Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Has anybody ever won one? I only ask because I've entered hundreds and have never won. I would estimate the ones I've joined probably average 1 in a 100 chances of winning. I never bother with the ones where it's 1 in several thousand entrants. Some of mine have been 50 copies and only 500-1000 entries.

Several just ended that I had hoped to win and several more do in the next week so hopefully my luck turns.

The Guns of Empire
The Copper Promise
The Waking Fire
The Great Ordeal
A City Dreaming

All end in the next week and have excellent odds. I'd be psyched to win any of them. You should all join...........even if it lowers my odds. :)

Scott wrote: "Has anybody ever won one? I only ask because I've entered hundreds and have never won. I would estimate the ones I've joined probably average 1 in a 100 chances of winning. I never bother with the ..."

I entered the one for The Copper Promise too. I've entered hundreds of giveaways over the years and have won 7 of them. the first one I won was for Theft of Swords by Michael Sullivan so that was pretty exciting. Oddly enough I don't seem to win the giveaways that have better odds of winning, and when I win it seems to happen in threes, except for once.

Wow 7! That is awesome and theft of swords was indeed lucky. Great book. If things happen in three's and I won three from this list I'd be psyched.

I've won 5 books - mostly historical fiction, but I won one fantasy novella: A Reaper of Stone.

Hey, Tor Books just started an ebook of the month club: http://www.tor.com/2016/07/11/one-fre...

USA & Canada only though.

This month it's The Three-Body Problem

That's a good promotion for both TOR and the reader.

Chris wrote: "Hey, Tor Books just started an ebook of the month club: http://www.tor.com/2016/07/11/one-fre...

USA & Canada only though.

This month it's [book:..."

Awesome, thanks!

Winter Sky

I finally won one. I like historical fiction and it arrives before the publication date of 9/27 it will be an ARC copy. I know nothing about the author.

9/27 is my eldest daughter's birthday ironically. Her name is Cayden which we pulled out of a Celtic name book where the traditional spelling is Caden but we feminized it with the Y. Thinking we were original at the time we took her to see the Lion King on Broadway when we was 4 and a teenager with a track coat on had it spelled the same way and the girl was nice enough to chat with our daughter.

At the time the name wasn't popular at all but the last few years it's all over the name site list by the social security which gives totals for every name under every spelling. So there's Caden, Kaden, Kayden, Kaiden, Caiden....but they are all listed on the boys side. Our second oldest even had a friend (boy) Kaden for a while.

Anyway fun to add some personal facts even if odd once in a while.

Scott wrote: "Winter Sky

I finally won one. I like historical fiction and it arrives before the publication date of 9/27 it will be an ARC copy. I know nothing about the author.

9/27 is my eld..."

Nice! Congrats on your first giveaway!
Can't say I've ever met anyone with the name Caden/Cayden/Kaden (and all other various spellings), but I like the name. My favourite version would probably be Cayden for a girl and Kaden for a boy, like your daughter and the other friend.

The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945

I won a hardcover copy. The book comes out Nov 1. I've read a ton of WWII books but not in a while so it will be a good change up.

After many months of not winning anything, I won Three Sisters, Three Queens. I've heard good things about Philippa Gregory's writing and the Tudor period is such a fascinating time in history so I'm pretty excited. :)

Congrats Jenna. I've never been a fan of Gregory's. I always find it a slog the couple of times I've read her work. That being said my best friend loves anything written by her.

Congrats.

BTW this morning just for kicks I looked at the actual winners for a book I had entered. Then randomly clicked on one of the winner for their profile to see if the person was a blogger or something feeling that some of these have to be rigged or weighted. The person in question had over 121,000 book in their to-read. So basically they enter every drawing and never deselect add to my to-read list.

Something about that just seems wrong to me. I didn't enter Age of Myth or The Emperor's Blades as two examples because I have them in soft copy and didn't want to take away the chance to read it for somebody who had. Somebody with 121K would just add it no matter what. It's not against the rules or unethical technically but it's not in the spirit of things to me.

