THE Group for Authors! discussion

My Giveaway has concluded and a winner was selected. I've done my part, autographed the book, sent it out , and notified Goodreads that the transaction has been completed.

In the Giveaway Completed notification email from Goodreads, they mentioned a CSV file of all the entrants available for download. If I'm not allowed to have contact with the entrants, what's the point of making the file available for download?

I'm not "connecting the dots" here. Thank you for giving this matter your prompt attention.

Thanks for that Q Matt! I also wonder the same. Hope to get an answer to your question soon :)

I don't even know what a CSV file is! Can you enlighten me?

It's a file will basic data that you can open with Excel on windows or Sheets on a Mac or a similar program. CVS are usually used for pure data... so it would probably only contain a list of emails and maybe the contestants names?

So is providing the CVS file listing the names and email addresses of all the entrants some sort of "loyalty test"?

We're not to have contact with any of the entrants except mailing the book to the winner and then Goodreads drops a file like that "for download"....Why? What are we supposed to do with it? Is it a test? I'm confused.

I would think it depends on the give away rules. For example, if the give away rules dictated that you'd give every entrant an ebook but only the winner a signed paperback, then it makes sense to get the full list.

Did you email support about it? Might be a good idea... then fill us in maybe :)

Will do, thanks.

I was assuming the csv actually had the same data in it. some people actually are able to write promotions off on their taxes. that would actually help establish it as a write off

You can always look for the person you mailed your book too on Goodreads and send a message asking them to be your friend. The giveaways actually serve several good purposes. 1) It gets a lot of people to enter the contest and see your book, 2) if they like it they might buy other book you have published, 3) it is still cheap advertising, that is why I gave away 10 autographed books for the U.S. and Britain recently 4) hopefully those who receive our books will be kind enough to read them and rate them on Goodreads.

Thanks for the clarification.

Matt wrote: "My Giveaway has concluded and a winner was selected. I've done my part, autographed the book, sent it out , and notified Goodreads that the transaction has been completed."

Sorry for the confusion here! The CSV file is a list of the winners of your book (along with their postal addresses), and not of all entrants.

You can view this file by visiting your giveaway page and scrolling down to the Winners section. You should then see the link in the text where it states "Download a CSV file of the winners.".

Thank you for this clarification.