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Honest Answers About Book Giveaways
Here's my anecdotal evidence, but I don't want it to discourage you. I have so far sent out 25 print books in three giveaways, and I've started one more, and so far it has resulted in no reviews.The reason I don't want it to discourage you is because my book has only been in print for less than a month, and, people may take a long time.... oh, hey will finish message later.
I question the effectiveness of "free give-aways" as well. Most new or unknown writers get relatively few reviews. It may vary according to genre I suppose. Two of my friends had books published over the past two years, one with a traditional publisher and the other self-published.
The friend who was published by a traditional indy publisher got one 4 star review (from a friend). The one that self-published got five 5 star reviews; these were from his editor and 4 friends.
My 2 experiences with free give-aways did not yield anywhere close to 60% although they did result in a few great reviews. I noticed that one of the individuals that reviewed and rated apparently habitually enters free giveaways or agrees to read a free book in exchange for a review (which she openly divulges in her reviews). She has apparently turned the pursuit of obtaining free books into a sort of hobby, perhaps like people who cut out coupons and enter sweepstakes. The review seemed sincere, but when I checked on her other reviews it was apparent this person does not purchase books, but has instead either turned scoring freebies into a game or is a fixture in her local library.
I'm certain someone will respond to my post by saying he or she gave away 10 free copies and garnered 9 reviews. Well, if so, bravo! Such positive exuberance (or is it just "humble-brag"?) is commonly seen in every creative endeavor online, leaving the rest of us wondering what the hell we did wrong. Nevertheless, I am skeptical that the rate of reviews is 60% for new or unknown writers.
A respected and well known writer I have been a fan of for decades had his latest novel published 3 months ago; when I last checked Amazon he had all of 5 reviews.
I like what one person said in this discussion group, and I am only para-phrasing :
There is not much actual proof that reviews sell books; it is selling books that sells books.
I did a double take when I read that!
I participated in two Goodreads giveaway promotions. The first ended Jan. 2, 2014. 1,020 members participated. The other ended Feb. 5, 2016. 1,490 participated. In each, 10 paperback copies were awarded. Four recipients posted a rating and review on Goodreads. The quarterly sales reports and royalty checks that followed the close of each giveaway revealed no noticeable increase in sales as compared to previous reports.
I receive about 25% review response on my giveaways. I have not been able to corrilate a direct relationship between book sales and the number of to-be-reads. However, when I go a while without a giveaway or other promotion, my sales drop.
Thank you all for your comments so far! I'm glad to hear examples from both sides.Denise, the really big con that gives me pause is that I don't print on demand. I order shipments of books that I also place in local bookstores. Each book costs me around $3-$5 to print (depending on how many I order). So even if I only give away two books, I'm pocketing a small but unnecessary loss.
The point about exposure is a very good one. I'd be curious to see how many sales came from those thousands of shelf ads. (Given Jim's findings, I'd guess... not many.)
So that's pretty much the nature of my dilemma.
Yeah, so, interruptions, back. Some reflections:-One never knows how long it takes between receiving a book and reading it, let alone whether a reader who bothers to finish the book will want to review it. My best friend took a few months to read one of my books and give feedback while I was in revisions, so I don't know what to expect from strangers.
-In reality no one can ever know what to expect from ANY promotional effort, it's all a gamble no matter how you approach it, if success comes you'll never know what to attribute it to, if it doesn't come you'll never know where you went wrong or even whether you did go wrong or just got unlucky, and anyway it's almost unreasonable to expect a few hundred bucks to stir up a social phenomenon no matter how you spend them, but getting books in a few people's hands seems like one way to do it.
-On the other hand, the people who sign up for giveaways are randos. There are a lot of readers out there with literally tens of thousands of books on their to-read lists who will sign up for almost anything on a whim, even if there's little chance they'll be interested in the contents. A lot of the people who have marked my book to-read appear never to have read anything like my book, or even to have read any of the kinds of books I like to read. I'd expect a lot of them to toss my book aside in disgust or confusion. And I'm not generating a lot of African-American interest, even though that should represent a large share of the audience I want to reach.
-On the other other hand, a lot of readers want to have an open mind if you give them a chance, and you never know who a book will connect with, so I'm willing to gamble. I think I may have to fire a lot of missed shots, but also believe that the few who do make a connection with my book could become fanatical advocates. I just need my cult-following niche.
-Reviews may not be the be all end all, but getting the book read is significant.
Paul wrote: "Yeah, so, interruptions, back. Some reflections:-One never knows how long it takes between receiving a book and reading it, let alone whether a reader who bothers to finish the book will want to ..."