Scott wrote: "Congrats.

BTW this morning just for kicks I looked at the actual winners for a book I had entered. Then randomly clicked on one of the winner for their profile to see if the person was a blogger ..."

I completely agree. It's not fair to the authors who at least deserve a star-rating after being read. I always leave a review, no matter how short, for the books I get for free. For the readers who don't do that, it ruins it for the rest of us who would appreciate a free copy. It ruins it for authors who rely on getting reviews. Overall, it just ruins it for the system and authors stop posting giveaways after a time. Too much ruining.

Agreed on all your points.

I agree. I always leave a review when I get a free book as well.

I never request a book from a giveaway if I already own. That way I hope that someone who doesn't own the book wins it. I can't get over that some people would just enter every single draw.

Angela wrote: "I agree. I always leave a review when I get a free book as well.

I never request a book from a giveaway if I already own. That way I hope that someone who doesn't own the book wins it. I can't get..."

Me either. If I own it, someone else deserves the chance to read it too. I also wouldn't enter a giveaway for a book I know I wouldn't enjoy. That's mainly why I don't like that people enter every giveaway. There is no way they actually want to read all of those books.

I won a copy of Revenger! That brings the total books won on GR giveaways in to 2 in 5 years.

Tracey the Lizard Queen wrote: "I won a copy of Revenger! That brings the total books won on GR giveaways in to 2 in 5 years."

Congrats. Do you enter a lot of them?

I won two more in the past week.

Kalifus Rising which I entered for my 6th grader.

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning which is historical.

So my totals are 4 total with 2 history, 1 historical fiction and 1 YA. I've entered so many more fantasy and sci-fi with zero in either category.

I also just got a free ARC from net galley The Bone Witch

Nice!

I recently won Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 on audiobook. It's huge! Listed at 47 hours.

Chris wrote: "I recently won Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 on audiobook. It's huge! Listed at 47 hours."

Wow. That is a very long book.

Very cool Chris.

I won my 8th giveaway with Gilded Cage. So far the distribution has been 4 children's books, 2 history, 1 historical fiction and 2 fantasy.

My first fantasy book I've never received and Gilded Cage is ARC so I'm hoping I do receive this one. All 4 children's books have been Kindle editions which I'm not complaining free is free but the kids definitely like reading from a book vs a device. Plus they play games and watch Disney on their devices so it's good to get them off them.

Scott wrote: "I won my 8th giveaway with Gilded Cage. So far the distribution has been 4 children's books, 2 history, 1 historical fiction and 2 fantasy.

My first fantasy book I've never receiv..."

Awesome! Since moving to Korea, I haven't won any books. :(

Jenna wrote: "Awesome! Since moving to Korea, I haven't won any books. :( ."

I would imagine the number of giveaways you can enter is fractional to US/CA.

Scott wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Awesome! Since moving to Korea, I haven't won any books. :( ."

I would imagine the number of giveaways you can enter is fractional to US/CA."

Yes, there are a lot less giveaways and a lot more entries because most of them are global.

Giveaways are running for: Shadows of Self and Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection (GB only)

Spin is Tor.com's free ebook of the month...

Chris wrote: "Spin is Tor.com's free ebook of the month..."

That's been on my to read list for so long but I've never gotten a chance to read it.

Shoot me a message with your email address and preferred format - epub, pdf or mobi, and I will email you, free, "Azaroth & Sefalin, an 83,000 word fantasy adventure - just for an honest review. Book details on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BEFPHDO

The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan has a giveaway here on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

I entered. Not that I have EVER won any giveaway but a girl can dream :-).

Angela wrote: "The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan has a giveaway here on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh..."

I just got an alert that it's $1.99 for the ebook in the USA.

A Crucible of Souls has a Goodreads giveaway until March 5th.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/en...

