Have you noticed a new button on my sidebar? Right there, at the top? Click on it, or enter here for your chance to win a free paperback copy of my book! I’m only announcing this giveaway now because there have been too many other exciting going-ons, what with a bestselling author stopping by, and Shizzle, Inc being available on every platform imaginable…
The giveaway has been live for less than 15 hours at the time of this writing, and already 131 people have requested it!
Wait, it’s now 135! Blink, and it’s 137! And over 80 of them have added it to their “to read” shelf! How exciting!
Truth is, I’ve been excited about this giveaway for months, after reading various author’s testimonials on how effective they are to promote new books. So I can’t believe that I’ve posted it without doing all that much research or even reading the giveaway guidelines. (I know! So out of character!)
Better later than never, so I’ve done some research now and have learned this:
- There are claims that it doesn’t matter how many books you give away, you would get the same result with 1 or 10. I’m going to experiment with this – already got a spreadsheet going…
- Supposedly it is better to give away autographed books, rather than just free copies, even if you’re a nobody. This will be tested in future experiments. For now I have just done copies, which I will order and ship directly from Smashwords – doesn’t make sense to ship them from US to Australia and then back…
- Open giveaways to all countries. For now I’ve just done US, GB, and Canada – as it will be cheaper and easier to just order a book and have it shipped to the winner directly. Next one will be open to all, I promise!
- You may be able to create a special image for the giveaway. I don’t know how to upload it, from memory (which is not very good), it automatically takes the image of your paperback cover. But I will try next time.
- Schedule them ahead of time! It takes several days for Goodreads to review and approve your ad.
- Make your ad exciting – add quotes, awards, whatever. Add a link to a newsletter sign up, your website, etc. Market all the ways you can hook them up on your blog, series, whatever.
- Best one! Schedule the giveaway BEFORE the paperback release! Create the buzz for the launch day! I will schedule the next one as soon as I have the first draft and cover ready.
- Longer is better – mine will be for just over three weeks, but you could do it for three months, or even longer – there will be bigger numbers of people requesting, which will make your book look very appealing indeed. I’ve looked at the “top requested” giveaways, and they all run for three months or so.
- You can only do it in the six months after the paperback release…I only saw it on a blog, and can’t find any reference to this rule on Goodreads. In fact, Goodreads state that you can give away “new copies of an older book”, whatever that means.
If you have any other tried and true (and recent!) advice – please share! I’m gonna go check the stats…oh, look, 141 requests!
Ana Spoke, author 
Entered and excited about how this plays out. You make me smile!
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Awesome, and thank you for tweeting all my posts, you rock, Annette! I’m gonna go write more jokes for you 🙂
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Sah-Wheat! 🙂
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I did a giveaway when my book was first released (I blogged about it here: http://lisaemme.com/2015/10/18/goodreads-giveaway-results/) and I actually read that the shorter the giveaway the better. By having a shorter giveaway, it spends most of the time on either the recently listed or ending soon list of giveaways and so has a better chance of being noticed. This is the article I found helpful on giveaways: http://catherineryanhoward.com/2014/08/18/goodreads-giveaways-dont-do-what-youre-told/
Good luck with yours! I gave away three signed copies and feel I received a decent number of ‘to reads’. One of my winners even posted a review which was an added bonus.
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Thank you – I will test long and short giveaways, pretty happy with the request rate so far!
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I’m going to enter! Sounds like you have figured out some great things through your research!
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Oops. Wish I could enter but reading the small print, I realized that I am not over 18 XD
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Wow, I had no idea! Isa cusses sometimes, sorry…
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I can handle cussing XD All well. Best of luck to those who did enter I guess
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How exciting for you! This should bring in more readers who will become fans of Isa. Great idea! I’m of course one of them already, 2/3 of the way thru the book and still laughing. I will definitely enter since I love reading a real book!
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How awesome, thank you, Olivia! And please let me know what you think when you’ve finished!
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Hmmm. I may give this one a try. The ooly other ‘giveaway’ I did was two signed copies through a London based, dog related website. There were over 200 entries, and I’m sure the blog owner will readily admit, her site is not a fraction the size of Goodreads.
(I’d enter the com for SHIZZZLE, but have already paid hard, (plastic) cash. It’s on my Kindle with a few others for when lying on the beach and drinking cold beers in a few weeks time! 🙂
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Haha, nice! Hope your beach vacation comes soon, and thank you, Cee Tee! I already have 214 requests! Go, Goodreads!
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I’m super curious to see how this works, given how much more rigorously you track things (compared to other authors). It is clear that doing a GR giveaway is a great way to get your book added to a lot of people’s “to read” lists on that site, but I’ve found no evidence that GR giveaways actually translate to sales. I have found a few people complaining that it doesn’t, and a lot of people hoping that it does. But I’ve yet to find someone who said: “this worked for me.”
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I am going to study the sales after it closes – i.e., after they have not won, will they say, “eh, let me pay a dollar to find out what this is all about”. I would imagine that right now each one of those people thinks they may win, so I don’t expect any of them to buy now.
Oh, and thank you for complementing my nerd skills 🙂
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I wish you had followed the popular wisdom that one week giveaways are the best, so we could find out sooner!!
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Patience, alfageek! I have already proven that popular wisdom, while popular, may not be wise – there will be a day-long giveaways, and the annoying three-month giveaways in the future! There will be a spreadsheet full of undeniable facts!
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Living in Bermuda does have its advantages, after all the Royal Naval Dockyard is known as Gibraltar of the West–and we make the best cod fish cakes in the Milky Way, and, alas, some disadvantages–your book, even if I were to win, will only ship to the unholy triumvirate: USA, GB, CAN. Dang the luck. This will teach me to live far off the beaten path.
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You live in BERMUDA?????!!!!
Jealous as I am, I promise that the next giveaway will be for an autographed copy, and that I will mail it to whichever god-forsaken paradise the winner chose as their home…
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Having been named Prospero at birth–or shortly thereafter–by half-crazed parents so desirous of Shakespeare, and being naturally enchanted by pristine coral reefs and pink beaches, I sought exile in Bermuda. Woe is me!
A signed copy. In that case I’ll have to employ magic to win!
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And if you succeed, you will have to tell me how I could employ it to become an overnight success and move to Bermuda myself!
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Useful advice … cheers!
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Good luck, Ana. I’m always a bit weary of Goodreads in general and haven’t read anything where anybody reached a conclusion about the effect of their giveaways, so looking forward to yours. By the way, I shared your novel in my blog today:
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Thank you so much, Olga! I saw an explosion of Facebook shares coming through Twitter – really appreciate it!
I will do several giveaways and will be tracking sales numbers, so you will have solid data on which to make your decision 🙂 So far more than a hundred adds to the read shelf, but nobody extra reading it.
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Congrats on Publishing!! I’m inspired!! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing!
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