You have some really great thoughts here, and I definitely appreciate the feedback! It sounds like there's a good amount of uncertainty, but you're still willing to gamble on giveaways possibly having an effect, which is the decision I'm wrestling with now. Does that sound about right?
60% does seem a bit optimistic on goodread's behalf :D.This is about paperback giveaways, correct?
I schedule giveaways every month, but only for 1 or 2 copies at a time. This gives great exposure to my book. About a third of the time, it results in some paperback sales. Running giveaways for reviews is doing it for the wrong reason imo and will usually lead to disappointment. Giveaways should be seen as a cost-effective way to gain exposure. When only offering 1 or 2 copies at a time, it's about the most exposure you can get from any marketing campaign on any platform, for the price.
Marie wrote: "60% does seem a bit optimistic on goodread's behalf :D.This is about paperback giveaways, correct?
I schedule giveaways every month, but only for 1 or 2 copies at a time. This gives great expos..."
Yep, that statistic is for Goodreads giveaways--I assume it means paperbacks, but I don't think they differentiate. I just double-checked to see whether I was imagining that percentage, but nope. In the Book Discovery Information Kit (part of the Advertisers package; I also run a full-service publishing company that I want to advertise on GR, so they sent me this) it states this exactly: "Giveaway--on average 50-60% of giveaway winners write a review of the book. They perform even better when supported with banner ads."
So that 60% apparently refers to giveaways that aren't even being advertised by banner ads. Even the most optimistic posters in this thread haven't indicated anything like 50-60% engagement, so....
You do have a good point about giveaways for reviews being the wrong motivation, though. I'll keep that in mind and hope that the exposure is enough to justify the expense/loss.
Denise wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Denise, the really big con that gives me pause is that I don't print on demand. I order shipments of books that I also place in local bookstores. Each book costs me around $3-$5 to ..."The notifications are a good point too--I personally have engaged with those "new book for sale from an author you read" emails, although I've yet to follow through fully and buy a book based on that (I did check one out from the library...?).
I've seen your point about joining conversations too. I was kind of hoping that would not be the case. :/ I have terrible anxiety, and online discussions/forums really exacerbate it. For example, this very thread has put me in a mild panic attack, even though everyone's been very pleasant and helpful. There's just something about getting replies that makes me panic. So I admittedly try to avoid interacting with people online; I'm more a lurker than anything.
Meanwhile, regarding reviews, while I haven't participated in "The Review Group" yet, they seem to have something interesting going. They get members to read books by other members, but their rules only permit members to review books by those who have not reviewed theirs. I.e., they prevent review exchanges with conflicts of interest that would violate any site rules, and they prevent both problems of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" and "you didn't understand my book, so I'm trashing you." If interested it's: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
It's possible that's an old statistic because giveaways used to work differently. They used to include language along the lines of "if you win this book, it's with the understanding that you will leave an honest review". Now there is no such language since reviews cannot be required in exchange for a free book.
Paul wrote: "Meanwhile, regarding reviews, while I haven't participated in "The Review Group" yet, they seem to have something interesting going. They get members to read books by other members, but their rules..."Personally I would stay well clear of any group where authors are reviewing other authors. While it might not strictly violate Amazon or Goodread's TOS its an ethically grey area open to rampant abuse.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get the point - why are so many authors obsessed with reviewing each other? If you want critical feedback about your book you seek it before you publish from critique partners, beta readers and your editor. Reviews are reader opinions left for other readers.
Sell books, get your novel into the hands of genuine readers are organic reviews will slowly roll in. Even better, stop worrying about reviews and it frees up loads of time to do other stuff. Like write another book.
To address the original question, Ive done a number of giveaways and never had a review result. I don't do giveaways for reviews, I do them to raise visibility and to have a fun competition to promote on social media.
A.W. wrote: "Personally I would stay well clear of any group where authors are reviewing other authors. While it might not strictly violate Amazon or Goodread's TOS its an ethically grey area open to rampant abuse..."While I haven't taken part in any of the group's activities yet, I will defend them. I don't see any evidence of any abuse, rampant or otherwise. I don't know to whom their activities may appear a grey area, or why I should care for their ethical judgement.
"Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get the point - why are so many authors obsessed with reviewing each other? If you want critical feedback about your book you seek it before you publish from critique partners, beta readers and your editor. Reviews are reader opinions left for other readers."
