[BatCauldron]

Yes, like that kid who turns up exactly 39-minutes after a party has started--clutching a 4-pack of Coors Light--because that's "fashionably late", I am--in fact--just late and struggling to work my way into any conversations. BUT...

... Amazon Giveaways, eh? You've all talked about them already and I saw that a few of you were going to chance an arm and see how it pans out, but I haven't seen anyone come back with any results or feedback yet. Just wondering if anyone's had a go at it and would be happy to give a little update on it. Like, how easy was it to set up? How have you promoted it? What information do you get (if any) from Amazon?

I'm struggling to see the benefit of using the Amazon tool over managing it myself (or using, say, Goodreads). Would love to hear about any experiences, though.

I'd offer you a Coors Light as payment, but I only have these four with me, and also no one likes Coors Light.

 

[jackconnerbooks]

Do you mean your five free Kindle Select days? Those are gold. Promote them with the various promo sites so that readers will become aware that you have a free book, and if they like the cover / blurb /reviews they'll probably download it. And if they like that buy the next in the series, if it is a series. And recommend the first book to their friends. And join your newsletter. Yeah, I totally encourage you to do that, if that's what you mean.

 

[BatCauldron]

Do you mean your five free Kindle Select days? Those are gold. Promote them with the various promo sites so that readers will become aware that you have a free book, and if they like the cover / blurb /reviews they'll probably download it. And if they like that buy the next in the series, if it is a series. And recommend the first book to their friends. And join your newsletter. Yeah, I totally encourage you to do that, if that's what you mean.

Hullo. No, this is something different. It essentially works a bit like a Goodreads Giveaway, but you can do it with pretty much anything available on Amazon. I.e., if you had a cookery blog, you could offer a giveaway for a new cookbook by Jamie Oliver... as a way to increase awareness of you/your blog. As far as we're concerned, the appropriate thing would be to do a giveaway of our own book (or a fellow author's, if we were that way inclined). The thing seems to work a bit like Goodreads, in that Amazon pick out the winner, and then they just send the 'prize' over to the winner. You get charged as though you had simply purchased that item from Amazon.

Link is here http://www.amazon.com/gp/giveaway/home

So far so interesting, but what I don't understand is what benefit there would be to us of doing this. With Goodreads giveaways, I got a lot of people adding the book to their to-read pile, and I got people messaging me directly about the book. I was able to do some good networking and I could see real benefit to me of doing it. With this Amazon one, I'm not sure what info we would get. Will we find out who entered? Will they be encouraged to buy if they don't win? What reason would there be to do it via Amazon rather than Goodreads, or just managing it ourselves?

 

[My_Txxxx_a$$_Left_Too]

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.

 

[BatCauldron]

I'd like to know if anyone has tried it as well. It almost seems like it's more for the producers of the products to me. But, it might be cool to do a giveaway of a slingshot for Strikers or a sledgehammer for The In-Betweener. You know...sort of like...don't be caught unready for the zombie apoc! Enter to win your own sledgehammer! Cute, but very weird.

Now this, I like! The issue I have, though, is still: What benefit do we get from doing it? From what I can see, it seems like we might be able to gain some Twitter followers... but that doesn't necessarily deliver an increase in audience for your book. If I was going to do something like this, I think your suggestion--finding a cool, related item and sending that out as the prize, perhaps with a copy of the book--is absolutely the way to go about it... I guess I just need someone to explain what the return on investment for us would be.

 

[Lydniz]

Amazon only just started offering the giveaway thing, so I imagine it's a bit too soon for anybody to be reporting results yet. I seem to remember the general reaction to the idea here was a bit meh though.

 

[BatCauldron]

Amazon only just started offering the giveaway thing, so I imagine it's a bit too soon for anybody to be reporting results yet. I seem to remember the general reaction to the idea here was a bit meh though.

Yeah, I'm feeling a little underwhelmed by the whole set up. I am interested to see results as and when they come in, though.

 

[an758GnQExU249]

I can use rafflecopter to run a giveaway for my books. In which case, I have complete control of the giveaway, can set a variety of calls to action, and keep the data for my own use. If I want to drop ship the book from Amazon, I can use my Prime membership to get free two-day shipping on the item. Or, if I can order the book at my wholesale cost from Createspace and ship that way and save money.

