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Amazon Giveaways: What is your experience?
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In short: A giveaway is a great way to get your book out in the world, but a horrible way to gain reviews.
I concur. Never saw reviews after a giveaway. I think people who get books free have the tendency not to appreciate them, unless they are personally given straight from author to reader. The only thing a giveaway on Amazon is good for is if it is part of a series, then it will spike the sales of the other books. I would rather offer for $0.99.
Having said all of that, I have reviewed a few books I downloaded free, but I think I do so because I understand how much work goes into it and i appreciate the hard work.
Having said all of that, I have reviewed a few books I downloaded free, but I think I do so because I understand how much work goes into it and i appreciate the hard work.
So I have done both, and I liked Goodreads better. Amazon presents you with three options, but only one of them appears to allow you to limit the number of books gifted. On that off chance the giveaway was popular, I didn't want to be on the hook for something like fifty books, but the only option that allowed you to limit the number of free copies was time gated, not random choice, so it was literally whoever clicked first. I didn't really like the free for all, and all copies were literally snapped up in like five minutes.
Goodreads allowed me to actually connect with readers, and I liked the fact that the winners were random. When I sent the winners books, I hand wrote a note, (I admit to being a bit of a Luddite in some respects), and of the five books given away, I think four of them actually posted reviews, and one thanked me for the note! It was nice to feel that I was able to reach out to my readers in a more personal way.
I have done both as well. Neither gain many reviews, but I've gotten a few reviews out of it. Hopefully it gets exposure, but I don't cross my fingers over it.In general I think it just comes down to how badly you want to get your book to readers. Goodreads does generate more connection later (on amazon people just want free stuff)
I like goodreads the best. For ten books I gave out, I got nine reviews.
I got one review for my first book giveaway on Goodreads. For the most recent book giveaway I got nothing so I will not do it again. l don't know why people sign up for gifts . l am not sure they realize the hope of the author behind that gift. ABout a year ago I mentioned one of my books to a friend. He Googled it and said "It is $50 on e Bay. The book retailed for $13. Someone had acquired the book and put up their own website advertising it, hurting my legitimate sales. In spite of what Goodreads says I will not give away books again.
Good in the sense of the large number of persons BUT I am not sure if those who dont win will still go out and buy the book,
Marguerite wrote: "It is $50 on e Bay. The book retailed for $13. Someone had acquired the book and put up their own website advertising it, hurting my legitimate sales. In spite of what Goodreads says I will not give away books again. ..."
My books are on ebay, too, even though I know for a fact that they don't have a copy of it. It doesn't mean they have the book, it means that if someone is dumb enough to pay that price for it, the person offering it will buy a copy and sell it for that price. In your case, it could be one from the giveaway, but most likely it's someone listing a bunch of books, yours and mine included, and hoping someone will buy one of them.
My books are on ebay, too, even though I know for a fact that they don't have a copy of it. It doesn't mean they have the book, it means that if someone is dumb enough to pay that price for it, the person offering it will buy a copy and sell it for that price. In your case, it could be one from the giveaway, but most likely it's someone listing a bunch of books, yours and mine included, and hoping someone will buy one of them.
I just found one of my books for sale on Ebay, UK, AUS and US. They are selling it for about double the CreateSpace price, but I still get my royalty. Not a bad idea, I might start selling my own books on there never really thought about it before. The funny part is they have me listed as author Dr. Ben Jackson
Giveaways, both Goodreads and Amazon, are not meant to generate reviews, or even trailing sales, but each has a purpose. Goodreads limits you to a giveaway of one thing: a paperback copy of your book. As of right now, they are limiting even in the wording which can be used in a giveaway. It used to be that they allowed links to your blog, Amazon page, pictures, and other html to customize your ad. Not anymore. Heck, last giveaway I made a note that if the winner would like the book signed, they could contact me, but I could not contact them to inquire. Goodreads removed this, leaving simply 'this is an unsigned copy' which made me look a bit like a jerk. So why do I still do them? No other reason than to have my name floating around on someone's virtual bookshelf. It's ineffective yet low cost advertising. Amazon does not limit us to physical books. We can give away ebooks, gift cards, prizes of all sorts, and even pricey electronics if we are so inclined. I've used this to giveaway ebooks, which has its own benefits. The most immediate is a rank boost because you are buying your product. Ebooks have no shipping fees and you still get royalties, so on a $2.99 book, you are technically paying about 90¢. Now, 99% of your entrants will be people who enter sweepstakes as a hobby, so don't expect a lot of hardcore fans, but that's okay. I've been able to use the 'loser' notification to direct people back to my author page where I'd had another book on free promo. In my experience, roughly 25% took the time to read, click, and download the freebie, which helped boost my rank, which in turn led to trailing sales. Do I expect that any of the winners might read the book they won? Maybe. It's doubtful, but I'm okay with that because they helped boost my visibility.
We've tried both, and the result for Amazon was nothing -- we did not manage to give away a single book. But the cost, since it was for ebooks, was next to nothing, and we have some coupon codes to use if we so so choose. So it rates a 0 for us. The results for the GR giveaway were completely negative in all respects and we would never consider it again. For a little less than the amount we spent on the GR giveaway, we bought ads on three different mail list services, which in our case, offer a much better return than a GR giveaway.
