instaFreebie: The Safer Way to Send Free Book Review Copies

Reviews are crucial when it comes to selling books online and in bookstores, and one of the best ways to get reviews is to send out book review copies before your book is even published. If you're only planning to send out half a dozen books, you can simply email them as attachments. When you're more established and have 50 or more names on your list, however, that can become a really big chore. instaFreebie is a new site that takes care of that problem. It coordinates with MailChimp so you can use existing mailing lists, and the process is automatic after you post the initial access code to the books. The basic free account has limited uses, but for a nominal fee you can completely automate your review copy process.

Advantages

Signing up for instaFreebie may seem like a lot of work for a small aspect of your book marketing program, but it gives a lot of value. Among the advantages are:

• The reading rate is much higher with instaFreebie than with attached files. Even if they trust you, some readers are still wary of opening attachments in their email
• You can leave your manuscript online indefinitely, using it as a site for giving away free book copies as contest prizes
• You avoid giving people access to your Dropbox or GoogleDocs account

How it Works

Using the free basic program on instaFreebie takes only a few minutes. Begin by uploading your manuscript file, including your cover artwork and the title. Decide if you want your work to be DRM protected with a digital watermark. Choose the number of copies you want available and set the expiration date. Decide if you want this freebie to be shared by the site or by other users. This can be a good way to find new reviewers. Click a button to generate a link and you're ready to share your review copies with the world.

When readers come onto the site, they're shown a copy of your book cover and asked for their name and email address. Once they do that they're instructed to choose between .ePub, .mobi, or PDF file types. Once done, instaFreebie emails the file to their mailbox.

Creative Uses

While instaFreebie is generally made for giving out review copies, you can take advantage of the free service for other marketing tasks. Connect with other authors in your genre and combine to make one large contest prize of multiple links. Use some of your giveaways as thank you gifts to street team members. You know that aunt who's always asking for a free copy of your work? Problem solved. Any time you might want to send someone a copy of your book this site is ready, without you having to attach files each time.

Keep the Faith and May the Force be with You!