Book Giveaway -- Is There A Better Method?

[Jack]

I'd like to give away some copies of my short story collection "Death Row Follies ..." as an advertisement. For a signed copy that they get directly from me, I'd like to ask that the recipient post a review of the work on Amazon.com. Goodreads seems to hint that many of their giveaways end up in someone's hopper to be dumped unread on an innocent acquaintance at Xmas time.

Do you feel this is a reasonable thing for me to do and if so, where should I post it?
Jack ALBERT

[Hampieroberts]

will Amazon accept the review if the book was not purchased from them? An author could get friends and relatives to give their book great reviews.

[Reena]

I've done 3 Goodreads giveaways. The first had 728 entries, and the winner did leave a review. The second had 1793 entries, but the winner hasn't left a review yet. The third (same book as the first) had 748 entries, again no review yet.

Lately, I've been rather skeptical about free reads though. I didn't see a change in sales during or after any of the giveaways.

My opinion is unless the author has a fan base, most readers who enter the giveaway or seek a book for free have no intention of making a purchase anyway. If they win, they win. If not, there are plenty of other giveaways out there. And even if they do win, they may or may not leave a review. :) The one review I did receive was wonderful.

On the other hand, someone who truly wants to read the book will make the purchase if they don't win... so the giveaway is a moot point anyway.

Even with a spotty record, I can still see myself doing another Goodreads giveaway though.

If the main reason for doing a giveaway is to receive a review, you might try a Goodreads event instead. I offered eCopies to whomever agreed to do a review within 30 days for one of my works. I received 10-15 responses. You can modify your terms to send out signed copies instead of eCopies. If signed copies are too costly, you might offer digital copies for review, then enter anyone who leaves a review in a giveaway for a signed copy.

I rather like that idea. Whenever I get around to writing a print level work, I think I'll do that myself.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Reena]

Hampieroberts wrote: "will Amazon accept the review if the book was not purchased from them? An author could get friends and relatives to give their book great reviews."

Yes. Book retailers let you post a review without purchasing it from the vendor. The only exception I've found so far is Smashwords. There could be others, but that's the only one I've come across.

[Susan]

I have tried a few giveaways on my blog. The first time I gave away five copies and asked that the winners post a review on Amazon. Only one did. I might have better luck on Goodreads as winners would be more apt to read the book.

[Jack]

I'd first like to thank all the nice people above who have written these helpful comments.
As I was looking over my author site and thinking about how to generate some buzz, I noticed my book had only one review. I thought a giveaway was perhaps a way to get a few more reviews. But my main concern is to get a bit more exposure, and not just reviews. If I gave away 5 copies and got one review as Susan did, that'd be OK too. Looks to me like just having one review looks a bit odd, but not unusual in this business.
Now if I gave away copies going thru goodreads, would they (goodreads) ask the recipients to post a review, or would I have to specifically ask for one? Guess I'll also have to find out what a goodreads event entails, as opposed to a straight giveaway, and what are the advantages, if any.
Also (based on Reena's msg), does anyone know what the age/background distribution of the goodreads membership is? The thousands and thousands of people who applied to get a free book from her just amazes me. I have so many books in my place that one day I'm going to have to donate/sell a number of them just to free up some space to put books I really need to consult as I write.
Jack ALBERT

[Susan]

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that when an author orders hard copies, ten percent is a good amount to give away for publicity purposes, so I'm fairly liberal about sending books off. I figure that even if the targeted person just tosses the book down, someone else might pick it up and read it. Gotta think positive. Word of mouth is still one of the best, and most honest ways, to know if a book is any good. Right?

[Reena]

I think giveaways provide exposure more than anything. With giveaways, you typically have a limited number of winners which equates to a limited number of reviewers. Also, not everyone who wins will review your work. So if you're looking to do a Goodreads giveaway for exposure, I say you're on the right track.

The thing with Goodreads giveaways is the reader doesn't have to post a review. However, not posting a review will decrease the chances of winning in the future. Goodreads giveaways aren't completely random. They use some kind of algorithm.

One thing to keep in mind, genre matters. YA is very popular right now. I Loved You First is a college-age, so it was bound to get more entries. Shadow Cat is paranormal romance/erotica and only got about 700 entries each giveaway.

I don't think the number of copies matter so much. I only offered 1 copy each giveaway. However, the copy must be a physical copy. I have seen a few eBooks given away, but I don't know how the author/publisher gets away with offering a digital copy.

In terms of reviews, I think it's better to go to review bloggers and readers individually for reviews. For I Loved You First, I sent out 100-150 review requests, which resulted in 10-15 Amazon reviews within a 2 month period, as well as a host of other reviews in various other places.

[Susan]

I don't give books away only through give-aways. I try to be inventive and send off copies to any kind of "visible" people I think may be interested, no strings attached. I simply tell them to enjoy it. Don't know if it's effective, but getting copies out there gives them more of a chance of being read than ones just sitting in a box in my house.

[Jack]

Deb wrote: "I did a giveaway on Goodreads...I sent each of the winners an PM and a note with the book thanking then ahead of time for th..."
Deb, what do you mean by PM: Printed Material?

