Message from the Soap Box: Bloggers and Giveaways

Topic: Bloggers and Giveaways

Being an avid reader I’ve entered a LOT of giveaways via goodreads, commenting, rafflecopter etc. Most of the time they are legit, I’ve gotten quite a collection of signed paperbacks, signed bookmarks, and swag and a ton of other stuff I can’t even bring myself to mention online (-eyes Bridgette-)

Anyway, giveaways, while tedious with the amount of tasks a rafflecopter can have, are a lot of fun too. The anticipation of possibly winning, the elation if you actually do. That never wears off, neither does the mild sorrow that comes when you lose something you really hoped to win (case in point, the umteen million kindle fires, and kindle paperwhites I’ve entered to win for the last year and didn’t even place lol)

But who’s responsible when you win something and don’t receive it?

That’s the topic of today’s of Soap Box Message.

Now this is a multi faceted topic. There are many factors to look into. Who offered the giveaway? A blogger? A Tour Company? An Author?

Let’s begin on the lowest rung on the ladder: A Blogger

We bloggers are the lowest rung on the giveaway prize ladder. It may sound odd since you see blog posts everywhere but it’s not often a blogger themselves will run a giveaway without it being connected to an author or a touring company. Most bloggers are legit and will award the prize as soon as they can. There are a few that give us all a bad name though.

The next rung on the ladder are Tour Companies. Many of you know I run Wolf Paw Blog Tours. We are hired by authors to do a certain service, cover reveals, blasts, blitz, tours, etc. Most come with banners for the bloggers to post on their blogs saying “hey this service is brought you by this tour company”. When you win something a tour company organizes, 9/10 times the author is footing the bill for the prize. A tour organizer if legit will ALWAYS contact the winner and tell the winner they’ve won. A few will claim ignorance and assume everyone holds onto a million links for giveaways they enter and that they should have initiated contact without knowledge that they won. And a few.. Very few are false and will claim they sent the prize, or you did something to be disqualified, or didn’t contact and give your prize away. These organizers usually don’t have the mind set to at least remove your name from the rafflecopter.

The top rung of the ladder are the authors and publishers. Every author will run a giveaway at some point or another. I personally have yet to have a problem with the awarding of an author giveway.

But what happens when you have a blogger that runs a giveaway for an author, and the author doesn’t uphold their end of the agreement by awarding the prizes they told the blogger to list? Who foots that bill? Sadly enough this is not as uncommon as one would think. Blogs lose followers due to it all the time. The problem is, while a blogger would love nothing more at that point of being screwed to scream to the mountain tops how wrong the author is, they can’t it would make them look bad. So what happens? Most bloggers will apologize profusely and award the winner(s) their prize out of their own pocket. This is an unfair practice, yet it’s sadly what happens.

Bloggers don’t want to lose followers. After months of seeing these followers comment on their posts and play in games and giveaways, they become a type of friend (and I use this loosely). Followers trust the blogs they follow to be honest and truthful. Even if the blame lay in other hands, it still comes right back to that factor. And instead of outing the author who wanted all this done with a giveaway and then refuses to up the prizes, it falls to the blogger to fulfill the obligation.

If enough bloggers are done wrong by an author, where will that author go to be promoted? Many will claim “I can pimp myself. I don’t need help”. If that were the case, blog tour companies, street teams, bloggers wouldn’t exist. If an author was capable of handling all their promoting by them self, they wouldn’t need the things that help them the most. So please if you’re considering skipping out on a giveaway you sponsored, think about the ramifications of that action. Don’t think of the bloggers or tour organizations that will be hurt by the process, think of your own reputation. No one will want to be part of someone that’s untrustworthy.

This has been a Message from the Soap Box, brought to you by,