However, Christina and Riley are quite right: giveaways are not the way to get reviews. The best way to get reviews is to wait for them to happen (editorial reviews excepted).
I'll add that at least one of your books is doing quite well in both sales and reviews on Amazon, so thinking about other promotional opportunities would likely serve you better.
I have done both Goodreads and Amazon giveaways, not for reviews, although it is nice to receive one, but for the exposure. I can't say that either one has boosted my sales, but the more books I have out there........Once I put my book into the hands of a winner, it is no longer mine. What they decide to do with it is up to them, but it is my hope that they'll read it, enjoy, and spread the word, or at least, share the book!
I have only published on Amazon in E format. I was less concerned about sales numbers than exposure, but unwilling to invest in the paid giveaway. So I have scheduled a few single day FREE promotions for some of my short titles, and the novel once for a short debut among family and friends, so they could get it free.The novel was surprising in that far more people picked it up free that were not family or friends. Since then I have listed a number of the short titles free for a single day, and they have hit as high as #24 in Short Reads and YA. But none of that translated into reviews. On most devices you can't leave just a star review, you must enter both a title and 20 words - and in this day and age that is asking too much, apparently. Besides, most people are uncomfortable having their name associated with a comment or review, as many have been attacked for the slightest negative or ill-chosen wording. Some people just won't consider themselves qualified to review it, even if they did like it.
As far as I am concerned, the review system is about as useful as a carrot in a hailstorm. But Amazon SWEARS that representation in category streams and recommended streams is not determined by the number of reviews, and from what I have seen that does seem to hold true. So, it must be about the same things that cause you to pop up higher in search engine returns: clicks, searches, and hits. The reviews and follows come in a distant second, since those ARE in fact easily duped, faked, bought or sold.
Quantity. That's why those who promote ruthlessly get ahead, it seems. I am going to start after reading about half the pages in this forum, :8)Kevin Kinnen
I probably hold the record for the lowest number of books given away. My epic"King Naresuan the Great," was restricted to Thailand however and was written in English which further restricted it. I tried to give away ten but only shifted two. Fortunately the book sells pretty well.
So, just an update on some of the giveaways I've done through Amazon. I did two separate giveaways with two books. Both I had the requirement to follow me on Twitter, however I'm pretty sure I just got a lot of people who like to win stuff. I also set my odds pretty high 1-300 people to win, which lifts my odds of getting at least 900 people to enter. Sounds good, right? Yeah, I never made it that high and out of 3 books available (and 5 on the other) I only had one winner on each book. The nice thing about there giveaways is that you can either gift the remaining books that weren't snatched in the giveaway, or do another giveaway down the road.So, just the other day I decided to randomly do a giveaway on both those same books using the remaining ones I had. This time I made NO requirement to enter and shortened my odds. One was 1-200 people will win and just to try it out, I did the other one where every 15 person won a book. I also set the giveaway for one day (since I was just testing different odds out) and both giveaways were over within a few hours. (The first giveaway I had available for at least 1 week.)
So what did I learn? I don't think I will make a requirement (if I do another giveaway through Amazon again) because more people entered, and perhaps these were still people just looking to win anything. But hey, I hope to get a review or two out of it. *fingers crossed* We can always just hope, right? I think I will still play around with the odds some more. Maybe make it higher without having the requirement to do anything extra to see how many people I can get.
What really surprised me and I have no idea what made the difference between the two, but on the very first giveaway where I made the requirement to follow me on Twitter, I had no additional sales of either of those books. On the second go round, I had a total of 8 sales (which is a lot for me *smiles*) combining both my books.
So, there's the moral of my story. Or not:) Just my experience with Amazon giveaways. I was stoked with those sales after this past experience and sort of willing to try it again. If not for that, I probably would not do another Amazon giveaway again.
Mod
Awesome Amanda, thank you for sharing your experience with us!
So did all the books given away show as sales on that same day since you only ran the giveaway for one day? I know it says they count as sales when the people actually accept/download them, but what was your experience? Seems like a nifty way to try to get a good jump in rank and maybe grab some extra exposure.
I have tried book giveaways as the prize and also products related to the book that I had on free promotion. I chose a survival item for my prepping book about $10 all up and set the 1 prize as a 1/3000 chance. I also linked my free book with the winning, losing and better luck next time message.
I made the requirements to follow my twitter this time. I was on about 100 free copies given away and when the promotion went live I ended up boosting it to about 170.
Not a bad result, but what irked me was that the prize was given away at 900, so I missed out on possibly another 2000 entrants.
I have done several Goodreads giveaways. It felt good to walk into the post office with copies of my book and be able to tell the postal lady what I was doing.No reviews for 12 books so far. Oh, well.
Joe wrote: "So did all the books given away show as sales on that same day since you only ran the giveaway for one day? I know it says they count as sales when the people actually accept/download them, but wha..."Yes, they did. I had paid for all the books about a month ago, so I can't say if half of those sales I saw were from me (the giveaway) or new sales. At least one would have been, but I'm going with all of them were sales because it makes me feel better to think that:)
For my one short story book, I had four winners, with five sales. I did have that book set at $.99.