OR, I can use Amazon Giveaway. In which case, I have almost zero control over the giveaway, cannot set any call to action except a follow on Twitter, and I get a generic report but no real data (like email addresses, which are the gold of a giveaway). And I can't use my Prime membership so have to pay normal shipping fees.

So I fail to see any win here for me. I can let Amazon make their full profit, charge me for shipping,  AND keep all of the customer data in exchange for...I'm not sure what. Or I can use rafflecopter and gain all the benefits for me.

 

[Christine Tate]

I looked at it too and was underwhelmed as well.  Unless I missed something, it seemed like Amazon was strictly as distribution method for the giveaway.  They didn't promote it to anyone and it was up to the author to reach people to tell them about the giveaway.  Goodreads has a place dedicated on their site for people to go shop for giveaways to enter.  I'm in the middle of a Booklikes giveaway right now and underwhelmed as well.  Although they do advertise their giveaways on the site, they require you to have 10 books on your bookshelf in order to be able to enter the giveaway.  Seems to me this minimum requirement limits the number of people who can participate.  I tried to enter another giveaway on Booklikes and couldn't do it because I didn't have the requisite 10 books on my shelf.  If didn't have time to mess with the site at the time and left the giveaway.  Goodreads is still my hands down favorite.  Had over 400 people enter last time I ran one (Sept 2014).

 

[Tasha Black]

I haven't looked into it beyond the initial announcement.
It doesn't seem to have much to offer.
Could this be used in conjunction with Raffelcopter or King Sumo?

 

[an758GnQExU249]

I haven't looked into it beyond the initial announcement.
It doesn't seem to have much to offer.
Could this be used in conjunction with Raffelcopter or King Sumo?

No, it is an alternative to those services. They can't be integrated.

 

[Tasha Black]

No, it is an alternative to those services. They can't be integrated.

That's is disappointing.

The only way I could see it being useful, is if it let you give away ebooks as a prize, which it does not. Most of my readers would prefer ebooks, unless there is something special about the print book (Signed, limited edition, etc.), but it is not legal to give away ebooks from other authors.

I would love an easy way to say, "Here's a chance to get the latest ebook from BESTSELLING AUTHOR X for free in exchange for checking out my stuff."

 

[an758GnQExU249]

That's is disappointing.

The only way I could see it being useful, is if it let you give away ebooks as a prize, which it does not. Most of my readers would prefer ebooks, unless there is something special about the print book (Signed, limited edition, etc.), but it is not legal to give away ebooks from other authors.

I would love an easy way to say, "Here's a chance to get the latest ebook from BESTSELLING AUTHOR X for free in exchange for checking out my stuff."

You can actually do this. You would just gift the book to the customer. You can gift another author's book in the same way that you would gift your own via Amazon. You just pay for the book and gift it to the person.

But while it is technical possible, I wouldn't do it. You want to build YOUR brand, not mooch off of someone else's brand without at least their consent. It is like marketing off of someone else's name. You just muddy your own brand and risk ticking off a bigger author who may not take kindly to someone they never heard of trading on their image.

 

[Tasha Black]

You can actually do this. You would just gift the book to the customer. You can gift another author's book in the same way that you would gift your own via Amazon. You just pay for the book and gift it to the person.

But while it is technical possible, I wouldn't do it. You want to build YOUR brand, not mooch off of someone else's brand without at least their consent. It is like marketing off of someone else's name. You just muddy your own brand and risk ticking off a bigger author who may not take kindly to someone they never heard of trading on their image.

But they don't actually get the book, they just get a gift card for the amount of the book, and you still have to do it manually. I was hoping for a way to automate the process a little.

As far as other authors' books, I don't see much point in giving away your own. Who is going to enter a contest for a book by an author they've never heard of?

If you are going for mailing list signups, which I think is the best goal of any giveaway, you're better off offering a prize that cast a wide net. Some people do kindles or gift cards, but I don't think that is a good idea, since it doesn't lead to people who would necessarily like your stuff. A much better option, in my opinion, is to give away something that would appeal to the kind of fans you want.
For example, if you are a new horror writer, you would be better served giving away a signed copy of a Stephen King book, than trying to attract people with one of your own, significantly less popular titles. Only Stephen King fans would enter, and if you think his fans are likely to like your work, well done.