Let's assume for a moment that no one is looking for critical feedback of the sort you're describing. No one expects a review to help them edit their book after publication. But writers are sometimes also readers, and I presume many participants are looking to get someone to read their books.
"Sell books, get your novel into the hands of genuine readers are organic reviews will slowly roll in. Even better, stop worrying about reviews and it frees up loads of time to do other stuff. Like write another book..."
It's a nice idea to sell books, but again I presume some of the participants in these groups are having difficulty in meeting that goal and getting their novels into the hands of so-called genuine readers. I do agree though that writers generally should not let their publishing efforts get in the way of their writing.
I occasionally share a quote with novice authors that was often quoted during my 33-year management career. "If you wish to receive unbiased, professional advice regarding which automobile manufacturer produces the highest quality vehicle - General Motors, Ford or Chrysler, don't ask a General Motors dealer, seek the advice of a well-known, successful, independent professional".There are books, seminars, classes and articles, available at little or no cost, that address every aspect of the writing, publishing and marketing processes. Seek the knowledge available from them, preferably before seeking publication, not after. That said; better late than never.
Denise wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I've seen your point about joining conversations too. I was kind of hoping that would not be the case. :/ I have terrible anxiety, and online discussions/forums really exacerbate it..."Denise, I just wanted to say thanks for these kind words and for your insight on this topic. :) All the best to you too!
A.W. wrote: "Paul wrote: "Meanwhile, regarding reviews, while I haven't participated in "The Review Group" yet, they seem to have something interesting going. They get members to read books by other members, bu..."I certainly can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I'm interested in reviews, particularly as regards Goodreads giveaways, is because reviews are a quantifiable indication of marketing reach. I'm definitely not interested in critique from these reviews--like you said, that's why I have editors.
There's the point that giveaways lead to other forms of exposure, such as the book being added to shelves and want-to-read, but that's passive engagement--I'm not convinced that those shelvings lead to purchases.
It's easy to say "sell books," but in a separate discussion I ended up writing seven paragraphs' worth of explaining how marketing works from a publishers' standpoint.
Selling a book requires marketing, and marketing requires having enough money to invest in a marketing plan. Not every author has the capital to throw at general ad campaigns, banner ads, author events, and such without a guarantee that they'll see a return on that investment.
Which circles back to why I posed the original question. I'm trying to gauge how good the conversion rate is from "giveaways" to "more sales." Because if the giveaways and shelvings don't convert to sales, I'm better off keeping my books and directing my attention elsewhere.
By the way, I'm apparently in the middle of an experiment with unexpected results. I decided to run a giveaway available to people in some countries that don't often get included in giveaways. I focused on the Caribbean island nations where English is predominant, plus Guyana, South Africa, Nigeria, and two Spanish-speaking countries with strong cultural ties to the U.S.: Puerto Rico and El Salvador. Hey, why not?My previous giveaway, which was open to most countries of the world, got just over 1000 requests. This one? So far 3 requests! 3! And I've giving away 5 copies. Alright, lesson learned, maybe Jamaicans have just stopped checking the giveaway section because it's usually empty for them, or something. Or is Goodreads just not a thing for them?
Did you open your giveaway to U.S. entrants? They make up the bulk of the goodreads community from what I can see. Just a tip to those authors with international distribution on their paperbacks: you might save a truckload in shipping if you ship your book directly from the Book depository. I spent over $40 just in shipping costs to send a book to another country before I knew about Book Depository. Since I publish with Ingram (this also applies to pretty much anyone who checked expanded distribution with Createspace), I can order my own book from Book Depository to ship to most places in the world with free shipping.
Marie wrote: "Did you open your giveaway to U.S. entrants?..."No, I intentionally did not, in this case. When I open a giveaway to most of the world, I get requests from U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, and a broad sweep of European countries and the Middle East. That's cool. But I figured the only way I'm going to get the book to readers in "the other" Americas (Caribbean) is to specially focus a giveaway for them. And meanwhile I was thinking where are the South African readers? There are a lot of English speakers there, and a lot of books are published there, but there may not be much awareness of the Goodreads giveaways. Or maybe it's the luck of the draw.
Wow, that's interesting.I think my miss with South African readers so far may be pure chance... although I'll float another theory below. They're a significant part of the Goodreads population, whereas I've somehow connected more with Kiwi readers when New Zealand doesn't use Goodreads as much.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean is kind of off the map, and that may be because we're just looking at small populations there. But no Caribbean country is in the top 80 countries except for Puerto Rico at #78, and most readers there presumably are looking for Spanish language books. No Caribbean country represents as much as 1/10 of 1% of the Goodreads community. Taken as a whole, there may be 5 million total English speakers in the Caribbean + Guyana, with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago being the largest share of that population, and all together, they may make up around 0.2% of Goodreads users, less than Israel or Hong Kong.
