I have decided to take a few minutes this evening to reflect on Goodreads Giveaways.
Brace yourselves.
My first giveaway for Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It from waaaaay back in April was a pretty rousing success. I gave away two books to two lovely ladies, and I got stellar reviews back in response. Huzzah!
My second giveaway in July was … not quite as successful. I only gave away one book that time, and perhaps the Stingy Gods have decided to punish me, because the lady who won my book has yet to post a review. Of course, it’s only been three months, so I remain hopeful, but the second giveaway definitely wasn’t on par with the first.
Going on the concept of bigger is better, I’ve decided to launch another giveaway! The giveaway starts tomorrow, and ends on my birthday (December 19). I’m giving away four books this time, and since my success percentages thus far on receiving reviews from the winners have been 100% and 0%, I’m aiming to reach a nice, even 50% with this new giveaway. Wish me luck!
I’ll write up another post tomorrow with the link so you can actually enter the giveaway — if you want! I figure that even if you don’t necessarily want a copy, you could hypothetically gift the book to a friend or your favorite niece as a Christmas present. Win win win!
Anyway, fingers crossed that this giveaway works out a bit better than the last one. Happy NaNo-ing to everyone, and see you again tomorrow for that link I promised!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/buFCbJR
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Yeah, I’m pretty much done with Goodreads Giveaways. Gave two copies of novel #1. Neither winner posted a review. Gave two copies of novel #2. Neither winner posted a review. And. AND!! for novel #2, I was contacted by a Goodreads member who told me how much she wanted the book to read to her disabled veteran husband. If only I could see my way to send them a copy of the book even though they hadn’t won, I’d get two reviews — one from each of them. Yeah, four months later, absolutely nothing.
That sucks! I mean, I had good results the first time, so I’m hoping the second time wasn’t a fluke … I think it really just comes down to who wins. If you luck out and get someone who entered because they actually wanted to read the book, awesome. If they just entered because they wanted free stuff … you’re pretty much pooched.
The whole “if it’s free, I want it” completely turns me off. If you’re not serious about wanting to read the book. If you’re not serious about following through on reading it. If you’re not serious about posting a review. Don’t enter the giveaway. At this point, I’d take negative reviews.
I want to win! Put my name in a hat, but freeze it first so you know which one to pick! 😀
Hahaha. Sadly I don’t think it works that way. But if I do figure out a way to freeze a virtual entry ticket, I’ll let you know 🙂
I think giveaways certainly can’t hurt. Looking forward to yours!
That’s my thinking 🙂 Oh, and the giveaway is now live! I’ll write a post about it soon, but here’s the link in the mean time: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/72617-imminent-danger-and-how-to-fly-straight-into-it
I gave away five copies of “Catskinner’s Book”. Did not get a single review, and two of those copies ended up on the internet, being sold as new.
I feel like you told me this before. I can’t believe people are so rude that they would do that. If someone goes out of their way to give me a signed copy of their book, I’ll damn well take the time to read and review it!
I’ve run two Goodreads Giveaways and got nothing from them. Not that I can see since some people review under a false name. I’m doing another for a copy of each book to bring attention to the debut of my 3rd book. It’s the only use I see for it now since it’s rather hit or miss. More often a miss.
And that brings up the question of: if 900 people enter your giveaway, do any of them actually go out, look at the book, and buy it? My thinking is no, but … well, I guess getting the word out is still a good thing, right?
It ends up on people’s ‘To Read’ lists, so that might do something. I don’t know. I’m looking at it as every little bit helps with a book debut.
I think part of the problem is that some people are constantly running giveaways and it gets to a point where as soon as you see goodreads in your email you start deleting them I have one author who has been running giveaways for 6 months solid on the same book he updates each give away almost every day and having entered a couple of times I can’t be bothered anymore also it is annoying that lots of authors invite you to giveaways and when you respond you discover that you can’t win it anyway because you live in the wrong country, all those things are effecting the response people like yourself who run genuine giveaways at reasonable intervals I think Goodreads need to look into how they are used in this way
I wasn’t aware authors did that! Yeah, I can see how constant giveaways would be annoying when they’re spamming your inbox. And I feel you on the “not eligible in your country” thing. Half my Facebook news feed is “Watch this video!” or “Read this article!” and then when I click the link, it doesn’t work where I live. Although I feel a bit bad … I did actually restrict this giveaway to UK, CA, US, but that’s mostly because I’m poor and I can’t afford to send my book to, like, Zimbabwe. Hopefully people won’t be too offended!!!
Postage to Zimbabwe sounds similar to Australia. 😦
I often wonder if giveaway entrants are aware of the etiquette of giving a review in return for the free book. I’m guessing not. They are the same types who see “Free!” and think let’s grab it and run. Perhaps that needs to be highlighted more by Goodreads or the authors themselves. Something like “The author of the FREE book you just WON, who spent hundreds if not thousands of hours creating it, would appreciate a quick review after you’ve finished ENJOYING, sorry, reading it. It needn’t take more than 1 percent of your precious time spent ENJOYING, sorry, reading the book.” Feel free to edit out the sarcasm. 😉
That’s a really excellent point — I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mention anywhere when you enter that it’s expected you write a review. Now, when I send out my free copies, I always include a Thank You card that asks them to write a review, so I’m hoping that will help, but yeah — they should definitely make it more clear that reviews are expected when you win! I think I’ll write them a letter about that right now … 🙂
I totally agree. I didn’t find much success taking that route either.
No? Dang. Well, the giveaway’s officially started, so there’s no turning back now, lol.