FirstReads

[Sheila , Supporting Chick]

They have a grudge against me now too. :o)
I used to win all the time, often several books a month, but now have not won anything since the beginning of June 2010.

Truthfully though, I think there are also just a ton more entries now, and that the giveaways have become more well known. And the more entries, the less likely anyone is to win. When I first started entering, and won alot, there were maybe 100 entries for some books, with lots of copies being given away. Now the entries are often in the thousands.

[Lauren]

Maybe we could start a thread where if one of us chicks reads a GR giveaway book, after they review it, we can post the book on the thread and keep passing it along.

[Julie]

What a great idea, Lauren. I have won two books since I became a member...long time ago. I won Believe: A Young Widow's Journey Through Brokenness and Back and Something Borrowed. I think I won these two years ago and none since. As Tera knows, I nominate books for our CoL read and win quite a lot...they should all want me to win ;)

[Sarah]

I just won The Paperbark Shoe by Goldie Goldbloom! Can't wait to read it!

[Lianne]

I recently won Maria Duenas's The Time In Between, which is exciting because I've been wanting to read this since I first heard of it last spring.

[[deleted user]]

Maybe it is because there are so many new entries now but I'm fairly active on here and after my fourth win I flat out stopped getting anything. The first book I won I never received (and after attempting to make contact no one has said anything to me. I still reviewed the book once it was in at the library), the second and third book I read and reviewed immediately (loved them both), and the fourth book...that may be where my downfall came. I couldn't get past 20 pages, it was that horrible. I don't review books that I don't finish and I immediately put it up on the Bookswap, not fully thinking it probably shouldn't be going on there as it's a FirstReads book. The author bought it back but since then I haven't won anything.
I've tried getting a lot more active on here - writing in this group, reviewing, commenting on reviews, voting on lists - but nothing seems to be helping my odds.

[Jennifer W]

Maybe that was my problem, too, Dani. I swapped a couple books I won. I figured they were my books now, I could do what I liked with them.

[Irene]

I have never won. I don't try for very many books. I am a picky reader and don't want to end up reading something that I suspect I won't like even before I start. It is not fair to the author, I feel. So, I only bid on books that I think have a good shot at getting a good review from me. But, the folks I see winning are also folks I see trying for every book. So, I figure that my problem is the limited entries I submit.

[Julie]

Irene wrote: "I have never won. I don't try for very many books. I am a picky reader and don't want to end up reading something that I suspect I won't like even before I start. It is not fair to the author, I..."

Irene, my thoughts exactly. I haven't won a book yet, but I only enter a giveaway for a book that I think I might be interested in. :)

[Ana]

I won only once, in 4 months:) There aren't many giveaways that I can enter, cause I am from Europe..so I enter most of the giveaways available to non US citizens.I was so happy when I got my book. It arrived on time and can't complain about anything regarding the shipment.

[Julie]

Ananda wrote: "I won only once, in 4 months:) There aren't many giveaways that I can enter, cause I am from Europe..so I enter most of the giveaways available to non US citizens.I was so happy when I got my book...."

Good morning, Ananda! I would LOVE to visit Europe! Here's an idea..... I'll move to Europe for a couple of months and you can come to the US and win some books, lol!

I can see how living overseas would make it difficult to enter a lot of contests, since they are usually "open to US residents."

[Ana]

Hey Julie, Good morning:) Now that's an awesome idea..LOL Yes, there aren't many contests around here that people from Europe can enter, but I don't mind..we have contests in the groups we join so I won couple of times there;)