Giveaway Recomendations

[Logan Grey]

I know this has been discussed on here before and reading a previous discussion helped me before.  I completed a goodreads giveaway for my first novel and it was easy to use and fun.  I then tried rafflecopter but apparently my wordpress blog isn't in the right format or something?

At any rate I can't use rafflecopter.  I tried to do a second goodreads book giveaway but it wasn't approved.  So my guess is that they only let you do one giveaway per new book?  Does anyone know of another giveaway method besides using goodreads or rafflecopter?  I just got a box of books from my publisher to be used in giveaways and I need to figure out how to use them wisely.

I thought about just posting it on my own blog, but sadly I don't have many views on there yet.  Any ideas?

[Jennifer Kitchens]

Well, there is always the old-fashioned way of doing giveaways.  Having people leave comments for their entries.  Many times there are wonderful book bloggers out there who would be delighted to host a giveaway.  You provide the prize and they host it on their site (which probably has more views and followers than your personal site).  They get more hits for having a giveaway and you get more people hearing about your book and wanting a copy of their own.  It's a win-win situation.  

On my site, I try to host 4-8 giveaways a month for authors, personally.  And, if a blogger does it on their site, then they may be able to use the rafflecopter widget (which makes things easier all around).  I would suggest seeking out blogs that cater to your own genre as much as possible (ie, paranormal, contemporary, romance, mystery, etc - I don't know what your book is about) and finding people who already blog about that and have a following.  You can also try out blogs that do general fiction as they can generate a lot of buzz too. 

Good luck. If you want, you can check out the giveaways I do.  I have done about 50 of them, and have a couple active ones right now.  I don't provide my own prizes generally - the authors provide the book(s) and I do the hosting and most of the advertising.

Clean Romance Reviews

[Kerry Pacious]

Another idea...join a blog hop & do the giveaway on your own blog. By joining the hop (one that included your genre) you will not only generate views to your blog but also be in control of the giveaway yourself. Just a thought :)

Kerry

I am a book addict...and proud of it

[Shayna Gier]

I'd be willing to host a giveaway for you. http://www.shaynagier.com

[Logan Grey]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.  Shayna, I'm checking out your site now. If you could email me your mailing address I'll send you some free print copies of my book. You can reach me at [e-mail]

[Andrew Friedman]

Hi Logan,

I have done five giveaways on Goodreads, and gave away over forty copies. I also found a list of book bloggers on the Internet at http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com. I wrote to many of them and ask for reviews. Many said no, but some said yes. I must have sent out another three or four dozen copies. Some also held giveaways of my book on their websites.

The combination of these strategies gave me more than sixty reviews on Goodreads and eighteen on Amazon. But you have to be prepared to spend money and time. My book has been sent all over the U.S., and to Canada, England, Australia, and Spain.

This is a very time consuming process.

Good luck.

[Logan Grey]

Thank you for the advice Andrew.  I have just mailed my first book out to Canada this weekend and I'm having my first author review posted tomorrow!  I'm very excited.  I think you're right, it just takes time to get the word out there.  I only have 4 amazon reviews and two on goodreads so far.  

Oh I wanted to ask you about the goodreads giveaways.  Were all five of them copies of the same book?  I was wondering if they would allow you to do multiple giveaways of the same book.  Thanks

[Andrew Friedman]

Hello Logan,

My apologies for not responding sooner.

Yes, Goodreads allows multiple giveaways of the same book. I only have one book, and as I said have done five giveaways. You can also pick which countries are eligible to participate, but remember that you will then have to pay international postage.

I also strongly sugget you use Kindle to make your book into an ebook. Go to https://kdp.amazon.com. This allows you to participate in the KDP Select program.

Here are two other helpful websites:

http://digitalbooktoday.com

http://kindlenationdaily.com

These websites offer various ways to market your book, some free, some for which you have to pay. Note that you cannot participate in many of their marketing strategies until you have a minimum number of reviews (10 -15), and usually at least an average rating of 4 stars on Amazon.

A lot of people who rate books will only do so on one site, either on Amazon or Goodreads. I was able to get a number of people on Goodreads to cut and paste their reviews on Amazon so I could get the minimum number of reviews required to participate in some of these marketing strategies.

Facebook is another strategy, but I am apparently the last person on the planet not interested in Mr. Zuckerberg's website.

I still think the book bloggers are key. Marketing is hard work. I'm sure a lot of good books fail because nobody ever learns about them.

Good luck.

Andrew

[Dream]

Hi Logan,

We exclusively do book giveaways on our website Dream ( http://www.dreamonus.com/books ) We use social media to spread the word around. If you want to know more about Dream here's the video presentation                                          ( http://screencast.com/t/S1CSDTRJXiPq ) 

You can start as many giveaways as you want and its free to use!

Any questions, please let me know I would be happy to help you out!

Regards, Vish Chap

https://twitter.com/#!/dreamonus

[e-mail]

[Logan Grey]

This is why I love this site.  I have never even heard of Dream.  I will work on setting up my first giveaway ASAP.  Thank you.

[Dream]

Thank you!