For my other novel, I had two winners, with three sales. I had that one set for $2.99.
In the future, I will set whatever book it is for $.99. Cheaper for me to purchase and hopefully more enticing for the non-winners to buy my book.
Now I'm itching to try it again. ;) Just don't wanna jinx myself.
Thanks for sharing! Not everyone is on Twitter (I wasn't until last November) so not requiring a follow makes sense to me!
M.L. wrote: "Thanks for sharing! Not everyone is on Twitter (I wasn't until last November) so not requiring a follow makes sense to me!"The Twitter follow is a popular option, only because the best method of promoting the giveaway is on Twitter using the #AmazonGiveaway hashtag. Amazon does not advertise or promote the giveaway for you.
wow! Thank you for all of the useful information ! I determined that I really don't want to do an Amazon giveaway! The book I want to get more reviews on is a goofy coloring book. I had this revelation that maybe I should just ask people in my "Coloring for Weirdos" group on Facebook if they would like to give an honest review of my coloring book? I got 19 takers. I mailed them all books yesterday, and we'll see what happens. I felt good about being straight up honest that I wanted reviews.
I think reviews are really good to have, just so people know what they are looking at or considering buying. With a coloring book, people often post pictures of their coloring, and I think that might boost the sales. I also love seeing what people do with my drawings! So much creative stuff.
I can't say how much I appreciate all of your in depth comments! Thank you so much.
I will try to find this thread again in a month or so and let you know if the Facebook strangers really reviewed it, and if it made any difference in sales. I'm hopeful. My one moderately successful book has 20+ reviews, and I don't know if it sells because it has so many positive reviews, or if it has so many positive reviews because it sells? It's very much a chicken or egg thing. I don't know which came first, I can only say that there is definitely a correlation! Or perhaps it just has a good cover? Who knows?
Much appreciation to all of you! -Shoshanah
My experience is that the winners wouldnt even show a little courtesy and appreciation to write a review.
Garfield wrote: "My experience is that the winners wouldnt even show a little courtesy and appreciation to write a review."According to Goodreads rules they don't have to and authors should be mindful about that. It's nice to have a review, it's nice to have the book added to their to-read list, but they don't have to do either.
G.G. the question was in reference to AMAZON!
Well...I wasn't answering the original poster's question but rather commenting on your post. But anyways, I'm guessing Amazon has the same rules since they are one and the same company.
Whenever I do giveaways, the last thing I expect is a review. If I get one, that's gravy. But I do giveaways for the exposure. Get my book in as many hands as I can afford. Maybe they'll tell a friend. Or friends. The point is that it's out there, somewhere, and someone is reading it.
I just did a giveaway of a cat mystery. I want to thank the winners Mary Anne and Arlene for their interest and tell them the book is in the mail.
One thing I found with Amazon giveaways, is that if you tweet #amazongiveaway, which they encourage you to do, there is an army of people who apparently enter these things to get the freebie and then resell it. I did a giveaway for an ebook with a total of 5 prizes, every 25th person wins. To enter, they had to follow me on Amazon. When I checked the list of winners, they were all fake twitter accounts. The books were gone after 111 entries, meaning that the money I spent was for nothing.
There seems to be a limit, though, as I set the next giveaway to one out of 100 wins, and set the number of books at 10. I tweeted it with the hashtag and the number of entrants jumped to about 300, I gave away 3 books, but then it died off.
My giveaway is for ebooks which I presume cannot be resold. I would be quite frustrated if I were giving away print versions, and they all went to people who intended to sell them.
I think the answer is that if you want to give away something of value, don't use the #Amazongiveaway hashtag on twitter. Find another way to market it, such as Goodreads advertising, a Twitter ad, or a Facebook ad. They cost money, but you can limit it, and you are more likely to get quality people.
I'm considering running an ad, requiring people to sign up for my newsletter, and then they get the link with no other requirements.
What do you think?
Michael wrote: "I'm considering running an ad, requiring people to sign up for my newsletter, and then they get the link with no other requirements...."This may be the most effective way to use an Amazon giveaway for e-books. I've tried both the Twitter follow and Amazon follow approaches, and I agree with your conclusion that they're worthless.
Michael wrote: "One thing I found with Amazon giveaways, is that if you tweet #amazongiveaway, which they encourage you to do, there is an army of people who apparently enter these things to get the freebie and th..."I agree with you! That is big fake!
I did an Amazon giveaway for my latest release, Progenitor, and it was an epic fail. I offered three books, only one was claimed, and the claimant only gave a starred review (a mediocre one - she didn't like scifi and only jumped in for the free ebook). I don't recommend it.
I recently did a giveaway for Fantastica - Surreal Prose & Poetry.There haven't been any reviews from the seven winners yet, but they're likely trying to work their way through all the other books on their shelf first
My objective is to get more reviews of my books, and I was wondering if you all think an amazon giveaway is a good means to that end?
Also, any experiences you want to share are appreciated.