My other theory, though, regarding South Africa (1% of Goodreads users), is that the writers who are running giveaways are perhaps not including South Africa in their offers, which would discourage South African readers, even those who participate in Goodreads in other ways, from visiting the Giveaways page. So there's a reminder, let's not forget South Africa in future giveaways and maybe we can collectively grow a readership there.
Hi Paul and Marie. If I may jump onto your conversation here seeing as I'm a South African living in SA and an Author. 😊
You will find your books being a huge success on giveaways and free downloads ( my debut novel downloaded 184 copies in 24 hours) but thereafter no new orders From South Africans. It is very tricky with the high Rand/Dollar exchange rate to gain SA readership. The Rand to a dollar (or pound!) is currently 15-1 so you can imagine once we pay shipping costs it's cheaper for us to go to our local bookstores and buy paperbacks directly from them. Suffice to say they only stock the top 100 authors worldwide so unless you fall in that category, it's unlikely they'll buy your books off Amazon.
Sorry ... don't mean to be Debbie downer here.
I've tried focusing on my own market here already and this is my conclusion... sadly. 😊
Paul wrote: "Wow, that's interesting.I think my miss with South African readers so far may be pure chance... although I'll float another theory below. They're a significant part of the Goodreads population, w..."
As it happens, I'm Jamaican-American. :) I'm happy to shed some light on what the problem probably is:
You aren't going to find many Jamaicans (or other Caribbean residents) on Goodreads.
Or CreateSpace. Or Amazon.
Our Internet infrastructure just isn't there. It's expensive, and most Jamaicans don't have a need for it. I just checked my cousin's Facebook page. She posts maybe a few times a week, then goes a week or two without posting. I imagine she posts from her phone, too, since I think the family still only has one desktop and one laptop. So the Internet just doesn't figure into Caribbean lives the way it does in more affluent countries like the US or the UK.
(And as a note, this is not a typical experience--this is the best-case scenario. My family in Jamaica would be considered upper-class, maybe not one-percenters, but probably ten-percenters. The vast majority of Jamaicans are in poorer conditions and probably have even less access to services like the Internet.)
It's a very different atmosphere, even economically. I'm pretty sure Internet services are no-contract, prepaid or postpaid monthly plans, not like up here. Just like how the cellphone subscription model utterly failed in the Caribbean, the Internet can't be packaged in the same way that it is for Americans. Jamaicans just wouldn't sign up.
Granted, my friend who lives in USVI is online more often, but she grew up in the US and just moved back to the USVI last year, so I'd consider her the exception. (And also, the economy is probably better there.)
So, with much love and respect to my countrypeople, I don't recommend trying to market to them via Goodreads. You just aren't going to reach anyone. (If a tree falls in a forest....)
Don't discount Puerto Ricans, though. Schools in PR can be Spanish- or English-based, and many are both. Speaking English is more common there than you'd figure, probably in part because it's a US commonwealth. (My SO is Puerto Rican.)
I hope this helps and, like Urcelia, I hope I'm not being too much of a downer. It's just the truth of things.
Marie wrote: "Did you open your giveaway to U.S. entrants? They make up the bulk of the goodreads community from what I can see. Just a tip to those authors with international distribution on their paperbacks: y..."Marie, that is great to know! Thanks so much for that information!
Thanks, yeah, that all makes sense. I'm currently living in South Korea, land of free wifi almost everywhere and internet cafes all over the place, so it's easy to get a distorted perspective compared to Jamaica. And I know that, though I buy books from U.S. Amazon and pay outrageous shipping costs, I'm not the typical case, so the economy of books in South Africa can be a barrier.
Greetings from Vietnam where I work and live,I try to publish my books as eBooks, and I've managed to get five as paperback, but paperbacks are more expensive, and there are shipping costs as well.
My other problems are that I have based most of my books in Africa or Asia, and in one case both. To many readers those locations are not too attractive.
But I'll keep on trying,
Adam Mann
http://www.adammannauthor.com
Marie wrote: "Here's some info on goodreads demographics: https://www.quantcast.com/goodreads.c..."
Thanks! This information is helpful.
