Your Book Deserves More Readers.
List your book for free and put it in front of readers exploring their next favourite story. When you are ready to grow your reach, choose a promotion for a free giveaway, a $0.99 deal, or an honest review campaign. Video creation and social media management are optional.
Listing is free on its own. It is not a trial of a paid plan, and buying a promotion does not improve your catalogue listing.
Put your book on the Shelf
Submit your book to the Atomic Shelf reader catalogue. It is read publicly, browsable by genre and era, and free for the life of the catalogue. We hold it for a short moderation pass first.
List Your Book FreeReach more readers
Reader-promotion campaigns, video production, trailers, listing work, review campaigns, preorder mechanics and reader-list growth. Six monthly packages from $20, and you can start with a single campaign instead.
Reach More ReadersWhat the catalogue actually is
The Shelf is a public list of books with working metadata, covers and genre classification, drawn from Open Library and from authors who submitted their own work. Anyone can browse it. Nothing is behind a sign-up.
Submitting costs nothing and buys no promotion. It puts your book in front of readers who browse by genre — fantasy, crime, literary fiction, memoir and thirty more — or by era, whether that is new releases, contemporary, or timeless classics. If you never buy anything from us, the catalogue is still yours.
What you get
- A permanent, publicly readable listing with a cover, a description and a genre.
- Browsing by genre and by era, plus a front page that turns over every day.
- Moderation before publication: we check the book is real, the metadata reads correctly and the cover is legible at catalogue size.
- No package, no video, no social media management and no paid promotion required — ever.
What you do not get
- No guarantee of impressions, clicks, reads, downloads, reviews or sales.
- No promotion: a listing is a place to be found, not a campaign.
- No better listing because you buy something else from us.
- No automatic entry into any paid campaign or package.
Moderation usually takes a few days. If something needs fixing — a cover, a description, a genre — we say so rather than quietly publishing it.
Reach More Readers
A free listing puts your book where readers can find it. When you want more of them to see it, you can buy reach — separately from, and never instead of, the free listing. Video production and social media management are optional add-ons, not prerequisites.
Free-book giveaway
A timed free-download window pushed to readers already browsing your genre and paired with a newsletter placement. You set the window and the price point; we handle the placement.
Request a giveaway campaign$0.99 promotion
A discounted-price window with placement in front of genre readers. Best used alongside a preorder or a launch window.
Request a $0.99 campaignHonest review campaign
We recruit genre-matched readers, send complimentary copies and invite independent, voluntary reviews. A free copy is never conditional on posting a review, giving a positive rating, or changing an existing review.
How reviews workCampaigns are requested, not self-checkout. We confirm scope, audience fit, timing and price before anything is charged, so there is no campaign inventory to browse and no checkout to complete. The review-campaign reader counts in the packages below — ten at Momentum, twenty-five at Growth — are the established figures; anything outside them is a conversation. We do not publish audience sizes or campaign availability we cannot stand behind.
When a listing is not enough
These are real, purchasable services, and they are optional. Short-form video production is the lead proposition: it is what puts a book in front of readers who already read its genre.
A catalogue listing puts your book where readers can find it. It does not make them stop. Marketing is the work that carries a book past the shelf: short-form video, cinematic trailers, listing and A+ copy, review campaigns, preorder countdowns, reader-list growth and paid retargeting.
We market books across formats — including audiobooks. Already have an audiobook? We can market it, whoever produced it and however you recorded it.
| Service | Stage | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Short-form video | Discover | 60 videos a month at Spark, rising to 80 and 100+; genre-matched scripts, hooks and trending audio, published to TikTok, Shorts and Reels |
| Listing optimisation | Convert | Rewritten copy, keywords and A+ content so a click becomes a sale |
| ARC review campaigns | Trust | Complimentary copies to genre-matched readers — 10 at Momentum, 25 at Growth — in exchange for honest, independent reviews |
| Preorder campaigns | Convert | Listing setup at Foundation, then a 6-week countdown at Momentum and 8 weeks at Growth |
| Reader-list building | Retain | StoryPals enrolment as campaigns run, so the next book starts with readers you already earned |
| Audience retargeting | Convert | Segmented and lookalike campaigns returning engaged readers to finish |
| Multilingual discovery | Discover | Language-aware catalogue positioning and destination links for translated editions |
| Reader ecosystem | Retain | A standing audience between releases, with full social management at Momentum and Growth |
| Audiobook marketing | Discover | Discovery for an audiobook that already exists, whoever produced it |
What happens, in order
You submit your book, free
A link, a cover, a description and a genre. No package, no contract, no payment details. The form posts to our own API and tells you only that it arrived.
