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Goodreads limiting their Giveaways to US only - does it matter to you?
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And I'm right there with you. I'll be listing several Giveaways before they make the new limitations and pricetag official. (I wonder how far out they'll let us schedule them?)
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And I'm right there with you. I'll be listing several Give..."
I was wondering the same. The trouble with my new book out 30th Jan - I have to make the paperback and get its ISBN before I can list it. With my preferred paperback supplier, that means it has to be ready to roll out. Well, back to the final editing...
So there will no longer be an option to have an international giveaway? That seems odd.
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It may be that they have something they are planning to roll out later. But then they said that when they introduced the ebook giveaway only to US folks (and Amazon did that too). I suspect it's just Amazon aligning its product principles within Goodreads.
I suppose if I didn't have a new book coming out soon, I wouldn't have minded so much. And also, I think this book may have more appeal to Europeans & Antipodeans at the moment - and Scotland-philes :)
As usual, I may be over-reacting to change. There's a lot of that going on in my life at present.
So what's next? Having to answer a question on whether we support the POTUS before we can continue to post comments and reviews?
C.P. wrote: "So there will no longer be an option to have an international giveaway? That seems odd."I thought this was only about kindle giveaways, but now it seems to be part of traditional dead tree books as well?
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That's exactly it, Manybooks. It has always been the case since they introduced Kindle giveaways, and I understand the technical difficulties of worldwide ones since, for example, UK buyers can't buy ebooks from Amazon.com. I think it's a tax or intellectual property issue. I can buy them from Smashwords in dollars, though.
Now they are limiting paperback giveaways to the US with a new program 'designed to drive more awareness of your books, attract more entrants, and get your book on more Want-to-Read lists' being launched on January 9th.
Apologies for sounding cynical. I do of course want to maintain and increase my US readership base. A side-issue is that the cheapest (and quickest) way of providing paperbacks to the US market is through Createspace (or probably the new Kindle Paperback set-up). Guess who owns them?
Jemima wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "I thought this was only about kindle giveaways, but now it seems to be part of traditional dea..."That's exactly it, Manybooks. It has always been the case since they introduced..."
I know. And for me, Kindle has always been annoying in so far that so many of the German language books I would like to read are not available in German editions on Kindle at Amazon Canada (yes, many are, but still, way way too many are not). As with DVD regions, this really is not at all good for those of us who read in multiple languages.
I also disagree with it being limited to the US and hope they will be adding other countries sooner than later. Unfortunately, even when they do, there will be less books to earn in giveaways. Starting in January, it will cost around $120 to offer a giveaway. Most indie authors and small publishers don't have the budget to pay to list a giveaway on top of the postage and other costs of the giveaway. Sad to see the changes. Hopefully Goodreads will see the determent to its readers and authors and make needed changes.
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I also admit that I have limited my last couple of giveaways to US only, because I did one that ended up requiring me to send books to the UK, Canada, and Australia, which cost a LOT. I feel for my fellow authors in those countries, because they are doomed to spend the money to ship books to the US at equal expense.
Rebecca wrote: "Okay, as far as I can tell, it's just the Kindle giveaways that cost, and maybe just them that are limited to the US (for the reasons Jemima mentions; I prefer to do e-book giveaways myself and use..."Unfortunately, it's for both e- and print books. Here's the except from the Goodreads announcement:
All of these benefits are included in the Standard package which costs $119 for up to 100 copies (either Kindle ebook or print book). The new Goodreads Giveaways program, which replaces our current Giveaways program, will go live on January 9, 2018, and will initially be for giveaways open to U.S. residents.
I've been involved in a group thread throughout the day with a Goodreads employee who has been fielding questions. I specifically brought up the cost for printed copy giveaways and she confirmed that whether we giveaway e-book or print copies, it's the same price.
I keep hoping this will be one of those things that causes enough uproar that Goodreads rethinks their cost for the print giveaways.
Here's the link to the full announcement for anyone who wants to read it. https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1....
