@hobbitchild I want to warn you that what you’re describing sounds like one of the most classic definitions of spam—you’re promoting your work in communities where you aren’t already ingrained. That goes double for commenting on blog posts asking people to download. In fact, most spam filters exist specifically to remove that kind of comment.
Even on SE, though I guess it’s not against anything I could see in the terms and conditions, you might want to rein in the frequent calls to action to download your book =P Five of the six topics you’ve started on here (excluding this one) have asked people to download your book.
Anyway, what is the goal of you getting downloads? Are you trying to improve your Amazon rank, trying to get reviews, just trying to get it in the hands of as many people as possible?
Most good marketing isn’t free, but I think these are some of the standard strategies:
- Find bloggers, etc. whose audience would be interested in your book and talk with them about covering your book.
- Find similar authors and talk with them about getting a shoutout in their newsletter.
- Look at the top positive reviewers of extremely similar books on Amazon and Goodreads, and reach out to them about giving an honest review of your own book.
But if you want to market to forums, you should become a legitimate part of the community for months at least before your book drops, and be very careful of their spam rules. As a bonus, the connections you make in a community will probably help you find these bloggers, newsletters, and reviewers more easily in the future.