Review Group discussion

I've been looking into the Goodreads Giveaway program - I've never done it before, but I'm thinking of doing it when I release my next book.

However, when I read through the information, it indicates that it is for paperback books to be given away BEFORE release. My question is, how would you get a paperback to give away before it's released? To me, having a physical paperback = book is released.

Am I just being dense? How does this work?

I put on a giveaway for the first time yesterday. It doesn't matter if it has already been released. Mine was released in December last year.

I realize you can actually do it later, but it states that it's geared for pre-release publicity - so I was wondering, in that case, how do you get a paperback to give away before it's released?

I have an issue with what you said here, Kathy - NO question is stupid. If you don't understand something the stupidity is in NOT asking the question.

I suppose with CS that wouldn't be possible, as pre-publishing the copy (single) comes out with PROOF COPY stamped on the back page. I have no experience of Lulu et al, and no traditional publisher wants to know about my books. That said, I have heard of publicity stuff getting set up with pre-publication copies. Bloggers love to get them, and certain bookshops want to be ahead of the game and get deals with the publishers. It gets them a step ahead of the competition. My guess would be it's part of the publishers' publicity set-up arrangements.

Okay, I kind of wondered if it was strictly a publishers' thing (although mine didn't take advantage of it! or much else...). But since the giveaways seemed geared to include Indie authors, I thought maybe there was a process of which I'm not aware.

I guess I'll just wait until everything is up & running & do a giveaway as part of my launch...meanwhile, maybe I'll experiment with another book or two...

My proof copies from CreateSpace did not have proof on the back and after you proof you can buy as many as you want at an author's price. I buy 25 at a time at a cost of around $3 per, including shipping.

Right, I have done that too. However, at that point, I'm certainly not going to put off release for a month just so I can do a giveaway pre-release - if it's ready to go, it's going.

I'm a UK author and have to order all my copies from Createspace US, so the shipping is costly and also takes a long time (8 weeks). Thus any 'pre-release' hype is very tired by the time I can get them to reviewers, always assuming they will accept them. Most 'official' reviewers (working on newspapers etc) require hardback (not paperback) copies (goodness knows why) which of course Createspace does not produce.
I contacted many indie reviewers from the Indie Reviewers' list who seemed to accept my genre of fiction and NOT ONE of them replied.
This is just another downside of self-publishing and that's why this group is so good.

Yes, this group solves a big problem! In reality, though, the publisher who put out two of my novels only ever got me one review, on the first book (which has since been deleted). Everything else I've done myself, so it's not that much different. They did not do any giveaways, free days, or promotions. As far as I can tell, they didn't do any advertising. One of several reasons I've decided to "go it alone" for the next round.

That is interesting. We indie writers tend to have the impression that once you get a 'proper' publishing deal you've got it made in terms of promotion and marketing. Seems that isn't the case.

Certainly hasn't been for me. My publisher is small, not one of the "Big 6" or a major house. They did get me in touch with a good editor who I worked with very well and got me some good cover art. They sent me a handout on how I could do self-promotion. I was definitely NOT impressed with their formatting, either for ebooks or for print - it was actually really shoddy (no table of contents, no links or mention of my websites with extras like maps, no maps or graphics included, no author bio, chapter heading the same as the other text, improper chapter starts, etc.). I put out a short-story book as an experiment to see how hard it is to format them, and got MUCH better and more professional-looking results (in my opinion).

I get virtually nothing back on the books, and they raise and lower the prices themselves without even notifying me. They also have first right of refusal on the third book in the trilogy and have just been sitting on it. I wish they would just release it to me to either shop around on my own or put out on my own.

So - the big advantages were that they paid up-front for cover art and an editor, and got me started figuring out how to do my own publicity and reviews. It's not like I didn't get anything from them - but at the moment it's not enough to keep me from doing it myself.

By the way, they did not put my books up on Goodreads or advertise here, either. Someone else put my first book up here for me and I've done the rest, including any advertising.

I took a look at your author page here on Goodreads and would like to make one for myself but couldn't see how to do it. I don't find this site very user-friendly in general but have high hopes for the review group.

I thought it was a bit obscure at first, but don't worry, Alison, it all starts to fall into place quite quickly. In the meantime feel free in this topic:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
to ask as many questions as you need to.

Here's a good place to start any searching for help too:
http://www.goodreads.com/help
Scroll down a bit and you'll see the section on the author program

Yeah, I was pretty confused at first. It has some bugs and quirks. One of my pet peeves is that the Goodreads header bar goes away as I scroll down the page, which means I either have to scroll back up, or hit the "back to top" button, which actually doesn't take you all the way back to the top & I have to scroll up some anyway. Minor, I know, but some sites (like LinkedIn) have a header bar that stays put! Makes for faster navigation...

Thank you Jay, that has helped me. I've re-registered using my author name and got straight to the author page. Shall I stay as reader-me for the review group, or will it be easier if I'm listed as the author-me?

On the subject of giveaways, has anyone else here done one? Is it worth it? The guidelines say that 'Goodreads will collect interest in the book, and select winners at our discretion. Our algorithm uses member data to match interested members with each book.' Any idea how they do this?

I want to get my book some exposure, but since I'm forking out my own money for it I'd like an idea on the return I'm likely to get on the investment.

I've not tried any of this stuff, but I haven't seen anyone say anything about good returns on investment on any of these deals. If you have to fork out then there's only one guaranteed winner, and it's never the author.