An Easy Way to Promote Your Book: Goodreads Giveaways

Leslie wrote: "Why don't so many of my fellow authors realise that they can run their own giveaway?

You set this up in advance on Amazon. Then you use firms such as Fussy Librarian (though there are dozens of ot..."

Thank you, Leslie - a great tip, and one we will definitely look into. We won't be doing anymore Giveaways with Goodreads.

Diane wrote: "I used to offer Giveaways for my poetry books, but once you imposed a price--and a very high one at that--I was no longer able to offer them. As a small press publisher of poetry books, I cannot af..."
I agree! And the current format of giveways is not anywhere close as effective as the old format of giveaways (free giveaways with paid advertising) This , of course, was before Amazon took over Goodreads and everything become monetized in the extreme. I 'm also a small press poetry publisher and I live in South Africa with the US Dollar exchange rate hovering around 15:1, giveaways and any sort of promotion on Goodreads is now way beyond my limited budget. I still had hope and did a giveaway with this new way - not one review came of the 100 copies I offered (and I sent paper copies to many of the eBook winners as well). Such a pity, as in the early days Goodreads really was about the providing an effective platform for independent and small publishers. Now, like so many other things, Goodread's giveaways are only about making money for the company (which is now part of Amazon).

Paying to actually give your book away for free? It’s like paying someone to steal your precious child! Lúdicros🙈

This string ought to be renamed "A Daft Way to Promote Your Book: Goodreads Giveaways."

Notice, all this feedback and nothing is changing folks. Because they don't really seem to care. $$$$$$$ We all know how hard up Bezos is.

I did a giveaway from my ebook and got one review and even more infuriating is it does not add to your book stats. At least if it added to your book stats, you "sold" 100 books, this would be something but it does not. So you spend $119. You are not guaranteed reviews and it doesn't add to your Amazon rankings at all. Total waste of money. They obviously don't care either because nothing has changed.

M.C. wrote: "Do the Giveaways happen to count toward category sales ranking at all?"

NO

Shaun wrote: "Hi all, after a huge amount of research we found the marketing value of the giveaways feature underappreciated whilst they were offered at no charge. At the same time, authors and publishers asked ..."

How long before you charge for these services as well

Well Shawn, apparently they are still underappreciated and the only one profiting is Amazon who owns Goodreads.

So I have to pay to give away my book. Sounds like a lose lose situation.

Salvatore wrote: "So I have to pay to give away my book. Sounds like a lose lose situation."

Hey Salvatore! What are you waiting for?

The feedback from indie authors who have had poor experiences gives food for thought, but everyone's experience is different.

A giveaway is not a magical solution to your lack of readership or your book which has a limited audience (there is nothing wrong with that, but stop to consider that a giveaway might not be suitable for everyone's work.) And some of the comments are downright ungracious, not to mention lacking a bit of logical thinking.

I'm especially puzzled by the conclusion that giving away an e-book which has zero cost (to produce, as opposed to the cost of print) suddenly equals a loss of the retail price! I recommend these colleagues read Dickens' "Bleak House," which satirizes a similar illogic. Yes, I suppose you are "losing" the retail cost of the book, but were people buying it to begin with? If so, why do you need to do a giveaway? Sorry to be obvious, but it is what I do best.

You might as well complain that you're losing the retail cost of the million copies, equally cost-free, that you never sold, in which case you are throwing your high dudgeon at the wrong group. Talk to your recalcitrant purchasers.

As for "I did a giveaway and nobody came," I humbly suggest that, if best-seller status is what matters to you, do better research on what people want to buy. You'll find yourself knee-deep in bodice-rippers and murder mysteries but nobody said this would be easy, and you might even get a few product tie-ins with Victoria's Secret.

Having worked for more than a decade in marketing for large ad agencies, I can attest that a hundred plus change for the standard plan and 600 for the super deluxe is small change indeed if you get yourself organized and use all that these plans offer. This is not expensive advertising. (Do you have any idea how much print ads cost? A media buy for TV? The latter can easily go into six figures.)

And the giveaway is not the sum total of your marketing. It's one component.

I can't assess these giveaways except for their upfront costs, but if marketing your work is such a cause of anxiety to you, that's nothing to be ashamed of. You're a writer. You might be well advised to hire a publicist and let them worry about it. (Cost: several thousand).

Finally, we are in the attention economy. There are unprecedented opportunities to get your writing in front of eager readers. But this also means you have huge competition. Attention is SCARCE. If a giveaway helps you stand out even a little above the noise and buys some of that precious attention, it's well worth it.

So please, take a deep breath, look at the big picture and don't fault Goodreads for charging a very fair price for a valuable service.

I say this, of course, with love.

DR

David wrote: "The feedback from indie authors who have had poor experiences gives food for thought, but everyone's experience is different.

A giveaway is not a magical solution to your lack of readership or yo..."

David,

The very fact that you have felt it necessary to write your piece ought to tell you that there is something fundamentally wrong with Goodreads Giveaways. No it is not easy to sell books, as you so rightly say, but neither is it easy to sell Goodreads Giveaways as yourselves are obviously finding out. Why aren’t we 'ungracious' indies all banging on your door and instead are banging on about what we don’t like about the current Giveaway offering?

