Goodreads Giveaway—Fun, But No Increase in Sales

In early February, I offered my book, PAIRS AT NATIONALS, as a Goodreads Giveaway and advertised it on my social media sites. A few authors asked me to let them know if I sold more books as a result.  So here’s my report.

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. 

Awesome Workshop with Author/Editor Joyce Sweeney

I’ve been to lots of writing workshops and conferences.  Almost always, they’ve been helpful with developing skills such as creating characters, organizing plots, writing beginnings, revising a story . . . I could go on and on.  Even disappointing workshops inspired me because it was stimulating to be surrounded by people who shared my passion for stories and writing.

Joyce with her usual friendly smile

All of which brings me to a two-hour SCBWI workshop presented this past Saturday by author/editor Joyce Sweeney at the public library in Celebration. (For my non-writer friends, SCBWI stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, THE national organization for children’s writers.)  I knew the presenter already.  Besides being a successful author and poet, Joyce is an editor who has helped many writers become published authors.  She edited Pairs at Nationals, and it definitely became a better book.

But this workshop was different from any I have ever attended.  Even though the description of the workshop mentioned that she would be using writing prompts, I never expected they would be the heart of the workshop, and that they would somehow inspire my right brain to take over.

What Joyce did was read poems from her latest poetry book, Wake Up, which came out of a heart-wrenching time in her life.  After she read a poem, she used its subject as a writing prompt.  They first one was about a door and what it symbolized to her.  She asked us to put our main character in front of a door . . . What was outside the door?  What was inside?

I have a character for the YA novel I want to write, 14-year-old Lexie, but I’ve been struggling to “feel” the book.  I know the story “sort of,” but nothing was coming together.  So I thought about Lexie and doors.  Where could she be?  How could it be part of the story when I didn’t even know what the story would be?  Then the door came to me and I started to write.  I hadn’t brought my computer, so I wrote in longhand on a legal pad.  Maybe because I knew the result wouldn’t be neat, I didn’t stop to fix anything, but just kept writing.  When Joyce called time, Lexie still hadn’t opened that door—so much had to be said first—but I knew what was on the other side and how Lexie felt about it. I began to feel excited about the book.

The second prompt was to write about a car or a car accident.  Lexie didn’t drive, so who would have a car?  I knew Lexie wouldn't take someone’s car.  Suddenly I could see the scene, where she was, whose car it was, why she shouldn’t get in the car, why she did.  Again, I never completed the prompt, never described the accident, but I knew it was coming.

After each prompt a few people shared what they had written.  It was fun to see the different ways we each worked with a word.  Some prompts worked better for me than others, but they were all good exercises in description, imagery, or character development.  I’ve brainstormed before, but there was something different about using Joyce’s writing prompts.

Will my enthusiasm for the book stay?  I hope so. Yesterday morning—after taking Sunday off to enjoy our boat on the beautiful St. Johns River—I sat down and wrote the first few pages of the novel I’ve been struggling with.  With a new approach for me, I wrote in longhand in a notebook.  I have no idea if those words will remain the novel’s opening pages, but they’re a start.  I’ll see what my critique group says next week.  So, thank you, Joyce and Florida SCBWI. 

Joyce has a website where she can be reached if you’re looking for an editor.  She also offers many writing courses in the form of webinars. Some are offered on specific dates.  Others are on-demand—you can take them whenever you’re ready.  You can find Joyce at www.sweeneywritingcoach.com

Reblog—Unusual Things I Know About Bookworms

I've always been a bookworm and can identify with many things on this list.  Take number one for example.  My husband always says that I'll read the copy on a cereal box or soup can label if there's nothing else around.  Are you a bookworm, too?  Does Jenny Hansen's list remind you of yourself?   

This reblog is from Jenny Hansen's blog, COWBELL: https://jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com

(For some unknown reason, the website doesn't publish as a link. To see more of Jenny's blogs, click on the title below.)

Unusual Things I Know About Bookworms

Posted on March 2, 2017by Jenny Hansen

It’s National Reading Month, which is my favorite time of year, since I am a bookworm. We’re a club with specific characteristics and one thing is certain: bookworms find other bookworms. They simply must, so they can find out about more cool books.

Bookworms have been devouring books for as long as they can remember – for story, for new worlds and new ideas. Their To Be Read piles are taller than a small child. Their favorite authors and characters become friends.

If you are a bookworm, there are things that I know about you that I don’t know about the other readers I meet:

1. I know you read odd things in odd places.If you are stuck somewhere without a book, you will begin reading any words available – shampoo bottles, food labels, billboard signs. Whatever. Books and magazines are preferred, but in a pinch, any words will smooth your soul.

