Comments on: Goodreads Giveaways: A Change That Costs

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 08:19:28 +0000

Why not just offer your books on you site or offer arcs to your readers with a promise they will review them for you?

By: Eric Keller

Eric Keller — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 17:17:18 +0000

In reply to Chris Young. Sure. I'll email it to you.

By: Chris Young

Chris Young — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 15:57:02 +0000

In reply to Eric Keller. Eric, could you write a short article on how to do this on Goodreads. Many of our authors are just learning how to use this format to publicize their books. I will be happy to post the article on Tuesdays Tips.

By: Eric Keller

Eric Keller — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 21:06:03 +0000

I’m fairly new to this book promotion game, but I think anything that gets fresh eyes on a book is a step in the right direction. We spend a lot of time working on our books, spend money on editing and nice covers, so to me it seems short sighted to balk at expending a couple hundred dollars more to promote them. Given the vast morass of novels out there, if you think the book is good enough for readers to recommend it, then the only way for it gain traction is to get it in front of keen readers, which I think most Goodread users are.

Also, I noticed that it is pretty easy to up-vote a book on some of the Goodread lists, especially if the book is in a well defined niche. For example, with only 6 votes, I could get my book into the Top 50 Legal Thrillers. I think people do actually use these lists to find their next read, so it might be worthwhile having authors with RPP pick a list and then have everyone else vote for them.

By: Chris Young

Chris Young — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 15:16:51 +0000

In reply to Genie Gabriel. It will be interesting. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to paying money for promotions, but I'm always willing to try something once.

By: Genie Gabriel

Genie Gabriel — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 08:57:37 +0000

I’ve done nine giveaways on Goodreads, with the number entering the giveaways ranging from 338 people to 690 people. I usually offer five print books and run the giveaways for about a month. This last time I offered three print books and ran the giveaway for about 10 days and had 613 people enter. Although Goodreads wasn’t charging at that time, I did incur the cost of the print books and postage. Any increase in sales? Not that I noticed.

With my past experience, this doesn’t seem like a good investment. However, Chris, it will be interesting to see what your results are.