We moderate it
We check the book is real, that the metadata reads correctly and that the cover is legible at catalogue size. If something needs fixing, we tell you instead of quietly publishing it. This usually takes a few days.
It goes live on the Shelf
Your listing becomes public and browsable by genre and by era, and turns up on the daily front page. It stays there for the life of the catalogue.
You decide whether to add a campaign
Some books are found this way and some are not. If you want more reach than the catalogue gives you, you can request a free giveaway, a $0.99 promotion or an honest review campaign. It is a separate decision and it is yours to make.
You can add production and management, if you want it
Video, trailers, listing optimisation, review campaigns and managed social media are available as services. They are optional, and they are never required to keep your free listing.
What we commit to, and what we do not
Every marketing package carries the Atomic Shelf Commitment: money back only for demonstrable non-delivery. Everything else is time-based, and we keep working.
That commitment does not promise a specific category rank, a specific number of sales, a bestseller position, or a viral break. Those are outcomes nobody controls, and a package implying otherwise would be lying to you.
The planning ranges we publish for each package, and the conditions attached to them, are on the results page — labelled as ranges, not promises. A free listing is not one of those ranges: it makes no promise at all.
Six monthly packages
These packages buy production, campaign and management work. They do not buy a catalogue listing, because a catalogue listing is already free. Start where the work justifies it: every package is monthly and cancellable, and longer commitments are prepaid at a discount.
Loading plans…
Free catalogue participation is not a paid-plan feature, and no plan improves your free listing. A single reader-promotion campaign can be arranged without a package — request one. Running a full catalogue, or need a bespoke structure? Ask about Surge & Orbit — a dedicated team with custom pricing.
Questions authors actually ask
Does listing my book really cost nothing?
Yes. The catalogue is free and is not a benefit of buying a package. Buying a marketing package does not improve your catalogue listing, and a free listing does not oblige you to buy anything.
Do I need a paid plan to be on the Shelf?
No. A paid plan is optional and separate. You can list your book, and stay listed, without ever buying anything from us.
What happens after I submit my book?
It enters a short moderation pass. We check the book is real, that the metadata reads correctly and that the cover is legible at catalogue size. If something needs fixing we tell you; if it is fine, it goes live and becomes publicly browsable by genre and by era.
How long does moderation take?
A few days. We do not publish a hard service level for it, because we would rather give you a real number than a fast one we cannot keep.
How do I ask for a reader-promotion campaign?
Use the request buttons on this page, or the campaign enquiry form. Tell us which kind you want — a free giveaway, a $0.99 promotion or an honest review campaign — and we come back with scope, timing and price before anything is charged.
What is the difference between a listing, a placement, a click, a download and a sale?
A listing is your book's page on the catalogue. A placement is a slot we give it in front of readers — a giveaway window, a $0.99 promotion or a review campaign. A click is someone opening your listing. A download is someone taking a free copy. A sale is someone paying. Each is a different measure, and we do not use one as a substitute for another.
Will being on the Shelf make my book sell?
We cannot promise that and will not. The catalogue makes your book findable. Discovery depends on genre, competition and your own continued work. If you want active promotion, that is the paid path, and it is a separate decision.
Do you guarantee sales?
No. Expected ranges for lower-priced books can be estimated, but they cannot be guaranteed — they depend on reader behaviour, market conditions and platform performance. We control the work we commit to. We influence reach, clicks and conversion. We do not guarantee a specific number of sales, a bestseller position, a ranking, or a viral event.
Are the reviews in a review campaign honest, and are they required?
They are voluntary and independent. We recruit readers, send complimentary copies and invite reviews. A free copy is never conditional on posting a review, on giving a positive rating, or on changing an existing review — and we do not pay for positive ratings or guarantee a score.
What happens if Atomic Shelf doesn't deliver?
Money back applies to the specific line items that were not delivered at all — not a blanket refund, and not triggered simply by results coming in below the estimated range. If delivery is confirmed but performance is below range, we keep working, diagnose and adjust at no extra cost.
Why are longer commitments discounted?
Longer commitments are prepaid savings. We have more time to compound the work, and predictable planning lets us give better economics.
Can I change plans?
Yes — upgrading, downgrading or pausing is allowed at any time. Current ad spend is applied as credit toward the new plan.
Do I need to appear on camera?
No. You provide a link to your book, or to your catalogue for a backlist, plus optionally any planned discount dates.
What genres do you support?
All genres. Larger, higher-volume genres tend to see stronger results than smaller ones, simply because the reader pool is larger.
Two doors. Pick the one you meant.
If you have a book and want it findable, start free. If you want it marketed, look at the packages. They do not have to be the same decision, or the same day.