THE Group for Authors! discussion

Hello, all —

I just started a giveaway, and I’m curious to see what comes of it. After just a day of running the giveaway, I already have a question and some comments/suggestions.

My question: on my author profile page, I can see that 100+ readers have entered the contest/added the book. But I don’t see any way of seeing who these people are. Am I missing something? I’d like to get a sense of who’s interested in my book.

My comments: on my book’s page, I can see the first thirty-two people who’ve added my book to their shelves, the bulk of whom added the book when they entered the giveaway. Clicking on the profiles of these people, I’m struck by two things. First, lots of people entered the giveaway with no stated interest in the genre(s) of my book. My book is academic nonfiction. It’s published by a university press. It has footnotes. It isn’t meant *only* for academics, but the people who are going to appreciate the book are people with strong interests in history or philosophy, not romance or thrillers or true crime or anything else, and I really wish I had been able to restrict my giveaway to those readers with declared interests in history or philosophy. Goodreads ads can be targeted to subsets of readers with interests in particular genres — why can’t giveaways be similarly targeted?

The second thing that I’m struck by is that, while it’s nice to see my book on “to-read” lists, some of these lists are actually “will never read” lists, simply because they are so long. The user with 50,000 books marked “to-read” forgot about my book the second he or she added Book Number 50,001 to his or her “to-read” list. As an author, I wish I could set parameters as to who’s able to enter my giveaway, specifying that, e.g., the contest is open only to users with 100 or fewer books on their “to-read” shelves, who might actually work through their complete “to-read” lists in a year or two or three and eventually get to my book.

Anyway, these are my observations so far. As I said, I’m curious to see what becomes of this experiment.

If your experiment turns out like mine did, absolutely nothing will come of it. Even more so considering that your book is the academic/intellectual sort. From what I've seen, most people on this site are partial to fantasy/romance/period fiction, though they will sign up for any giveaway whatever, even if they have no interest in reading the book and will never read or mention it should they win it.

Matthew wrote: "Hello, all —

I just started a giveaway, and I’m curious to see what comes of it. After just a day of running the giveaway, I already have a question and some comments/suggestions.

My question: on..."
Matthew,

Same experience - my historical fiction - with a caveat of contextual violence in the setting (colonial central Africa) - was snapped up by the '100'. I think only 4-5 have read - 20 added to their 'huge' to read list and looking at some of their preferences - sure they will never read.

Perhaps we can work on a 'system' to recommend improvements on how these are distributed, but not sure how it could stop people who just grab something for free, not investigating what they are getting. Would much more have welcomed 20 true historical fiction (nit bodice ripper tales).

Giveaways are a way to get a bit of "exposure". Most people who enter are just looking for free candy. That's my conclusion after running 9 giveaways.

I will never run another goodreads giveaway. One punter who got the book wrote a damaging one star malicious review saying it was full of punctuation and formatting errors. It isn't. It was a pack of lies. It has almost stopped my writing career before it has begun. If Amazon read the book they would see how much potential money they are losing as it is an exceptionally good book. Is there a way I can get this lying review taken down?

Hi Matthew, thanks for your post! Hopefully the information below can address some of your questions/concerns. 😊

Sponsors do not see the profiles of entrants in their giveaways as we strongly discourage unsolicited outreach to members by authors. Although contacting entrants could seem like a good promotion strategy, we've seen it backfire the majority of the time; users see it as spam and can this action can return the opposite result as to what promoters expect. If you have any questions about how to interact with readers on Goodreads, we highly recommend you visit our Author Guidelines.

Giving away copies of books has been a promotion strategy in publishing for a long time, and Goodreads Giveaways is one of our most popular features. Once a member enters, the book is automatically added to their Want-to-Read list. On the giveaway end date, we randomly select winners and notify them to expect the book. Goodreads does not require winners to post reviews. The primary goal of running a giveaway is to build awareness for your book, while reviews are a potential bonus. We do make clear to giveaway entrants that reviews are highly appreciated by sponsors, and we send a follow-up email to winners encouraging them to review the books they win. It might also help to keep in mind that not every book is a good fit for every reader. We've all had the experience of starting a book that sounds great and then discovering it's not what we were expecting.

We don't allow targeting of entrants either as we need to strictly abide by sweepstakes terms and conditions.

As important as they are, giveaways play just one part in a successful promotion campaign. Feel free to browse our Goodreads Authors & Advertisers blog for some tips on marketing your book, or let me know if you have any questions.

I hope this information helps!

Hello, Shaun --

Thanks for your reply.

I appreciate your explanation of why authors can't see the profiles of entrants in their giveaways -- fair enough!

However, I am confused by other comments. Since I did not write anything about a desire for reviews in my initial post, the paragraph about reviews read like a stock reply. And a quick web search reveals that, indeed, Jaclyn gave the same reply in another thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... There Jaclyn wrote that "We have also given a lot of thought to the possibility of genre matching when it comes to choosing winners..." But you write that "We don't allow targeting of entrants either as we need to strictly abide by sweepstakes terms and conditions." So is it that Goodreads can't allow targeting in its giveways, or that it won't?

