Should you run a Giveaway or Contest to promote your
book? If you want to gain the attention
of potential readers, then yes, you want to host a Giveaway or Contest. Unfortunately, this can be a sore subject
with authors. There are always complaints
about giving away the book that the author has spent countless months or years
working on. Why should the author have
to give their work away for free, or spend money to promote a contest? It’s a tough problem to consider, but once
you realize that giving a book away, or offering a reward will gain the
attention of more readers, then it outweighs keeping extra copies of your book
in a box under your desk collecting dust.
FREE FREE FREE -
Consumers have become accustomed to getting something for nothing, even if it’s
something small. This is why extreme
coupon clipping has become a sport. The
time spent on collecting the coupons may not be worth the $0.35 off a frozen
dinner, but it’s the satisfaction that you save money on something. Giving discounts or freebies warms the heart
of a consumer and will grab their attention faster than a beautiful book cover
will. Sadly, the author has to give
something up, but hopefully the reward of gaining new readers will be worth it.
In my everyday life, I have sold promotional giveaways and walked
through tradeshows. I will tell you that
interesting toys or giveaways will bring people to your booth at a
tradeshow. The more interesting or
unique the giveaway, the more people will line up. Will you sell every person who walks into
your booth? No, but they will remember
you every time they look at the giveaway stamped with your business name on
it. Personally, if the booth had candy
in it, I was the first one there, but even candy can be imprinted. In the case of the author, giving away their
beloved book can be a good way to get a review in return. A good review can definitely outweigh the
price of a printed copy if it helps to sell more books, or raises your book in
the ranks of book selling sites.
The best way to think about it is to consider the exposure
that your book can garner when a giveaway is done the right way. Goodreads.com is an excellent place to host a
giveaway. They are a social media site where
readers exchange their ideas on books. Their
site will regulate the giveaway and promote it on their site. You will need to define the giveaway, but
they will only allow hard copies of books to be given away at this time. You can offer up as many copies as you
want. You will set the time period for
the contest and write the description. Once
approved and the giveaway goes live, there is a page dedicated to all of their giveaways. It will be up to you to drive additional
readers to the site. The nice thing
about Goodreads is their giveaway app.
You can copy the HTML into your website, or blog and it will link the giveaway
in seconds.
The Cupie Doll Goes
to the Boy in the Blue Shirt - Hosting a contest is another way of
attracting the attention of potential readers.
Here, the prize doesn’t have to be your book, as long as the contest
references the book in some way. You can
give away a gift card or some kind of merchandise associated with your
book. When you run a contest, you can
ask for something in exchange for the chance of winning. In this case, you may ask for LIKES on your
Facebook account, or Email addresses that can be used to build your email campaign
to promote future book releases.
The key is to offer something enticing, which won’t break
your piggybank, in exchange for something you find of value. I have seen contests where the site will talk
about the book and then offer an interview by the author. To enter the contest the reader has to answer
a question such as, “What was your favorite part of the author’s interview?”,
or “What was your favorite comment about their book?” I assume that they will later use these
comments in marketing campaigns or on their websites as testimonials.
The Structure of a
Contest - If you decide to run a contest, you will need to decide on your
objects, your platform for the contest, the rules, what you are willing to
offer, and how can someone win.
Objective: Before
you even decide to run a contest, decide why you need one? Are you selling something? Are you promoting something? These are necessarily the same objectives. Selling implies that you want a direct
purchase from your contest. Promoting is
selling the concept of your book.
Do you want to sell
more books? - This is Direct Sales. A
giveaway would be more suited for a direct sales approach. A giveaway will expose potential readers to
your book for the first time. There is an
instant gratification upon seeing the cover, or reading the blurb. They may enter the giveaway for a signed
copy, but if they are interested in the book, they may buy an ebook.
Do you want to gain
more visitors to your website? Do you want more LIKES on Facebook? - These
are Promoting Strategies. They are long
term investments if you have a series that you need to build a following
for. You want people to bookmark your
site for future events and news, or LIKE your Facebook to stay up to date on
your posts. Contests can be geared to
help you achieve both of these objectives.
Platform for the
Contest - You will need to be realistic in your expectations. The bigger the prize, the more people will run
to your site, but you may not want every person looking for a gift card to
enter. This is where the platform
becomes important. If you want people to
LIKE your Facebook, then you will have to host it there and drive people to the
Facebook page. The same goes for
promoting your new website. These
contests may have to be a little more creative.
You may not want to offer something large, but perhaps something related
to the book. To enter the contest,
require an email so that you can contact them if they win, and ask the contestants
to tell you their favorite book or favorite genre when they enter. You can search through the answers to find
readers that may have an interest in your book.
Those are the people that you want to put on your mailing list.
You can also make the contest part of a book release. If you are creative, or make your own book
covers, then host a contest to pick between different versions of the
cover. The winner can be pulled from
those contestants that picked the winning cover. You can use a gift card to entice them to
enter, but make them part of the book launching process. You could also have them choose the opening
sentence for the book, or vote on a favorite excerpt, based on three choices. These are ways of getting people interested
in the book and make them feel like they are a part of the experience of
creating a book. People love to have an
opinion! Use their feedback to
understand how readers view your writing.
This can be very valuable, especially when writing a series.
Rules of the Contest
- Be sure to state very clearly what the rules are before the reader enters the
contest.
- Define what the prize or prizes are.
- State the time period of the contest.
- State the restrictions of 18+ since it is a contest, but you
may include other restrictions based on state and federal regulations. You may want to exclude certain groups of
people, like employees of a publishing company, or anyone that shouldn’t enter
the contest depending on what type of contest it is.
- State how many people can potentially win, but that not
everyone will win.
- State how the winner will be chosen. Randomly is preferable.
- State how any information obtained through the contest will
be treated. Will their information be
sold to a third party (hopefully not), will it be used for future marketing
campaigns, will it be used in any other manner, or will it not be used at
all? People want to know how their
information is handled; otherwise, they might not enter the contest.
- State how they will be contacted if they won, and how they
can obtain their prize, or find out if they won. Will the winner be clearly shown on Facebook,
the website, etc.? Will the prize be
mailed or emailed?
These are some of the things that need to be taken into
consideration before running a contest. It’s
always best to find out what kind of state and federal laws, such as taxes and
restrictions, apply in your state. There are different types of apps on Facebook that can
assist in running contests. Contests for
websites will have to be more carefully researched.
As painful as it may be to offer up a free book, or a gift
card, the exposure can be invaluable. If
no one knows that your book is out there in the sea of millions of other books,
how can readers be expected to find it?
Make your book stand out but be creative about it. The most popular booths at my local Health
and Wellness Fair weren’t the booths with the cool banners or the ones with the
video monitors, they were the booths that interacted with people and offered
them something worthy of their attention.
While you may not be able to offer face painting, give them a chance to
win something exciting.
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