The product needs to be what the punter wants and that both applies to our books and to Goodreads’ giveaways! Do Goodreads realise that is perfectly possible to arrange one’s own giveaway at a fraction of the cost of a Goodreads Giveaway? If the Goodreads version was offering guaranteed reviews it would be different and probably worth paying for, but it doesn’t, and so is no better than a product which is a fraction of the price.

Yes, we indie authors may have to ‘get real’ about advertising our books, but if Goodreads Giveaways aren’t being taken up by us ‘ungracious’ indies then possibly, just possibly I hasten to add, Goodreads also needs to ‘get real’ about its current Giveaway offering.

Our gripe with Goodreads Giveaway is not with the charge. To market any product, you would expect to pay. Our gripe is with the winners of these Giveaways. We had a successful Giveaway campaign with 100 winners. Only one left a rating (not even a review). Checking on the winners, many of them had listed thousands of books "to read". Pretty much impossible, even for the most avid reader. Goodreads should make winners enter a contract to read and review. In fact, some Goodreads members are now asking why are there so few Giveaways. Well, surprise, surprise! Who is going to pay to give their book away in exchange for nothing. We had planned to do a promotional Giveaway of another title, but changed our minds. Far better to spend your time contacting bookshops and libraries.

Let's face it - self publishing indie author's who are not as yet recognisable celebs don't have a chance of becoming 'known'. Should we just give in to the great commercial obstacles?

Karen wrote: "I have read the above comments and am still not clear about how much the giveaway of Kindle copies of my book would cost and would appreciate an answer from a Goodreads representative. If I give aw..."

I was a bit confused too when I first read about the giveaway. I was worried I'd incur a fee from Amazon for each ebook that was given away. I pushed forward and, with fingers crossed, recently did a giveaway (ebook) of my new sci-fi Hall of Skulls. At the conclusion, 100 ebooks were sent to the winners. Amazon did not charge me for the 100 ebooks or pay me any royalties for these 100 ebooks, since it's a giveaway. Both Amazon & the author forego any profit from the ebooks in this case.

This is mostly to garner a following and to get book reviews posted on Goodreads (though the winners are not obligated to post a review, Goodreads will send them reminders requesting they do so). Without reviews, few people are willing to download a book from an "unknown" author. With reviews, we stand a much better chance. And, over 400 people placed my new book on their "to read" list, which can also help with book sales.

Basically, Amazon has agreed to give away (for free) up to 100 ebook copies when we sign up for this ebook service through Goodreads. They forego their charge for the ebooks, as do we, making them entirely free. It did not change my Amazon sales ranking. So you pay your $119 to Goodreads to set up the giveaway, then Amazon supplies the free copies. After the ebooks are delivered, you'll notice on your Amazon KDP report page that 100 copies (or however many were claimed/won) were sent out by Amazon. For paperback giveaways, however, we incur the charges for the giveaway fee AND the cost of the books that we give away, which probably means mailing charges, too. For ebooks, it is just the $119 flat fee for the service with Amazon supplying the free copies of the ebook to the winners.

I am happy with the results.

Jamie wrote: "Karen wrote: "I have read the above comments and am still not clear about how much the giveaway of Kindle copies of my book would cost and would appreciate an answer from a Goodreads representative..."

Jamie wrote: "Karen wrote: "I have read the above comments and am still not clear about how much the giveaway of Kindle copies of my book would cost and would appreciate an answer from a Goodreads representative..."

Jamie wrote: "Karen wrote: "I have read the above comments and am still not clear about how much the giveaway of Kindle copies of my book would cost and would appreciate an answer from a Goodreads representative..."

Thank you for the information, Jamie.

Jamie wrote: "Karen wrote: "I have read the above comments and am still not clear about how much the giveaway of Kindle copies of my book would cost and would appreciate an answer from a Goodreads representative..."
See if you are happy with the results in two months' time. We, like you, were excited and delighted with the uptake. We had around 380 applicants and gave away 100 Kindle books. We got one rating and no reviews. Most of the applicants had marked over 1000 books "to read". As far as we can tell, this promotion resulted in zero sales. Sad. We had intended to enter another book - a double-award winner - to inject new life into the sales. In the end, we didn't bother.

I don't quite understand the value of a Goodreads giveaway. The cost to give away 100 ebooks is $119. But if I use 1 Amazon free day and advertise on somewhere like Freebooksy I will get several hundred downloads, sometimes a thousand, for around $60. Am I missing something?

Gary wrote: "I don't quite understand the value of a Goodreads giveaway. The cost to give away 100 ebooks is $119. But if I use 1 Amazon free day and advertise on somewhere like Freebooksy I will get several hu..."

Of course you are Gary. You're missing your chance to donate $59 to the Goodreads Benevolent Fund.

Leslie wrote: "Why don't so many of my fellow authors realise that they can run their own giveaway?

You set this up in advance on Amazon. Then you use firms such as Fussy Librarian (though there are dozens of ot..."

Glad you said this. It got me thinking of using alternative options.