by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve read a lot about writers’ disappointment with the pricing for the revised Goodreads Giveaway feature (the changes started in January this year).
The feature had previously been free for writers, who could give away printed copies only of their books through the platform.
Goodreads opened up the giveaways to digital copies. But now giveaways cost $119 for either digital or print copies.
For me, the cost wasn’t as much of an impediment to participating in a giveaway. I’ll write it off on my taxes as a promotional cost of doing business. Also, whenever I did print giveaways, I found the process cumbersome and rather expensive. I’m happy to have Goodreads handle the digital distribution of the titles.
My purpose for the giveaways is just to generally gain visibility and awareness for the title/series being promoted, and possibly hook a few new readers. Whenever readers enter the giveaway, it adds the title to their ‘want to read’ list, which shows up in their friends’ feeds. Reviews are not as much of a priority for me, although Goodreads does send follow-up emails to readers after 8 weeks, reminding them to rate and review the title. Reviews obviously also help with visibility.
Although Goodreads has a page with best practices for the giveaways, I’ve read on various author blogs that there is a better approach than what Goodreads outlines.
Tips:
Instead of giving away as many books as you can, give away the smallest number you can (10) because the visibility you gain will be the same (unless your purpose is to gain more reviews for your title).
Instead of the recommended month for the giveaway, it’s important to know that you’ll be featured in Goodreads’ ‘recently listed’ and ‘ending soon’ alerts if you keep your giveaway short. I set mine for 10 days (with the giveaway ending one day after the book’s release). If you can afford it, the best approach is to set several short giveaways back to back for maximum exposure.
How to Set up a Giveaway:
Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting up a giveaway (via Goodreads):
- Before listing a giveaway, you will need to connect your Amazon and Goodreads accounts here.
1. Click on “List a Giveaway” from the giveaway page or your Author Dashboard.2. Select “List a Print Book” or “List a Kindle Ebook.” If you want to create a Kindle ebook giveaway, select either “Publisher” or “Author using Kindle Direct Publishing.”3. Select your giveaway package: Standard or Premium.4. Find your book by searching for the ISBN or ASIN, then fill in your giveaway details.5. Click on “Pay with Amazon.” You’ll be prompted to sign in to your Amazon account and choose a payment method.
6. Confirm that your giveaway and payment details are correct, agree to the Goodreads Service Agreement, and click “Place order.”
Still on the fence about whether it’s a good investment? I can understand that. The money is nothing to sneeze at. David Wogahn wrote a guest post for me in January for good alternatives to a Goodreads giveaway.
Further reading:
Maximize Goodreads Giveaways by Penny Sansevieri (note: this post was prior to the January 2018 changes, but still lists good information about giveaways).
Have you run a Goodreads giveaway since their changes were implemented? How did it go? What other ways have you used to gain visibility for your titles?
The New Goodreads Giveaways: Click To TweetPhoto on VisualHunt.com
Thank you Elizabeth. Full of useful information as usual.
Hope you have a good week, Irene!
That’s quite a leap from free to over a hundred dollars.
I’d heard that shorter giveaways were better.
I think that was the toughest part…wrapping my head around the huge cost increase. Once I rationalized it to myself, I got over it (mostly just the fact that I didn’t have to pay for paperback copies anymore since I went digital with the giveaway).
Thanks for the great tips. I’m not at a stage to be able to do this, but it’s good to know how to set it up.
It’s pretty easy and seemed to help with visibility. :)
I haven’t done a Goodreads giveaway in a while because I hated dealing with the paper books. I knew they were no longer free and never thought about having another one. However, I’m now planning the release of the second book in my Gracie trilogy, and I think holding a giveaway on the first book, ending the day after the second book might be a good idea. I’d appreciate your thoughts on that. Thanks.
I think that sounds like perfect timing. What I really got out of the giveaway that I did was visibility and awareness. I had 395 people sign up for the giveaway and each one of those people, in the process, added my book to their ‘want to read’ list by default. Then the readers who followed those people saw my book in their feeds. It seemed a small investment for the payoff (and the book has been selling well, even two weeks released).
Thanks. This post came at the perfect time for me to read it and take action. I love when that happens :)
Great! Hope it helped.
Thanks so much for this info. I’ve got to save this, because one day….
Goodreads just wants to make their buck, too, I guess.
Hope you’ll give it a go one day!
And…I’m sure they’re making a few bucks!
Hi Elizabeth – again an interesting and informative post – which will definitely help authors understand … cheers Hilary
Hope you have a great week, Hilary! Thanks for coming by.
Thanks for discussing this, Elizabeh. I can certainly see that there are good reasons to do a giveaway on Goodreads (as opposed to, say, announcing something on one’s blog). There’s a lot more visibility. To be honest, I’ve not yet gotten to the point of doing this sort of giveaway. But it’s good to know that they can be successful. And it’s good to know how to go about doing a giveaway.
I can totally understand that…it can take some time to warm up to this sort of thing. You can file it away in your ‘to consider someday’ folder. :)
That’s still a lot. We did our last giveaways in January before the price increase.
It’s not cheap, for sure. As a publisher, it would definitely be pricey!
Thanks for the scoop on Goodreads giveaways. Will file this away for future reference.
Also, glad to have you back! I missed your blog posts last week.
At the same time, I’m glad you got a break. Always good to (intentionally) go offline for a while.
Thanks! It was partly a break, but partly some catch-up time. :) Good to be back!