book giveaways are a powerful way to get a lot of exposure

7 Best Places to Use for Book Giveaways

Book-Giveaways

 

Promoting your books via giveaways is of great benefit, but equally important is that you can get in touch with new readers and to know who is interested in your books. There is a couple of places for book giveaways.  These are getting massive traffic and are more than worth experimenting with:

GoodReads
To list a giveaway for one of your books on GR, login to your author account and click on one of your titles. Once you’re on that page, look near the upper right-hand corner of the screen to find a link that says ‘List a Giveaway’ and click on that. This should take you to a form asking for all the details about your giveaway, e.g. the books title and ISBN, the start and end dates as well as the number of copies to be given away. Your giveaway will have to be approved by the admin at Goodreads, which usually doesn’t take too long.

The benefit on GoodReads is that they get enormous amounts of traffic and the majority of users who enter to win your book will add it to their ‘to-read’ list, even though only a few of them will win. This way your book gets a lot of exposure. As more friends you have on Goodreads, as more people find your book. Most of the winners post honest reviews after receiving and reading the books. As you will have to provide the print books for the giveaway on Goodreads or to send it directly through Amazon, it means two or three books are enough to send out to winners. Delivering the book to the lucky winners, you will get their email and postal address.

LibraryThing
LibraryThing is the next biggest site in terms of traffic among book reading sites. It is a perfect alternative for authors who only publish eBooks, as they accept both print and digital for their ‘Member Giveaways’ program. You can give away from one digital title to a maximum of 100 copies of your ebooks. It can be a great way to get some book reviews if you are newly published and just starting out.
At the end of the indicated giveaway period, winners will be randomly selected. You will receive a comment on your profile page letting you know who won your book(s). Winners are encouraged to review the books they receive. Don’t forget the benefits of connecting with new followers and readers of your books.

As a publisher, you can now create a profile page for EACH of your imprints on LibraryThing, offering a way to highlight current titles and link visitors back to your website. Supply LibraryThing with a list of the titles that you will be offering to the Early Reviewers. They explain it this way: “We use an intelligent algorithm to find the members most likely to enjoy and create buzz for your titles. These are not just random giveaways. We send you a list of the winning members. You send out the books. Early Reviewers read the books, and then post reviews to LibraryThing. They are encouraged to also cross-post to their blog, Amazon, Goodreads etc.

BookLikes
On the BookLikes website, users can add books to their standard and personal bookshelves, rate and review books, see what their friends are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices. BookLikes is currently available in three different languages: English, German, and Polish, and there are plans to add further languages in the future.

In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to GoodReads. Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that GR does. So you shouldn’t expect similar results if you’ve done a book giveaway there in the past. To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you’re logged in. They will ask for all the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page. Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical. The only real difference is that you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself and they allow eBooks.

Amazon Giveaways
Their giveaways are maybe not as popular and well-known as Goodreads Giveaways among author-publishers. Other enterprises at Amazon seem to use it a lot – mainly to receive favorable reviews of their products. Giveaway contests are an excellent way for authors to drum up some buzz for their book. Especially as Amazon does all the product shipping – which saves you time – but has its drawbacks as you will never know who is the recipient.
Don’t forget: You can include links in your giveaway description to Amazon.com websites – for example to your book or author pages. So, include links in the welcome, win, and lose messages. Links to any Amazon-related website are clickable by participants, opening in a new tab.
FAQ’s can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=11715260011
Giveaways via Amazon are only open to legal residents of the U.S.A, 18 or older. Get here more tips about Amazon’s Giveaways: https://www.savvybookwriters.com/amazon-giveaways-book-promotion-gems/

Your Own Website
It takes a little bit more effort in promoting your giveaway but it will increase traffic to your site and often encourage new readers for your blog and sign-ups for your newsletter too. vIt all means more exposure for your present and future titles.  Your blog or website is a great place, especially if you have thousands of followers and readers or an extensive newsletter e-mail list.  Use the same announcements and promotions as you would for a Goodreads, LibraryThing or BookLikes giveaway.  You certainly can choose the winners yourself.