Two of the most interesting books that are coming this year:

Godblind (UK only)

The Empire's Ghost (US and CA only)

Age of Myth and Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (world-wide)

The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer. World-Wide giveaway.

I'm glad I'm not alone! I've entered so many giveaways, never to have won. Nowadays I only enter ones that are on my to-read list - although, browsing the giveaways is a good way to find books that I may want to read in the future.

I've started writing reviews more consistently. I wonder if that will help my chances.

Dan wrote: "I'm glad I'm not alone! I've entered so many giveaways, never to have won. Nowadays I only enter ones that are on my to-read list - although, browsing the giveaways is a good way to find books that..."

They want people to write reviews for the ones that are given away,
so it seems like writing more reviews would help.

I write reviews for everything I read and that hasn't seemed to impact my giveaway wins. There's no pleasing those people! ;)

The funny thing about reviews - well, I only have like 20 friends and most aren't active, but I don't believe anyone really reads them. For me, I think it's just a way that I can remember what I thought of a book. I have this fantasy that someday I'll get a random like or comment on a review, lol, but I'm not really a great reviewer. If I get the added benefit of a giveaway, then I'd be stoked

The review I got the most likes on (and even random bloggers I wasn't friends with liked it) was a DNF and saying I was done reading Stephen King altogether because of his bloated drawn out storylines... hahaha!

Niki Hawkes wrote: "I write reviews for everything I read and that hasn't seemed to impact my giveaway wins. There's no pleasing those people! ;)"

Me too and I agree.

Dan wrote: "The funny thing about reviews - well, I only have like 20 friends and most aren't active, but I don't believe anyone really reads them."

I have hundreds of friends. A lot of them sent me invites and I've never interacted with them. I think they just like to have a lot of friends.

Friends from this group and others groups I'm active in I read most of the reviews. Some I don't read the reviews until after I've read the actual book because I feel they reveal too much. Not a criticism, just a personal preference. I try to just give an overview to help readers who haven't read it. My reviews and can between a short paragraph if that's all the book warrants or 5 or 6 if it really touched me.

Sometimes in a series I don't do more than a paragraph even on series like Malazan because by the time you're a few books in it's so hard to not give stuff away.

Margret wrote: "The review I got the most likes on (and even random bloggers I wasn't friends with liked it) was a DNF and saying I was done reading Stephen King altogether because of his bloated drawn out storyli..."

I've either loved or hated everything I've read by him. I'm probably going to do Dark Tower sometime over the summer but if I'm not engage quickly I'll DNF. 11-22-63 was so awesome and The Dead Zone really good and yet other works sucked so badly.

Niki Hawkes wrote: "I write reviews for everything I read and that hasn't seemed to impact my giveaway wins. There's no pleasing those people! ;)"

Haha, well the odds are usually against winning most books because of the number of people that enter.

Dan wrote: "The funny thing about reviews - well, I only have like 20 friends and most aren't active, but I don't believe anyone really reads them. For me, I think it's just a way that I can remember what I th..."

I read the reviews my friends write especially if it's someone I know likes the same types of books I like. I also read reviews for books I'm interested in reading so I can see other people's opinions. It is weird sometimes how many likes I will get on certain ones and then others next to nothing.

I don't like to read reviews until after I've read a book if I know I plan to read the book in the future. Sometimes I'll read the review if it's a book I'm thinking I might want to read, but don't have it on my TBR. Like Scott, if it's a long running series I don't like to say too much as I worry I'll spoil something.

If your review is short and sweet, one or two paragraphs then I'm more likely to read it as well. If the review is a novel ;-) chances are I won't read it.

Haha I'm never going to win a giveaway as my reviewing is a bit haphazard.

I'm hosting a US giveaway through July 7, 2017 on my website for a paperback copy of The Waking Fire (kindly provided by the publisher). If you're my Friend or Follower on GR (or if you become one) you earn 5 entries. I love you guys. <3 I'm sorry it's not international.

Here's the link: The Waking Fire Giveaway!