book if it's fre..."

You can try ReadCheaply. When we tried them, they were free. I can't comment on how picky they are. They were not effective for us, but you might have better luck.

Sweet Free Books does have a small free and the books much be free, but some people report a good experience with them.