I'm also not sure what I'm to make of this: "It might also help to keep in mind that not every book is a good fit for every reader." I acknowledge in my initial post that my book is not a good fit for every reader, pointing out which audiences would be most likely to care about it. I will be disappointed if the winner of my giveway is someone other than a reader with interests in history or philosophy (or politics). Since the issue of reviews was raised; I'd actually prefer that Goodreads NOT send a request to the winner of my giveaway to post a review, should she or he not share these interests.

Anyway, I don't want to be adverserial! I'd just like to know that my concerns as an author are being taken seriously, and that they are heard by the people with the power to address them.

Thanks again.

And thanks to the other authors who've chimed in to share their experiences.

I also found no positive result from the giveaways - effort and expense for a lot of to-reads which never materialise.

There are, sadly, serious flaws in the Goodreads Giveaway promotions deal. I have spent a lot of time reading the thoughts of authors and what stands out strongly amongst those I have read, is their unhappiness.

Here is my input on the subject.

1. It is selfish of readers to apply for a giveaway and then not read the book let alone fail to offer a rating and balanced critique. This is something I would like to see pointed out to all entrants of giveaways.
2. There is no value in a reader winning a book, adding it to a growing pile of ‘to read’ books, and never reading their prize.
3. I am of the opinion that the Goodreads Giveaway competition needs adjusting to include the proviso that anyone entering the competition is duty bound to read their newly received book as soon as possible and then provide a balanced critique. Morally and ethically this is the only way forward. Author effort and money are being wasted if a book goes into the ‘ether’ of a reader’s ‘to read’ shelf and it is the last the author hears… To reiterate: this really is selfish.
4. I would like to see an opinion poll in which Goodreads asks members for their input on the Goodreads Giveaway competition as it stands now and for their views on improvement. The poll could perhaps form part of the newsletter.

Goodreads needs to develop its ‘Goodreads Giveaway’ system so that is far more equitable for all.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Pender-Smith Andrew Pender-Smith

A give-away worked for me.
I ran a KDP giveaway first 2 weekends in Aug.
I promoted my giveaway on several of the leading e-reader sites.
I gave away 4,900 e-books. (Downloads reported on KDP).
The following week I SOLD 88 e-books = 4 times week avg.
Moreover, I SOLD my books not promoted on giveaway.
In the 3 weeks since, both my books received new reviews from this increased activity. I didn't solicit reviews or expect them.
Yes, I plan to do this every 90-days with KDP for my other book.

The previous giveaway system was terrific. A great tool for authors. That's gone now. Goodreads used to seem like a non commercial entity - almost like a service - that made it very special!

Frank wrote: "A give-away worked for me.
I ran a KDP giveaway first 2 weekends in Aug.
I promoted my giveaway on several of the leading e-reader sites.
I gave away 4,900 e-books. (Downloads reported on KDP).
Th..."

This is refreshing! Nice to hear a positive.

Maybe a giveaway is just that, something given away--no strings attached. A thought.

I participated in two separate giveaways:
The first ended Jan. 1, 2014. 1,010 readers participated.
The second ended Feb. 5, 2016. 1,481 readers participated.
10 copies of the paperback format of my novel were awarded in each giveaway.
Quarterly reports that accompanied royalty checks from the publisher revealed that there was no direct impact upon sales following either giveaway period.

I agree with M.I.'s perception of a giveaway (Message 13). "A giveaway is just that, something given away--no strings attached." That includes any anticipation of financial reward, reviews, or widespread publicity.

Andrew wrote: "There are, sadly, serious flaws in the Goodreads Giveaway promotions deal. I have spent a lot of time reading the thoughts of authors and what stands out strongly amongst those I have read, is thei..."

Very well put Andrew. My thoughts exactly.

Businesses that are taken over by Amazon (as was Goodreads) change for the worse, as has Amazon itself over the past few years (and I say that in my position as a publisher who has been shipping books to Amazon for almost twenty years).

I am finding it very interesting reading the input of those people who have joined in this discussion. The more people who contribute, the more valuable this discussion is likely to prove to those administering the Goodreads Giveaway and, hopefully, to writers and publishers. If you are one of those who would like to see a change in how giveaways are run, please encourage other people to join in our discussion.

Wishing you happy writing and publishing.

Andrew Pender-Smith

I've done two or three giveaways through Goodreads.

You have to take it as a given in something like this that some people who get a free book are never going to read it, or will read it but never write a review or do anything else to help your sales. That's just real life.

That said, it would certainly make giveaways more cost effective if Goodreads would do some targeting. For starters, they should take steps to prevent people from just signing up for every giveaway that comes along. Like, limit a reader to so many giveaways per year or something of the sort.

I doubt it would be productive to try to force the giveaway winners to write a review. If someone loses interest partway through a book, odds are they won't write a review. And the other is probably better off if they don't, because if they lost interest, they'd likely write a negative review.

I think my last giveaway I gave away 15 copies and got 3 reviews out of it. I figured that was a decent ratio.