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What's the best way to host a giveaway?
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Hope
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Aug 19, 2013 08:05AM
I am wondering if anyone has hosted a giveaway on their blog, and how that works? Do you received permission from an author / publisher? Can you rafflecopter on Blogger? Any help greatly appreciated, as well as tips on how to get more followers/traffic for my blog. :)
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I am not sure you can do a giveaway on a book you don't own the rights to. Personally I don't like Rafflecopter you have to do too much to get any decent amount of entries. If you can do it I would just to a Goodreads giveaway and promote that on your blog.
Nicci wrote: "I am not sure you can do a giveaway on a book you don't own the rights to. Personally I don't like Rafflecopter you have to do too much to get any decent amount of entries. If you can do it I wou..."If you buy a physical copy of the book, it seems to me, it is YOUR property and you should be allowed to give it away. Same with an ARC if it is given to you. I giveaway a LOT of books -- on my blog, to charities, to friends. I don't understand why an author would need to get involved -- unless you've been given copies for promotion.
this is listed in the Giveaways rules for here:1) You have the proper permission. Only the author, publisher, or official representative of the book can post a giveaway for it. If you are not any of those things, you must get permission from the author before listing.
Nicci wrote: "this is listed in the Giveaways rules for here:1) You have the proper permission. Only the author, publisher, or official representative of the book can post a giveaway for it. If you are not any..."
Well, that seems a little crazy. So I can't list my giveaway books on the book giveaway groups pages?
I haven't hosted a giveaway yet, but I've had offers from authors I've featured or publicists arranging blog tours. In those cases, it's permissible because they're requesting it. I'm not sure about other situations. For those of you who have hosted giveaways, what's the best way to go about it? (Sorry...would it be better to post this as a new thread? Not sure if it's too off topic.)
Kelly wrote: "I haven't hosted a giveaway yet, but I've had offers from authors I've featured or publicists arranging blog tours. In those cases, it's permissible because they're requesting it. I'm not sure abou..."My apologies -- I sort of unintentionally hijacked the thread!
Nancy wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I haven't hosted a giveaway yet, but I've had offers from authors I've featured or publicists arranging blog tours. In those cases, it's permissible because they're requesting it. I'm..."So sorry if it seemed like that's what I was implying...I didn't mean for it to sound that way! I just had another question and wasn't sure if it was related enough to be a follow up. :)
What I meant was: I've had offers to host giveaways on my blog but have always declined because I didn't know how to do it. Anyone have any tips?
Thanks, Cynthia. That's very helpful. I think I'll start with the free level and see how I like it; if it feels too constricted, I can always upgrade!
No matter how many books we review or blog about, it does not give any intellectual rights to the book. Many of the authors are new, or currently struggling as is the publishing world with the ease of self publishing and e-books turning the book world upside down. Most authors today need every bit of publicity they can get, but they also need the sales of their book because this is their job, their income which supports them. Any giveaway of an author's book must have either their permission or the publisher's, to prevent a possible legal issue. If it were me, send requests out to the publishers and/or authors to request their permission. Many who are looking for further publicity will most likely agree.
Here's a follow-up question for anyone who's done this before: Once the giveaway is planned and hosted, and winner(s) chosen, who is responsible for delivery of the book? For e-copies, do I provide winners' information to the author, or do I need to obtain files from the author? Same for hard copies: does the author pay postage and mail directly, or do they come through me (the blogger) first? Thanks in advance for any help!
I do giveaways all the time and usually it is at the author's request. I set up a rafflecopter (I just use the free level) and when I choose the winners I get their mailing info or email address (for ebooks to be sent) and send those to the author.Some times I giveaway the books I am sent. Most of the time the author is aware that I am going to do this and not a single time has someone said no I can't do that. In fact, I tell them if they send me a print copy I will give it away to a reader.
There are times I give away copies of books I own and I do not ask for permission. I see many bloggers giveaway books that I know was on their shelves and I'm pretty sure they didn't contact each author to ask if it was ok to do this. Why would an author complain that their book was being shared with potentially a new fan?
Can anyone advise me on how to set up a Rafflecopter? I have been thinking of doing one for my new release next month. If you manage to get several bloggers to participate, do you need to make a prize available for every blogger? Or could all prizes be centralized to my own blog, with all entries collated to it?
Shane, if you go to rafflecopter.com and create a free account, it really is pretty easy to follow. There are things you can't do with the free account (add images of the prize) or set specific start/end times. But for basic functionality it is all there.You could set up 1 rafflecopter and share the embed code with all the bloggers that are helping you promote. No reason to have a prize for each blogger to give away. You could even do it where you offer a couple of copies of your book with the 1 rafflecopter. If you give the code to all the bloggers then more people would see it.