Book Bloggers’ Sites
Consider also offering copies of your book to bloggers in your genre whom you follow or found through a Google search, and have them host a giveaway.  Book bloggers often really appreciate being able to do giveaways and this can extend your reach outside of your previous networking!

“The success of your book giveaway depends very much on how you promote this event – and also how you leverage the networking possibilities you gain with new followers and contacts.”

Cat-reading.

Instagram
Last but not least: If you are on Instagram, and you have more than 500 followers, host book giveaways there too, and make it obvious in the image.  Instagram is a fantastic place to host book giveaways.  Make it really known (and promote it elsewhere too)  that the books in the image are up for grabs, for example, include the word “GIVEAWAY” in capital letters and large red font.  Be creative!  Show animals reading and/or laying on books.  Your target audience loves books.  And everyone loves animals.  Books + animals = share-worthy content for an Instagram Book Giveaway.
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Some Giveaway Tips:

  • Enter your first giveaway 4-6 weeks before your book’s launch and then periodically every other month.  Schedule your giveaway at least a week or two in advance.  Prepare posts, tweets, and emails for promotion.
  • Definitely write a blog post about your giveaway.  You can link directly to the giveaway and give your readers information on how to enter it.
  • Write in your email newsletter about the giveaway and add a link to it.
  • If you’re going to try doing giveaway rotations, one or two books may be sufficient.
  • Don’t: start or end your giveaway on a holiday or the days before.
  • National vs. International: Open up your contest internationally, because it will really help to increase the amount of exposure any giveaway gets.
  • Send a thank-you note to everyone who entered, and offer two or three chapters of your book to the not-so-lucky ones, and invite them to join your email newsletter.

More about Book Giveaways can be found: 111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free  https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

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How to Promote Your eBook-Giveaways

Promotion.

Authors that are enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing can now create marketing campaigns and giveaways for their e-books. Book giveaways are a powerful way to get a lot of exposure – and your book in the hands of new readers, who might even write a review.
The success of your book giveaway depends very much on how you promote this event – and also how you leverage the networking possibilities you gain with new followers and contacts.
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Print-Book Giveaways on Goodreads.
Goodreads only allows print books as giveaways.  They offer all their members: “Be the first to read new books!  Pre-release books are listed for giveaways by publishers and authors, and members can enter to win.  Winners are picked randomly at the end of the giveaway.”  The idea is that many of the people who win a free book will be good enough to write a review of it on Goodreads (some people are so enthusiastic that they write reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, Shelfari etc).  Reviews help book sales, so publishers and authors are keen to do giveaways.  However, if your book is in digital format only: there are ways to print a handful of books, once you have an ISBN.  However, there are some competitors to Goodreads who offer e-Book Giveaways for members, such as:
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BookLikes Allows eBook Giveaways.
In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to Goodreads.  Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that Goodreads does, so you should not expect similar results if you have done a book giveaway there in the past.  If GoodReads allowed eBook giveaways, they would be almost perfect in my mind.  But since they don’t, sites such as BookLikes are another alternative for authors who don’t publish print books.
To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you are logged in.  On the next page, there should be a tab at the top of the page in the main navigation that says “Create Your Giveaway.”
You will be asked for the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page.  Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical.  For more questions go to their FAQ’s.  Best of all, you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself.  It is certainly less expensive then to donate print books and you can offer easily a dozen or more copies.  You can either send the winners a PDF, or you can gift the ebook via Amazon and boost your sales ranking at the same time.
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Print and e-Book Giveaways via Book Bloggers.
Consider offering copies of your book to other bloggers you follow, or you have found through a Google search and have them host a giveaway.  Book bloggers often really appreciate being able to do giveaways, and this can extend your reach outside of your previous networking!

