Inkshares Community discussion

Hey guys!

Have any of you had luck attracting pre-orders through giveaways? I've been doing some every couple of weeks (for WRESTLETOWN) and it seems to be hit and miss - but I've convinced myself to keep it going.

This week I'm giving away three issues of The Atomic Elbow fanzine, an Andre the Giant Pop! and an Ultimate Warrior Pop!

Here's my recent post with a photo of the items - https://www.inkshares.com/books/wrest...

Thoughts? Any other strategies that were more successful?

Thanks,
Chris

https://www.inkshares.com/books/wrest...

Hm, I was actually planning on an Amazon giveaway for 'Somebody's Trying to Kill Me,' starting tomorrow. I was going to pair it with a $0.99 sale to see what sort of interest it drummed up. When you do it through Amazon, you can require people who participate in the giveaway to Follow your author page, which I think will prove helpful as a long-term play (especially if a 1-giveaway-for-x-entries means thousands of people end up following you), but I'm not sure how many sales I'd get.

A year ago, I published a horror novel I'd written under a pseudonym, just so I could try out giveaways and other techniques without messing with my brand too much. What I found is that Amazon temporary-free giveaways, if promoted right, will move thousands of copies and land you at the #1 of your category; the only problem is that it's the free category, and when your book goes back to paid, it doesn't translate into much money (like, $40 in royalties for the month succeeding, and falling off from there).

Net-net, I think these things can work, but you might want to consider taking a page from Amazon and locking participation into something as a condition for entering the giveaway.

I tiered my campaign for 'The Nature of Glass' so that I added a video, and Swag. I haven't gotten much response. In fact, I'm kind of fighting an uphill battle on getting interest as well. I also offered to sign the books in my own blood. Putting up a video and swag got me an extra order. Offering to sign my book in blood, got me a second order. I have a bunch of friends promoting the heck out of this so it may be too soon to say that's all she wrote, but like you, I'm still trying to find the sweet spot that will encourage some kind of sales, especially so close to the end of the campaign.

I hope others will post here with some solid advice, because I am totally open to it.