Indie and Proud discussion

Hi! I thought a topic about Giveaways would be fun.

What makes a great giveaway? I'd love to hear answers from readers and authors.

Readers: What do you love to win and what makes a giveaway irresistible for you?

Authors: Have you hosted any giveaways? How have they worked?

I'll go on and start:) As an author I've hosted two giveaways. The first one was not a huge success. We offered one copy of my first book and it was hosted on two blogs.

The second one was hosted during a blogger's blogiversary, it was only hosted on that site. We offered a $10 amazon gift card and a copy of my second book. We had a better response.

As a reader I sign up for giveaways too. Some of the most interesting prizes have been charms designed for books, but i didn't pay attention to who created them. Has anyone else seen them? Do you know who makes them?

Overall, I think giveaways are fun, i think it does take a little bit of finesse to get them to go well.

I've only done one giveaway for a free signed copy and I've also sent a couple of signed copies to people who have gotten in touch with me about how much they enjoyed Anomaly. I love doing giveaways because I feel like it makes me closer to my readers and they are more likely to share with me how they actually feel about the book and what they would like to see in the future.

I LOVE the idea of giving away book themed charms and things like that :)

I think I'll do more giveaways. I'd liek to hear more about what kind of giveaways people like too ;)

I do signed copies with book swag specific to the book--necklaces, key chains, bookmarks, signed promo flyers and signed orginal photographic prints (I'm a professional photographer as well). Reception always seemed better when I had other swag items.

As a blogger I feel like answering both questions because I'm on both ends. When I enter a giveaway I love signed books/swag. Not that unsigned things aren't great, but those are always so much fun to receive because a lot of my favorite authors are never close by! I also love unique types of swag, like necklaces/buttons/other cute things that tie into your book. Book marks are always a favorite though because I've decided to start collecting them! I also like receiving a few of them so I can share them in my own giveaways.

That being said, I've hosted by myself a total of two giveaways in the past eight months I've had my blog. The first was for an ecopy of a book I adored, it got some attention but not a ton. The second and most recent giveaway I hosted was a signed copy and a brand new copy of another book. That one got a little over 100 after deleting all of the cheated entries. I feel like giving away physical books is more popular and signed books also get a lot more attention. I also feel like giftcards are a HUGE attraction for readers. Just because they can pick what book they want instead of getting what you decide to give away.

I always have fun doing giveaways. So far I've only done books and gift cards here on Goodreads and for my blog tours, but I've wanted to do some other giveaways too with other fun things. I'm thinking about working on some bookmarks and such for my next release especially for my blog tour since that way I can give signed bookmarks to more people than signed copies of my book.

I suggest to all new indies to put their book up for giveaway on GR. It spiked adds and shelving way up on all my books, and sometimes people might even buy the book afterward if they didn't win it. I'm not saying it happens all the time, but it still gets your name out there =)

Cassandra wrote: "I do signed copies with book swag specific to the book--necklaces, key chains, bookmarks, signed promo flyers and signed orginal photographic prints (I'm a professional photographer as well). Recep..."

Cassandra, You're stuff sounds amazing! The signed promo flyers are interesting concept. we just got some swag in-some bracelets-and going to try that:)

Kylee wrote: "As a blogger I feel like answering both questions because I'm on both ends. When I enter a giveaway I love signed books/swag. Not that unsigned things aren't great, but those are always so much fun..."

I think that's the thing, to try to come up with something that's a little bit unique that ties in to the book. I can see how the signed print books could be a bigger draw. With my limited experience I've had the same experience with the gift cards. It gives the winner flexibility which is really nice.

Hazel wrote: "I always have fun doing giveaways. So far I've only done books and gift cards here on Goodreads and for my blog tours, but I've wanted to do some other giveaways too with other fun things. I'm thin..."

Hazel, it sounds like those Goodreads giveaways are something to check into! Thanks for sharing that. I'm getting ready to do a giveaway next week. I'll let ya'll know how it goes:)

I've done a couple of giveaways and the ones that always generate most participations are the Amazon & Barnes & Noble Gift Card Giveaways. I've tried running one where I offered a book, but when you're a no name it just doesn't interest a large amount of people.

I also think it's important to consider what you want your giveaway to generate before you set it up. For me, they have not been so much about increasing sales (which I've found they do either way) but I focus more on what viral spread I can get out of it. The marketing value.

Since I have written a novella series, I usually include a must task of downloading the first part of my series for free, which means I get a lot of people downloading it, which means I climb the Amazon and B&N lists. It also usually generates some ratings and reviews on Goodreads and Blogs and participants are happy to get something for free with the Giveaway even if they don't win.

The biggest challenge for me, as a self-publishing writer, is to get people to read and talk about my books and that's why I often set up my Giveaways with this in mind. Since I have a series, sales comes automatically on the other 4 parts for those who read and liked the first one.

I've seen Giveaways where tasks of buying a book is included to win a Gift Card, but I would imagine it doesn't generate as much in terms of viral spread. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Saga, I think the cards do seem to work. I think you also made an excellent point. Why are you doing the giveaway? I also think you're right to consider the tasks the giveaway requires. What will they achieved and are they too difficult/time-consuming so that the entrant won't participate. Great post!!!