Reviews are a extra on giveaways. Giveaways target people who read a lot of books, When a reader adds a giveaway book to his or her "to read" list he or she sees the author's name, the book title, what it's about. Now and then, scanning the titles, she sees the name, the title, again. Sees a tweet about the book or author. Sees a community note or blog note about them. As the names become more familiar the likelihood of buying the book increases. Getting sales is partly a matter of gaining name and work familiarity. For the cost of mailing a couple of books giveaways are bargain publicity.
Timing can be important. Most entries will be on the first day and last day of the giveaway. Starting the giveaway on the first of the month or ending it on the last day of the month makes it more likely to be buried several pages down the list at a crucial time. I've also noticed that several books on the new releases genre pages have recently had giveaways. Having a giveaway that ends a week or so before the month of release can increase the number of shelvings enough to make the cut.
Just did my second giveaway for my debut novel, and my question is, how is Goodreads selecting the winners? Because 4 out of 10 of the winners have NEVER posted a review on Goodreads. Doesn't this seem like a total waste of promotional dollars for us? Why is Goodreads not giving my copies to people who regularly post reviews? My publisher only has a set number of copies to give me for this endeavor, and I was really hoping each copy would go to someone who is an ACTIVE Goodreads user. Yikes!!
Jenny, I think a 60 percent response rate for reviews is very good. I believe the best I ever got was 40 percent on three giveaways. I've also done Amazon giveways, probably with about a 20 percent success rate. I think that some folks enter giveaways, especially for print books, is so they can resell them on Amazon, eBay and other sites.
I'm not talking about the response rate, the books haven't been sent yet. I'm talking about the readers who won the books. I checked out their profiles and THEY HAVE NEVER LEFT A REVIEW for ANY BOOK!! It's possible they will leave a review for mine, but why would the algorithm pick people who don't leave reviews? Why would Goodreads design it like this? Can't they choose ACTIVE MEMBERS?
Jenny wrote: "I'm not talking about the response rate, the books haven't been sent yet. I'm talking about the readers who won the books. I checked out their profiles and THEY HAVE NEVER LEFT A REVIEW for ANY BOO..."No, they can't. It has to be entirely random.
Maybe Goodreads SHOULD require reviews for entering the giveaway. OR, maybe preference should be given to those who have some reviews under their belt. Maybe GR should track who writes reviews (number) and inform authors of the "likelihood" that a review COULD actually happen. I think GR has a lot of room for improvement or innovations-- don't we all?
Goodreads has quite consciously moved away from the giveaway in exchange for review model - it used to be part of a 'secret' giveaway algorithm which they got rid of several years ago. They now run it as a pure sweepstakes, which is defined in law and, according to US law, prohibits requirements in exchange for participation. Hope what you like, but seems highly unlikely they'd move backwards on this. It's much simpler, cleaner and above-board for a corporate entity of the size they've become.
E.G. wrote: "Maybe Goodreads SHOULD require reviews for entering the giveaway. OR, maybe preference should be given to those who have some reviews under their belt. Maybe GR should track who writes reviews (num..."Very insightful idea.
Thanks, but that doesn't mean they can't provide additional and innovative ways for authors to connect with readers. I think the site needs to be refreshed somewhat as the landing page doesn't make me as a reader to stay on the site. I have not seen many innovations on this site in years. My point is not to go backward but innovate -- try new things.
We-ell, Goodreads just announced a pretty big new change in Giveaways yesterday. Better be careful what you wish for...
My giveaway results have been mixed. Well, mostly duds. Given the number of books I sent out for this last giveaway, the response rate was something around 70%, and resulted in an uptick in sales. So I dunno. Maybe the stars were aligned. But you might want to check this out:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Miss M is quite correct. I gave away a book earlier in November and I have one scheduled for my new mystery novel for mid-December. I received an email Nov. 29 from Goodreads about a new policy they are instituting in January.The new Giveaway Program will allow Kindle mobi file giveways, and will provide expanded notification to both authors and readers. However, the cost for an author to participate in the new giveaway is quite expensive. The Standard Package is $119 and $599 for the Premium Package. Both packages have a introductory discount for half off between January 9 and January 31.
I personally will not be participating in Goodreads giveways anymore at all because of the extremely high cost to authors. I'm an artist and a writer living at the poverty level. I'm not a rich executive for a social media site.
To readers, I'd like to point out that when only the affluent can advertise or giveway their new books, then the only books readers will be able to learn about or win in a giveway will be the books produced by the affluent. Books and their authors which are currently treated equally regardless of authors' affluence will be de facto classified by how able financially the author is to purchase this new package. This is a class issue. How good the writer is and how good the book is will not enter into the equation. I protest this new policy both as a reader and as an author.
