For those unfamiliar with Goodreads, it’s a website
dedicated to books, readers, and authors. A Giveaway is like a drawing, except
that instead of buying a raffle ticket, you find a book on the Giveaways list
and click Enter to Win. It’s totally
free. I’ve entered a few times to see if
I could get a free book, but no success so far.
I did my PAIRS AT NATIONALS Giveaway as a way of getting my
book noticed and, hopefully, purchased if a person didn’t win. I offered to give away five books. I was
delighted when 756 people entered and 269 marked the book as Want to Read. When
I got the list of winners, I sent off the books, and in my note to them, I
asked them to write a review. Goodreads
says that 60 % of winners do, so I’m hoping for three reviews. None so far, but will update on that later if I get some.
Now for the question about stimulating sales—in a word,
no. It didn’t. That was my big disappointment. After the Giveaway ended, I temporarily
lowered the price of the Kindle book to only $.99. I had hoped to send a group message to all
the entrants, but authors sending e-mails to readers is against Goodreads
policy. Unfortunately, I doubt if those
756 people see my various social media posts.
Would I do another one?
Probably. It’s fun to see the
number of entrants go up, and it cost me only a few dollars to send the books. Plus, I still think it attracted attention to
the books and my name. However, I would offer only one or two books and would
limit entrants to the United States. Postage even to Canada is very high. I was lucky that my book was thin enough to
go as large first class envelope and not a package!
Has anyone else tried a Giveaway? How did you feel about it? I would love to hear comments.
About a year ago, I offered my book (a nonfiction travel/memoir), Postcards Along the Way (Notes from a Scribbling Traveler), as a Giveaway. I gave away five copies with about 400 entries. I received two nice reviews, but never heard from the other three. However, shortly after my Giveaway and the books had been sent, suddenly a copy of my book appears on my Amazon page as a used copy being offered for--get this--$199.00. -It sold for $17.95. I was irate! After analyzing this situation and implementing some detective work, I determined that maybe this was executed by someone who was chosen to receive a copy via the Giveaway, and I suspect whom it might have been. The seller only had one copy. Following the Amazon process, I sent an email to this person and of course never received a response. It remained posted for several weeks. Eventually it was taken down, to which my husband responded, "Maybe he sold it!"(kidding of course) I doubt it. It was good and I worked hard on it, but it wasn't a $199.00 book even with color photos! He probably realized he wasn't going to sell it at that price. Or maybe he just wanted to jerk my chain for whatever reason. I would probably try a Giveaway again, but only give one book in the event I might need to monitor it.
ReplyDeleteThe culprit who offered my book on my page sells used books on line including eBay and a couple of other sites. Maybe he tries to see how many free books he can confiscate from Goodreads to add to his sales inventory?
Wow! What a story! So far I haven't gotten any benefit, but I haven't had any problems like yours either. I seem to remember that a few years ago when I entered a Giveaway, Goodreads said when you enter, you should plan to leave a review if you win. Unfortunately, they don't do that anymore.
DeleteFive years ago, I gave away 5 copies of my first novel on Goodreads. As a result I got 4 really solid reviews. But since then, I've done a giveaway for every one of my novels and hadn't gotten even one review. It's not a requirement, so I think readers just don't bother to do it even when you send a note with your books asking them to. I was fortunate to win a giveaway last year, but it was for an author friend's book, so I would have given her a review anyway, even if she hadn't requested one from me. I think the giveaways are a good way to get your books out there to be seen by readers. On my last giveaway I only did American readers, because the time before that I had to send one to Brazil, and the address was so unusual that I'm not sure that it ever got there.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have gotten reviews. As I said in my above comment, I think that five years ago, Goodreads said something about by entering, you should feel committed to leave to review. But that's not there anymore. I like to think the Giveaway puts my name and book out there, but I'd like to see some sign that it has. I wish Goodreads would let an author send one note to all entrants.
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