There's a link at the bottom to complete a survey to share your feelings about the new program. I encourage everyone, author and reader alike, to complete it so Goodreads hears your voice.
Rebecca wrote: "I hadn't heard about this at all! So let me get this straight: they will now charge us money (which I can't afford) to allow me to run a giveaway to a smaller audience? Wonder if I can schedule som..."And my understanding as well as that of authors in other groups is that you can schedule giveaways under the old program between now and January 8.
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OMG I hadn't seen that! I was sufficiently aggravated not to click for more details. Well, that stuffs that then. I wonder if they've decided to initiate a sort of blanket quality control by only including authors who can pay for it?
Rebecca wrote: I've gotten about 2 reviews from giveaways, I think. Most of it has been a lot of listings in TBR piles that will never be looked at..."
But it does put your book in front of more people than would see it otherwise. I agree that most won't get around to reading it, but they did at least put it on their lists!
I agree about doing my own giveaways. The sad truth is, I don't get enough visitors to my blog to call that marketing, and most of those who enter have bought (or won) them already!!
I think the answer will be to go to one of the other reading sites like LIbrarything. I know a lot of people who valued Goodreads' independence left to join others when Amazon took over. Maybe it's time for me to go too, since I haven't got the time to truly participate in more than one.
I hate that Goodreads (Amazon) have done this. Next year I won't be able to do giveaways in the US. I just can't afford to pay $120 on top of the cost of the books. The "benefits" don't justify the cost. All you get is a guaranteed add to a 'to read' list, the postage is done for you, and they send a follow up email to the winners to ask for a review - that's it! The last two items I can do by myself quite easily. It only costs $2 to mail a book, and I can buy those at a discount from my publisher.
Does anyone know of a site similar to Goodreads that hosts giveaways?
Stewart wrote: "I hate that Goodreads (Amazon) have done this. Next year I won't be able to do giveaways in the US. I just can't afford to pay $120 on top of the cost of the books. The "benefits" don't justify t..."
Although I haven't looked into the full details, LibraryThing.com allows indie authors to give away advanced copies to readers. I don't know if you can do a giveaway for the same book more than once.
Thanks - I'm looking at LibraryThing.com now. Seems to have a lot of the same features as Goodreads. It's not as easy to use, and I haven't found many tools for authors yet, but I'll keep looking.
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I certainly will NOT be paying $120 for giveaways. So I, too, will take a look at LibraryThing.
Maybe also using the "author" areas here to push giveaways osn my blog, but we all know about how much attention we pay to those posts :(
Like Jemima, I get very poor participation from my blog, which has led me to wonder if it's even worth keeping that up. The whole marketing thing basically just depresses me.
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I kind of wonder if there might be better ways to advertise, run give-aways, etc.
Keep searching, folks, and share what you learn!
Rebecca wrote: "Just did a little rooting at LibraryThing. I think that you can give away books either pre-publish or after, if you are self-published (but they put authors/author-publishers in a separate area fro..."LibraryThing is alright if all you want to do is shelve your books (but be prepared to have to do a lot of editing as when I tried to switch my GR account over a few years ago, many books either did not transfer or had no cover images and other such lovelies). And I quickly lost interest, as there is really not much of a group-vibe with LibraryThing, it is mostly just for cataloguing one's books, not much else (but then again, I have not visited the site for quite a while now, so things might have changed some).
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I think you pegged it. They do have some discussion groups, but I have no idea how active. Nor is it possible to get a sense of how many people enter giveaways or if their entering gets you any real visibility, since it's not so social. Basically, we need something to sprout up and be what Goodreads was before it became a tool for Amazon.
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I wonder if LibraryThing will grow with the changes on Goodreads. I'll definitely be watching it and appreciate the feedback here from those who have used it.
Jemima wrote: "I've done giveaways through LibraryThing. Well, at least one, and maybe for my last book. I'll have to double check. I know they do have discussions areas or forums, too. I've been on it for ages b..."I just cancelled a future giveaway on Goodreads and set one up on LibraryThing (US only - sorry!). The process was straight forward, and there was no wait for approval. I currently don't see a way to directly link to my giveaway, which is a little annoying as that'll make it pretty much impossible to advertise on my social media channels.