Thanks for articulating so well my feelings about this change in policy. Have you sent your comments to Goodreads? They have a page where they ask for feedback about this new policy. They need to hear your/our views.
I echo this, and implore readers, not just authors, to think hard about the implications and to make your views known.To me, this is another move by mainstream publishing to price the majority of Indies out of another avenue of discoverability.
To many readers there will be no apparent change. Giveaways will still run. They will still be able to get new books for free. So what's the big deal? As C.J. points out, only those with money to burn will be offering giveaways so the range of choice will likely become restricted. If all you want is a free copy of a book that is already visible out there in bookstores then there's no loss to you. If, however, you want a risk-free way to discover new talent, you're out of luck :(
Let's get this straight. Mainstream publishers are not out to price indies out of the market. I began writing 25 years ago, pre Amazon and electronic publishing days. Nothing has ever been easy but even the very largest publishers are under pressure from Amazon and throat cutting discounts required by the big chains - i.e. 60%. libraries and independent bookshops are closing down in droves. Whoever thinks they're going to make a living as a writer needs to rethink. You don't have to merely be a good storyteller (please note this - storyteller as opposed to writer) You also have to be prolific (say five books a year) and have the skin of a rhino. It also helps if you happen to be a celebrity or have a rampant affair with one that makes tabloid headlines. Enjoy your writing and give away if you must. First rule is to entertain.
Lizzie, yes, let's get this straight. You are missing the larger point here. These anti-Goodreads'-new-policy posts are primarily about how a select group of writers will be treated unfairly now by Goodreads. Authors who cannot afford to pay either $199 or $599 to GIVE AWAY their books will be taken out of the game. The economic strategies of big chains and mainstream publishers haven't changed, won't change, and are not what is central to this discussion. What has changed is that now Goodreads will be charging a lot of money for authors to GIVE AWAY their books. Again, this means readers will have the opportunity to select books written ONLY by authors who are able to pay to give away, not by any and all authors. Also this notion that "whoever thinks they're going to make a living as a writer needs to rethink." Oh please. You sound like my daddy (god rest his soul). FYI, for many years, I was paid for my writing and continue to be paid working as a journalist (newspaper and freelancer for magazines). So this notion that you can't make a living as a writer is false. These days, I'm an artist (oils on canvas and words on paper). That's what my karma or dharma or destiny or cosmic calling is - to be that artist. I don't live to make money. I live to paint and to write. But I have to eat so sometimes I sell my art and now I'm trying to sell my novel. If Goodreads can't help with that, I'd like Goodreads to at least not obstruct my efforts.
I did not realise that Goodreads actually charge if you do this? Just another example of the exploitation of creativity. I too had my own newspaper column and am a successful author. I have heard from those who have self published how difficult it is to sell their work. It's akin to film making - writing a book is not so hard as distribution, marketing and publicity. And I've come across many would be writers who think they are on course to make a fortune. We each feed into this in our own way.
Lizzie, the new policy has two levels: $199 or $599. Someone posted that it might make sense to charge $10 to participate in a giveaway (as an author, not a reader). I agree. But the fees GR has come up with starting in January are outrageous. I totally agree that writing is not as hard distribution. Writing is fun! Selling and distributing...not so much fun. I'm not naive about this. I just do what I think is right for me personally and hope for the best.
Be true to yourself. Stuff Goodreads! I went to a Society of Authors meeting in London where it was suggested putting a portion of a book on line periodically, get followers and thus advertising revenue. The author giving the talk got the equivalent of £200 in the first week. Too many all scrabbling for places on Amazon et al so this example of thinking laterally might be useful?
THE Group for Authors!
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So I've been reading up on giveaways for a while now (as in months), trying to decide whether to do one for an upcoming release. I've seen official Goodreads documentation that says a book giveaway yields 60% of its readers posting reviews of that book. But in practice... that number seems much lower.
I'm sure Goodreads includes big-name authors in that statistic, but among no-name authors such as myself, I haven't seen much of a return on that. I've seen dozens of complaints by authors who do Goodreads book giveaways, send out a dozen or a couple dozen free copies, and receive exactly zero reviews.
That's not really a loss I'm willing to write down. So can anyone give me some real insight into how effective book giveaways are for new or little-known authors? And are there any "best practices" that increase the likelihood of being reviewed via these giveaways? (I mean like being more active in Goodreads discussions or reviewing other books, not things that would violate the TOS.)
Thanks in advance!