Alan Cook's Blog - Posts Tagged "amnesia"
Goodreads Book Giveaways
When my amnesia mystery, Forget to Remember, was published, I was looking for an effective way to promote it without a large outlay of money. I found it at Goodreads.
Membership in Goodreads is free, as you know, and allows readers to post ratings and reviews of the books they’ve read. In addition, authors can post the titles of books they’ve published. Information about who is reading and reviewing each of the author’s books will then appear on his or her home page. You can also have friends on Goodreads (does that sound familiar), and you will receive information about what each of your friends is reading.
What intrigued me is that Goodreads also allows authors to list their newly published books for giveaways. They don’t charge for this service. I signed up to give away five print copies of Forget to Remember (e-book giveaways aren’t allowed). During the period of several weeks that my giveaway was available, 1,118 people signed up for it.
That’s a lot of exposure, considering the fact that I was only out five copies of the book. What happened was that many of the people who signed up but didn’t win a copy purchased the e-book version of Forget to Remember. The month after my giveaway ended I had the best sales month of e-books I’ve ever had—by far. At one point the Amazon Kindle ranking of Forget to Remember almost broke into the top 100 bestsellers. The sales of my other e-books also jumped.
If you have a recently published book, or will have in the future, I recommend using the Goodreads giveaway as a promotion. You’ll have a hard time beating the return you receive for the money you spend.
Membership in Goodreads is free, as you know, and allows readers to post ratings and reviews of the books they’ve read. In addition, authors can post the titles of books they’ve published. Information about who is reading and reviewing each of the author’s books will then appear on his or her home page. You can also have friends on Goodreads (does that sound familiar), and you will receive information about what each of your friends is reading.
What intrigued me is that Goodreads also allows authors to list their newly published books for giveaways. They don’t charge for this service. I signed up to give away five print copies of Forget to Remember (e-book giveaways aren’t allowed). During the period of several weeks that my giveaway was available, 1,118 people signed up for it.
That’s a lot of exposure, considering the fact that I was only out five copies of the book. What happened was that many of the people who signed up but didn’t win a copy purchased the e-book version of Forget to Remember. The month after my giveaway ended I had the best sales month of e-books I’ve ever had—by far. At one point the Amazon Kindle ranking of Forget to Remember almost broke into the top 100 bestsellers. The sales of my other e-books also jumped.
If you have a recently published book, or will have in the future, I recommend using the Goodreads giveaway as a promotion. You’ll have a hard time beating the return you receive for the money you spend.