That is SUCH a great idea, Saga! i'm going to do that :) Thanks for posting!

I love that idea, Saga, How do you go about doing that? That way the people can actually see if they like your story and writing style before they buy it or win it. Sounds like a good thing to go along with a blog tour.

Heidi wrote: "Cassandra wrote: "I do signed copies with book swag specific to the book--necklaces, key chains, bookmarks, signed promo flyers and signed orginal photographic prints (I'm a professional photograph..."

For my newest novel I am going to be doing guitar picks, guitar string bracelets and guitar pick lariet necklaces that double as bookmarks as well--along with my usually flyers, posters and rack cards. I get those from Vistaprint when they have free sales!

I'm glad you like the suggestion :) After two Giveaways like this I increased my followers on FB from 200 to almost 800 and I think I got a total of 500 tweets out of it and so on.

Hazel wrote: "I love that idea, Saga, How do you go about doing that? That way the people can actually see if they like your story and writing style before they buy it or win it. Sounds like a good thing to go a..."

Do you mean how I make it available for free, or how I manage to divide it into parts? I'll answer both :)

I've heard a lot of self published authors who had problems with making their work available for free on Amazon. It's a simple solution to that problem if you guys are experiencing it too. If you're using Smashwords and make it available for free there, Amazon will match the price (US market only though) and you can keep your book for free as long as you want. It takes a couple of days for it to change into "free" on Amazon so plan in advance, and it will still be listed as 0.99 in your bookshelf but it will be free to all your US customers.

I actually started self publishing by testing the first part of my story for free. I wrote it as a novella with a cliffhanger and published it before I'd even written the rest. If people hated it, I figured I'd just write a second part and offer an ending to those who wanted it, but the interest was so strong I decided to make it into a longer series and publish each part as a novella.

I suppose if you've written a full story you could pick out a part of the story as a teaser and do something similar. Make sure you communicate this clear though so that people don't expect to get the full book because that will only upset them and it might result in some bad reviews (speaking from experience here :))

Let me know if you have any questions or if I'm unclear in my answer.

Ah, I see, thanks for the info. It's actually a cool idea to write your story as a series of novellas. Kind of like a mini-series :) I have a couple short stories that go along with one of my novels, but not the one that's next to be released. However if I am able to get around to writing a short story about those characters I may very well do this. If not I might try the first couple chapters, but like you said, I don't really want someone to get confused and angry at it :P

Cassandra wrote: "Heidi wrote: "Cassandra wrote: "I do signed copies with book swag specific to the book--necklaces, key chains, bookmarks, signed promo flyers and signed orginal photographic prints (I'm a professio..."

All that guitar stuff, so creative:)

Saga wrote: "I'm glad you like the suggestion :) After two Giveaways like this I increased my followers on FB from 200 to almost 800 and I think I got a total of 500 tweets out of it and so on.

Hazel wrote: "I..."

This isn't nessarily true. It was brought to my attention that they don't price match to Smashwords anymore. Also, it doesn't seem they price match too much. I had my book for free on two different websites and they refused to price match to free of either one--although a good amount of people reported it to be free. It might work for some, but it doesn't work for everyone. I was really hoping it would, but for a solid month they didn't price match the free book.

After questioning readers, it turned out that most of them preferred Gift Cards. That way they could choose their own books. By using Rafflecopter giveaways you could always make more than a few entries. One could be for the person entering to "like" your fb page, follow you on twitter, subscribe to your newsletter, etc. What many authors promoting themselves do is add an ebook/paperback prize to the Gift Card one. That way, most people will enter because of the Gift Card, but they would receive the book as well, which they'll probably read. Also, adding an excerpt to the giveaway post may intrigue some readers into buying the book.

When one of the entries is to buy the book in question, most people wouldn't do it. On, this, Saga has a point.

Also, PROMOTION. Once they get to a giveaway with a tempting prize, most people will do what it takes to enter. The goal is to attract as many people as possible to the giveaway page. Whenever possible, make the giveaway international.

If someone hasn't used a Rafflecopter giveaway, you can see an example at http://www.indtale.com/fill-in

Cassandra wrote: "This isn't nessarily true. It was brought to my attention that they don't price match to Smashwords anymore. Also, it doesn't seem they price match too much. I had my book for free on two different websites and they refused to price match to free of either one--although a good amount of people reported it to be free. It might work for some, but it doesn't work for everyone. I was really hoping it would, but for a solid month they didn't price match the free book.

That may be correct. I got the suggestion over a year ago and have only tried it on one of my novellas, so I have no idea if that was only a fluke or if it is always true. The part I have tested have been free on Amazon US for almost a year now. In my private reports, it's listed as if priced 0.99, but for customers it's free. This is only true in the US though. For some reason it is not free on Amazon UK, Germany, Italy and so on.

I decided to join this group just because of this thread. Some great stuff in here, Saga Berg.