Whenever I want to buy something, including books new to me, I see how many reviews the merch has attracted. If there are thousands, I won't read all reviews, just one or two, and assume the product is popular, whatever that means. Next, I look at the NEGATIVE reviews and start reading some to find out what the problem is. Sometimes it's a vendor or a delivery issue, sometimes the customer brings out new and maybe important specification points and this would be of interest: what has been ignored or glossed over. For a new item, that's how I operate, and as a first pass I won't spend more than about 10 min on each item.
Now specifically in the case of a book, after reading the descriptive blurb, I try to find out if the book is in a category I'm interested in and has not been mislabelled/tagged. The rest of my examination depends on the actual case and I can't be more specific here.
I would assume that after looking at a reasonable number of reviews, the buyer will have made his/her mind whether to buy or not. So trying for hundreds/thousands of reviews does not seem all that helpful. Am I wrong? Let's not forget that if done properly, a book review may also be a NEGATIVE one. How do you usually handle that?
Is the preceding a reasonable assumption on my part or not? I shall be looking with interest at what you think, and thank you.

[Jack]

Are goodreads giveaways only for books to be released in 2012-2013? I want to give away copies of my book which was released in 2010.

[Jack]

Deb wrote: "I did a giveaway on Goodreads. I gave away 10 books and had over 900 people enter. I received 6 reviews. I sent each of the winners an PM and a note with the book thanking then ahead of time for th..."

Deb: (1) how do you send a PM on goodreads?
(2) I checked up on LT and found nothing about their giveaway program. Is LT a good blog to join? Tks.
Jack ALBERT

[Jack]

Deb:
What do I have to do to state that I am following your reviews? Tks.
Jack ALBERT

[Susan]

I signed up here to give away books to be reviewed. I know it was through the Making Connections group, but I have no idea where to send people who might be interested in receiving a copy.

[[deleted user]]

I've given away 16 books without much feedback. Only one person left a three-star review explaining that they entered by accident. Another winner left a three star rating - no review. Since I'm not a professional writer, I wasn't entirely surprised.

What did surprise me; however, is that four people form England who had entered but lost, purchased digital copies. Three of them left me five-star ratings. One English woman even took the time to write a very thorough four-star review.

I'm beginning to think that my target audience might be European-cultured, middle-aged readers. Very different from the American, Christian-minded high school students, I imagined would be interested.

My budget allows me to giveaway about three books bimonthly. Rewriting my book description may help to turn off readers who would not enjoy the story. I'm even considering making my novel exclusively available to Europeans, although it would cost me considerably more in shipping.

I like to read books aimed toward various ages and genders. It's a shame that we have such a segregated society. Even my favorite authors are struggling, with mixed success, to categorize their stories by age, gender and culture. I guess it's necessary.

[Susan]

Today I sent off five copies for the giveaway of my latest book. Two of them went to England. The postage is expensive, but there are people over there who like reading about the American West, which I write about, so hopefully it will help my exposure.

[Valerie]

I did a giveaway on GoodReads for my book: Memoirs of Dakini: True Confessions of a Former Flower Child. I ran it for 3 days and had over 700 entries. I limited it to continental US due to postage costs (the book weighs 3 pounds). I sent a PM to the winner and kept her up to date on the shipment.. sent it off in 3 days. That was over a month ago and I have not heard back. My goal was to get a review. I did have 1 review here with 4 stars and some guy rated it as low as 2. I wish there was an explanation as to the rating. I decided to do a giveaway on my FaceBook page. I set up the book for free downloads on Kindle, and had 119 downloads. Then I ran a contest for those that read the ebook saying I would give one randomly chosen person an autographed copy of the book . To enter the contest they had to post a review on Amazon and link the review to my FaceBook page. I was able to get 8 reviews. I will probably do another giveaway here on GoodReads to see if it helps get more reviews. I did not see any increase in sales after the GoodReads event, even though I had over 700 entrants.

I have been able to sell over 20 books person to person and have ordered another 20 books for upcoming events (local book signings).

I also am exploring creating bookplates and sending them to people that buy the books that are overseas. I cannot afford to ship overseas right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Dakini-...

[Alana]

I stumbled on this group by accident but after reading your posts I wanted to give you my opinion not as an author but as a contest winner. I have won a few books. Honestly I just found goodreads a month ago and won 2 contests. I reviewed the 1st of the 2 and WILL review the secind but honestly I am not enjoying the book so I am basically forcing myself to read a bit at a time. I felt it would be unfair to give a half assed review since they were nice enough to send the book.
I enjoyed the 1st and was actually bummed to find it was by a new author who didn't have more books to read! I did make a point to be alerted to any new books and instead of putting the book on the shelf to gather dust I found someone I knew who would love it so I passed it on. I know there are people who wouldn't bother reviewing but there are those like me who is happy to review and thanks to a giveaway I will be buying any other books that author writes AND will pass the book on to others.
Just my 2 cents! Good luck to all of you!

[[deleted user]]

Susan wrote: "Today I sent off five copies for the giveaway of my latest book. Two of them went to England. The postage is expensive, but there are people over there who like reading about the American West, whi..."

Have you thought of getting a digital printer in England? I have used one who has my pdf files and he prints and ships the books. I take the money from the reader and he charges me on my credit card. The difference is my profit.