I still can’t believe it! My second giveaway for Shizzle, Inc lasted two weeks and it was requested by 1,699 people – enough to make it onto the front page of the Goodreads Most Requested list, and even climb up to #24 (there are 30 on the first page). Thank you all who’d entered – especially those who answered my plea on Twitter earlier today, when it was 37 requests or so away from making it to the front page. Amazingly, nearly 300 people requested it today alone.
As promised in the post about the results of the first giveaway, here is the comparison of the two:
I have added a new column to Shizzle Goodreads giveaways spreadsheet, to track how many followers I get – I was not paying attention to that number before, big mistake! I have not filled in the total cost to me – which will be huge, since the winner is in Romania and I have to get the book there within 4-6 weeks.
Also, I had a lot of fun checking my book stats:
Did you know you can look up this chart for any book on Goodreads? It’s in the top right corner of each book’s page – look for “stats”. Just today, 175 people added it to their “to read” shelves!
So, what did I learn from comparing (ahm, staring at the charts) the two giveaways? My data seems to confirm that:
- You should open the giveaway to the entire world. Interestingly, the second giveaway started slower, but had more daily adds in “the middle”, the normally dead time.
- It is better to have two short giveaways than one long one. Heck, my short one doubled the performance of the long one! Any guesses why? Is it because it was open to all countries?
- I have another guess – it is actually better to give one copy than multiple. I know, I know, everybody says to give as many as you can, but I spent hours looking at most requested and least requested books, and I have a gut feeling that giving multiple copies (some people give away 25!) creates a feeling that the book is not that special. Giving one, and preferably autographed, copy creates the opposite effect – that you are competing for something rare and special.
Another thing I’d learned from looking at other people’s giveaways, that they don’t do one, or even two of those – some of the very popular titles have been on practically constant giveaways. I’m about to schedule another one, and want to test one of the factors – I’m thinking another two weeks, all countries, one copy, but this time unsigned. Does the word “AUTOGRAPHED” have any effect on the numbers?
I will let you know in about three weeks!
Ana Spoke, author 
congrats!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLike
Congratulations Ana, but I recommend you check postage rates for the world before committing 😱😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Check your packaging method: I started out using a bubble-pack envelope and found that by putting the book in a plastic bag and using a very large brown envelope folded in half and tightly taped, the book could go as letter rate at 1/3 the cost. I’m talking about a difference of one millimetre, maybe two, in the depth of the package.
For Canada, a letter has to fit through a slot of a given size. The clerk has a plastic mock-up of the slot – if it won’t fit, it goes package rate which is much more expensive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! That’s GREAT advice! My book is not that thick, so I might get away with it. Now that you said it, I remember a post office worker suggesting something like that a while back…THANK YOU!
LikeLike
That’s why there’s only one copy available 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
👍😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! I always learn so much about blogging and the Indie marketing world from your posts. One suggestion, not all your readers use Goodreads (I’m one, though that will probably change in the near future), have you tried Rafflecopter? If you have, please post a link to the post. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – no, I have never even heard of them! I will have a look, but to be honest, this is all extremely time consuming, so I’m starting to concentrate on fewer “biggies” – for example, I took my book off all other platforms and went back to Kindle only. Wasn’t worth it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations to making it to the front page! You’ll always get more entries if you set it to worldwide but in the US alone, postage rates range from $18 – 23 per book so you need to keep an eye on that. When I did my first giveaway, it was close to worldwide, and I had a lot of entries – and postage just about killed me for the winners were all international. For the second one, when I opened it only to US and Canada, the number of entries was 1/4 of my first one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think more research is needed 🙂 my winner is from Romania – I highly doubt she will understand American humor.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So it would make sense to open it to the desired market only. My last 2 star review was by someone from India, who called the book “deplorable” – again, makes me think why even sell in other countries.
At the same time, I’m hellbent on discovering the secret to the snowball effect, and it would seem sheer numbers would be at play…time will tell.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it all depends on the book, the genre, etc. Some people swear Goodreads is not good for marketing books while some people have found success with paying for an ad in their desired genre. I guess that’s why we have to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t. I did get one of my winners who reviewed the book, and that was a pleasant surprise because I’d long written the whole thing off as a loss.
I haven’t done a giveaway since my last one around Christmas, and that was the limited US/Canada giveaway only, versus the worldwide one I had done the first time. But I’m also burnt out from all the intense marketing I’ve been doing in the last month when I released my second book and need to take a much-needed break from that to return to writing my sequel. Writing sometimes get set aside, which defeats the purpose of calling myself a ‘writer.’ 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tell me about it! I’m currently forcing myself to stay away from the web, sort of “write a thousand words and you can check your feed” deal with myself. My problem is, I love marketing too much 🙂 Who knows, maybe I will open a marketing agency for authors in the future…
I am hoping that the giveaways will add up to a “buzz” along with everything else. So far I’m losing money when it comes to ads, but I’m hopeful for a long-term gain. Goodreads ads were a waste, though – I’ve had just a handful of clicks since September, even at $0.50 per click.