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Giveaway on Your Website
Your blog or website are great places too for giveaways, especially if you have thousands of followers / readers there or an extensive newsletter email list.  Use the same announcements and promotions as you would do for a Goodreads, LibraryThing or BookLikes giveaway.

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Do’s and Don’ts of Giveaways

  • Enter your first giveaway 4-6 weeks before your book’s launch and then periodically every other month. Schedule your giveaway at least three days in advance.
  • Write a compelling giveaway description with snippets of reviews and mentioning any awards the book won
  • Offer always autographed books, when it is a printed version.
  • Follow everyone who applied for the giveaway. On Goodreads you can follow 25 people/day. These are the people who are interested in your book.
  • Send a thank-you-note to everyone who entered, and offer 2-3 chapters of your book to the not-so-lucky ones, and invite them to join your newsletter.
  • Use the free event feature at Goodreads and Google+ and invite everyone there to participate in the Giveaway.
  • Announce the giveaway at least once a day on your Google+ timeline and share it with: public, your circles and extended circles – as well use the function “Also send email to Your circles” next to the sharing button (for your first post and then towards the end of the giveaway period to remind them).
  • Post your giveaway regularly to all the Social Media sites, don’t forget Pinterest or Flickr (use not only your cover photo, but anything that fits to the theme of your book), and maybe create even a short video about this giveaway.
  • Make arrangements for interviews in local newspapers, mentioning your giveaway (plan well in advance!)
  • Write a blog about your giveaway – and post this blog article not only on Social Media, but also on free e-Zines.
  • Vary the giveaway time length: One giveaway only for a week, and later another one for three weeks.

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Announce your Book Blog Giveaways in these sites too:
http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/bookbloggiveaways
http://cuddlebuggery.com/previous-lbba-giveaways/
http://www.iamareader.com/giveaway-hops
http://bloggiveawaydirectory.com/tag/books/
http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2014/06/giveaway-book-of-life-by-deborah.html
http://mostlyyabookobsessed.com/2012/09/blog-makeover-and-giveaway.html
http://www.yabookscentral.com/info/10186-ya-and-kids-books-giveaways (YA and Kids)
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Better Not:

  • Don’t start or end your giveaway on a holiday or the days before. People are busy with other things around this time or they travel.
  • Don’t limit your giveaways to your own country, offer it worldwide.  It means more exposure and if your giveaway is only one to three copies it’s affordable, especially if you let it send as a gift through Amazon – this way it helps your ranking too.  But always include a friendly note, even when you gift it via the online retailer.
  • Don’t delay the delivery to the winner.  Send or let it send the same minute the giveaway ends or you receive the name of the winner.
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Conclusion:
Using best practices, planning well ahead and using every kind of promotion will deliver a successful campaign for your book.  And don’t forget the benefits of connecting with new followers and readers of your books.  In Michelle Booth’s article find tips for readers how to win books on Goodreads.

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Did You Know? e-Book Giveaways

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e-Book-Giveaway

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e-Book Givaways !!!
If you’re an independently published author, then book giveaways are a powerful way to get a lot of exposure – and your book in the hands of new readers, who might even write reviews.  We wrote several times about Goodreads Giveaways, here is one example of a Giveaway … Peter Standish Evans thriller OMINOUS: BORDERS: COFFEE: 
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On the other hand: Goodreads only allows print books as Giveaways. If you offer only e-books: there are ways to print a handful of books, once you have an ISBN. However, there are some competitors to Goodreads, who offer e-Book Giveaways for members, such as:

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BookLikes
In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to GoodReads. Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that Goodreads does, so you should not expect similar results if you have done a book giveaway there in the past. If GoodReads allowed e-Book giveaways, they would be almost perfect in my mind. But since they don’t, sites such as BookLikes are another alternative for authors who don’t publish print books.
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To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you are logged in. On the next page, there should be a tab at the top of the page in the main navigation that says “Create Your Giveaway.”
You will be asked for the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page.  Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical.
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The only real (and great!) difference is, that you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself and BookLikes allows e-books!

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