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Not being able to link is pretty prohibitive. A giveaway needs to be able to get attention!
Rebecca wrote: "Stewart wrote: "Jemima wrote: "I've done giveaways through LibraryThing. Well, at least one, and maybe for my last book. I'll have to double check. I know they do have discussions areas or forums, ..."In the end I had to search for my giveaway on LibraryThing in such a way that put my new listing on top, then copy a paste the URL it produced. Not ideal, but good enough to get the word out. It becomes less and less useful as other new giveaways are created.
The attention this giveaway has gotten so far is also way down from what I've experienced on Goodreads. It's been running a couple of days now and only 17 people have entered. With Goodreads, I'd get over 300 on the first day.
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Stinks for all of us outside of the USA. Does that mean authors in other countries cannot do giveaways through Goodreads to their surrounding area, countries?? :-/
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Pretty sure it means exactly that. :(
Camilla wrote: "Stinks for all of us outside of the USA. Does that mean authors in other countries cannot do giveaways through Goodreads to their surrounding area, countries?? :-/"So far they're only changing the giveaways in the US. I think giveaways set up for other countries will work the same way - for how long? - I have no idea.
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So far they're ..."
I think you misread this Stewart. My interpretation is that giveaways for all authors, wherever they are, will only be for US residents.
As a matter of interest, I've pulled my launch programme for the 8th in my series forward a couple of weeks (well, it still requires the paperback to go live, and I'm waiting for the proof before I do that)*. I set up Goodreads giveaways starting in December for 5 of the books, ending between 29 Jan and 24 Feb, and they've already been approved. The two that I set up to start 4 Jan and end 28 Feb have not so far been approved, despite being submitted only minutes after the others--and that's over 5 hours ago now.
Since this new program kicks off on 8th January, maybe they won't approve them for the first week of Jan? I wait and see. And of course, I'll let you know.
BTW today's earliest start date is 27th December, as there is a lead-in time (as always).
*This is my excuse for being late with the BOTM post and generally not being here since the announcement.
UPDATE: I've had approval for the ones starting 4th Jan and ending 28 Feb. Phew :)
As far as I understand it. This is a new service, currently for the US only. After the 8th of January, if you want to do a giveaway to US readers, you'll pay a fee + the cost of the books. In return, Amazon will automatically add your book to the entering person's to-read list, then mail the paperbacks (or deliver the ebook - Kindle only and only if the author uses Kindle Direct Publishing), and finally, follow up with the winner(s) to encourage them to write a review.Giveaways to other countries, for the time being, do not change. I set up a giveaway to run in Canada in January, ending on the 30th, and that got approved.
We'll see how this goes I guess. For the time being, I'll focus more on the UK, and now Canada, and use LibraryThing for US giveaways.
Mod
Well, we obviously read this statement differently...
"To help you plan your future marketing, we wanted to let you know that authors and publishers will no longer be able to create giveaways for entrants who reside outside the U.S. starting January 9, 2018. Any giveaways created before January 9, 2018 for entrants residing outside the U.S. will continue to run as scheduled."
Oh, great, so it's even worse than I understood. Thanks for the clarification.
Feel free to check out this give away. All the authors books have reinforcement projects for teachers that are easy and fun. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3......"
Linda, you should start a new topic to advise people of giveaways, in the thread headed GIVEAWAYS - not camp on another subject. Would you like to make a new topic there before I delete your comment?
As someone who is pleased to have an international readership - partly because I'm in the UK, and write books set in the UK or with UK sensibilities - I'm appalled.
I replied to the email putting my point across, but of course it will make no difference. I suppose the question arises, do I get anything from Goodreads as it is, without the ability to provide international giveaways? Of course I do. But do I want to be part of an organisation which sees benefit only for people of one country? I do not.
What do you think?
PS As they are introducing this on Jan 9th, I will be setting up some Giveaways for the new Princelings of the East book to start beforehand. And maybe some others, too.