LikeLike
Usually shorter goodreads giveaways do better because you’re maximizing the visibility. By allowing it to be under both the “ending soon” and “newly added” giveaway tabs for the majority of the giveaway, more people will be able to see it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Vivien -only this one was 2 weeks, I doubt it was on both? I also wonder if people who missed out on the first one are likely to be browsing and see it again – that would explain why I had twice the number of requests, but almost the same number of adds.
LikeLike
Great work! I wonder if there’s any way of linking that to your e-mail list…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Olga! Last time I tried sneaking in my blog address and it didn’t make it through to the ad – I think it got deleted, as Goodreads are super strict against spamming. The only hope is that people will eventually discover you as they visit your author page, then your blog. Happy for someone to advise otherwise…
LikeLike
Im glad its working out for you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Tony 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome! Congrats 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
I’m sure I read somewhere that you should have lots of short giveaways – to keep the busy ‘start’ and ‘end’ points close together – and only give one copy away. Their argument was you want exposure for the book, not thousands of hands trying to grab a freebie. It wasn’t your blog where I read this, by any chance?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, I just came up with this conclusion myself, but thank you – confirms my hunch!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not sure if the stats will show it but my thought is that autographed would get you more entries into a giveaway. Especially the more established and well-known you become. Imagine how many people would want an autographed verses non-autographed book of Harry Potter?
Oh, I have added Shizzle inc to my to-read list…in my head, forgot to add it to goodreads, still pretty new to stuff there, lol. Will be adding it the next time I log in. 🙂
LikeLike
The main authors I follow all seem to use Rafflecopter and FB for their promos. As a reader, I find I have more interest if the promotion is short (about a week or less), otherwise I forget I even signed up. If it’s longer, then heavy promotion of it, like daily or every other day is needed to keep it in my mind, but those are usually bigger prizes.
Either (autographed or not) is fine for the FB contests, some author offer 2 or 3 e-books at a time. I am not sure how this would translate to Goodreads. Hope this helps! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – I might just give Rafflecopter a try! At the very least, it will be research and a blog topic. And thank you for confirming my gut instinct about giveaways – I’ve scheduled another 2-week one, after that will try a week-long.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You made me laugh with your comment about the Romanian not understanding your American humour, especially as you’re not American yourself but you’ve obviously understood their humour 😉 But seriously, I do hear what you’re saying here. I’m beginning to think that Americans don’t always understand my English humour! I also have the added problem for foreigners that my book has some 60’s London slang, as well as swearing (in some countries that’s a total no-no). When setting up my giveaway, I might warn people that my book contains swearing, plus sexual content of a non-explicit nature … just to be on the safe side.
By the way, how long did you have between your two giveaways? I’ve lost track.
A complete change of subject, I would ask you this via a contact form if you had one on your blog, but I’d like to invite you to be “guest storyteller” on my blog for February. This involves either coming up with a piece of flash fiction, or, in your case, you would probably prefer the other option, which is to post an excerpt from your novel. Here’s the link for you to read what it involves http://sarahpotterwrites.com/guest-storytellers-2/
If you’re interested, perhaps you could let me know via the contact page on my blog, which you can access at the top of the home page.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sarah – I’d love to post an excerpt! Would you suggest from the beginning or middle? Also, how many words, roughly?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s great, Ana. The excerpt can be from anywhere in the book, other than the end! Up to 600 words, if possible, but can be slightly longer if there’s a standalone scene that you think will entertain. I’ll also need a photo of you, plus one of your book cover would be good, too. And a two-sentence hook, if possible. All the info you need is on my guest storyteller page, I think … I hope. I prefer to have the excerpt and hook as an email attachment, and the photos sent as separate jpeg files. You can find my email address by clicking on my gravatar.
LikeLike
Thanks for keeping us posted! I did my first giveaway at the beginning of December. Considering I was new to Goodreads and had no followers I was pretty pumped by my 373 requests in 1 week. I did give away 10 books and of those I heard from one person who ‘might’ give me a review…we’ll see! But my book was added to 146 shelves so this all feels pretty positive. I plan to do another one for a bit longer (two weeks) and this time only give 1 book and open it Globally. I only did US and Canada last time due to the shipping chargers (think it cost me just over $100).
I’ll let you know how the next one does – we can compare notes 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Laura! Someone gave me a great tip – try posting the book in padded envelope as a letter, if possible. Mine is 6×9 inches and 248 pages, and it just fit through, so the postage across the world was under $15USD! ($17 AUD). Let us know what you think after this comparison – I am starting to believe this is a great tool.
LikeLike
My cost was around $10-$12 per book to ship – I used a thin bubble envelope. Between Canada and US the price wasn’t much price difference.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, you sent a lot of them, now I get it 🙂 was horrified at $100 🙂
I’m very excited that I got such a great result with just one copy – all these costs add up quickly…
LikeLike
Doesn’t being busy feel good when it’s caused by your past hard work? Wonderful! And thanks again for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – and yes, it’s awesome 🙂 I love hard work when it’s filled with hope and purpose…
LikeLike