2. You read by flashlight in bed at night when you were a child.When your person-in-charge confiscated it, you waited 5 minutes before pulling the back-up light from its crafty hidey-hole. If they were on to you and confiscated the back-up, you tilted the pages to try to read by the light from the hall.

3. When a book touches you, it is a safe bet that you will not only remember the details of that story, characters, etc…you will also remember where you were the first time you read it and what you were doing that day.

4. I am certain that if you named 10 best friends from the various periods of your life (and were being honest), at least half of them would be book characters or the authors who wrote them.

5. You have different books for different moods.These are your go-to books when you’re in the grip of overwhelming emotion. You keep reading through that stash of books until the feeling gets a little more manageable.

6. Piles of free books by your most cherished authors gives you that same zing of attraction that you felt the first time you saw your true love.

7. When you meet your favorite author(s), your tongue gets tied in knots and the idea of speaking to them gives you an extreme physical reaction. (I blush, nearly every time.)

8. You have rituals associated with your books.Whether it’s the way you clean them, sort them, store them or lend them, there is something particular you do with your books. And it makes you feel happy and peaceful when you look at your books after you’ve done it.

(For me, it’s the way I order them and which shelf or room they’re in. My husband knows: don’t be moving my books without telling me. It morphs me into the Devil Wife.)

9. On the touchy subject of lending…bookworms are quite particular about loaning their books.I know that when someone borrows a treasured book from you and doesn’t return it – or worse, passes it on to someone else without asking you first – your friendship with them changes.

You’re probably still their friend, but you’ll either “forget” to loan them books in the future or you buy a copy from the used bookstore as a back-up and loan them that. There is an A-List of book-borrowers in your life and you love to have coffee with these people.

10. When a book touches your spirit and transports you to a place you’ve never been, it’s not uncommon for you to read the last page, turn the book over and start at Page 1 because you can’t bear to say goodbye to the characters yet.

There are more things that I know about bookworms and their reading habits but I’d love to hear from all of you. What are your favorite books? Do you have book rituals? (If so, what are they?) Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!

~ Jenny

Photo credit: Hunter Emkay ~ WANA Commons

Have You Heard of the Big Read?

I first learned about The Big Read when my local Volusia County Library System did one last year. It’s a national program sponsored by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The idea is that everyone in the community reads the same book, and then they all enjoy multiple events about the book, the author, and the times. All events are free. Last year's book was To Kill a Mockingbird. This year the choice was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. To make it easy for people to get the book, the library had 1500 copies to give away.

The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is the story of Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of the American Dream. While he achieves great wealth, he is destroyed by his obsessive pursuit of Daisy, his first love, who is now married to the super-rich Tom Buchanan.  Gatsby’s story explores the decadence, excesses and arrogance of the super-rich during the 1920s, as seen through the eyes of his neighbor, midwesterner Nick Carraway.

I made it to three of the programs.  One was a book discussion led by local playwright Ann Magaha, who began with a power point that showed the autobiographical nature of the book. Did you know, for example, that Fitzgerald grew up in a middle-class townhouse, but he always felt his family was poor compared to great wealth at the other end of his street?

Another event was “Muse to Madness: The Life of Zelda Fitzgerald.”  It was one-woman show by writer Debra Conner, in which she played Fitzgerald's wife Zelda, first as a patient in a mental hospital looking back on her life and then as a young flapper in the twenties. Many people, including Hemingway, blamed Zelda for Fitzgerald’s drinking and decline, but this show presented a more sympathetic picture.  I'm intrigued and want to learn more about her.

And last for me was a Poetry Slam where poets read their own works or the poems of others. This one was supposed to be a contest among various presentations, but only one poet actually showed up.  Still, Melody Dimick went ahead with her presentation, first reading some poems by twenties poet Dorothy Parker, each ending with a funny, surprise couplet.(I'm checking out her poems next time I'm at the library.) Then Melody read her own “found poem.”  

Do you know what a found poem is? I didn’t until I met Melody, who defines it as “words, phrases, lines, and passages from other sources combined into  . . . the form of a poem.” Her found poem was made up of sentences and phrases from The Great Gatsby.  It’s amazing how she put them together to make a coherent poem!

Some other events were arts and crafts for kids, a twenties party for teens, a Jeopardy game, and a jazz music program. They also showed of several films, including “The Great Gatsby” (two versions, one with Robert Redford and one with Leonardo DeCarprio), and Woody Allen’s, “Midnight in Paris,” a great film that I’ve seen twice.

Has your community ever tried a Big Read? Did you participate? It’s a fun way to learn about a classic, and it  involves everyone in reading!