It is no different than when you run a targeted add. If I write sexy vampire books, then I am going to target my Facebook ad at people who have liked the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

I do agree that when you start comparing yourself to famous authors your run the double risk of sounding pretentious, and also of disappointing readers when you don't live up to your own hype. I do not condone that!

In my genre, many of the authors promote each other anyway, so it would be just one more way to cross-promote.

 

[BatCauldron]

OR, I can use Amazon Giveaway. In which case, I have almost zero control over the giveaway, cannot set any call to action except a follow on Twitter, and I get a generic report but no real data (like email addresses, which are the gold of a giveaway). And I can't use my Prime membership so have to pay normal shipping fees.

So I fail to see any win here for me. I can let Amazon make their full profit, charge me for shipping, AND keep all of the customer data in exchange for...I'm not sure what.

Yeah, this is exactly the way I see it. Perfectly happy to be corrected and find out that there is a compelling reason to act, here. But at the minute...

 

[31842]

I just ran one for giggles to see if there was any potential.  After two days of absolutely zero entries from my posts on Facebook and blogs, I posted the giveaway on Twitter using the hashtag and phrase suggested by Amazon.  The spambots were On. It. and in a matter of mere minutes, gobbled up the entries and wins.  Gotta say, all I can do is laugh thinking about the non-returnable stacks of books some poor hacker is going to have arrive on his doorstep.  Best of luck unloading those on eBay, sucker!  On the plus side, if h0tg1rlz69 is able to figure out a way to unload them, I may have found my new marketing manager.

 

[Dactyl]

I just ran one for giggles to see if there was any potential. After two days of absolutely zero entries from my posts on Facebook and blogs, I posted the giveaway on Twitter using the hashtag and phrase suggested by Amazon. The spambots were On. It. and in a matter of mere minutes, gobbled up the entries and wins. Gotta say, all I can do is laugh thinking about the non-returnable stacks of books some poor hacker is going to have arrive on his doorstep. Best of luck unloading those on eBay, sucker! On the plus side, if h0tg1rlz69 is able to figure out a way to unload them, I may have found my new marketing manager.

Kate, you write well. But you already know that, judging from the reviews you've gotten for your books, not to mention the various awards. I read about half way through the sample of The Dark of Twilight. I'll read more later as well as other of your books' samples.

I was looking through the various posts here for hints of satire and humor. You obviously have a great sense of humor. Have you written any satire or humor? My guess is that you are probably good at it. I did laugh at your comments in the thread. It's a grand feeling when you post something which you regard as funny and others come back at you with LOL or ROTFL or the like.

As an aside, what drew me into the story apart from the title, was the scarcity of errors. I was delighted not to have to deal with tortured syntax, misspellings, typos, and a myriad other problems which get in the way of enjoying a good story.

- Dactyl

 

[ireaderreview]

I read about it and don't get the point of it ... at all.

It seems to be a poorly thought out idea. Perhaps Amazon saw some company like Rafflecopter making a lot of money and wanted a piece of that. Except it's amazon so they don't want to share the customer information.

 

[an758GnQExU249]

I read about it and don't get the point of it ... at all.

It seems to be a poorly thought out idea. Perhaps Amazon saw some company like Rafflecopter making a lot of money and wanted a piece of that. Except it's amazon so they don't want to share the customer information.

It is a completely well thought out idea when you understand Amazon is looking out for Amazon and not authors. If indies adopt this across the board, that benefits Amazon by driving more traffic to the site, encouraging more sales, and keeping people inside their ecosystem. Ultimately, that is the sole purpose of this program: to keep people in the Amazon ecosystem. This really doesn't help indies at all. In fact, it could be harmful because strategically it is placing the "good will" of the giveaway in Amazon's lap by making it appear Amazon is sponsoring the giveaway. Sure, you are supplying the prize and YOUR direct fans will know that. But the average person who stumbles across it? Amazon is getting the psychological credit for the giveaway. The fact that YOU are paying for the prize will be lost on the recipient because AMAZON ships it under their banner.

It is a brilliant idea when you realize what the actual purpose is. Hopefully, enough people recognize what the actual purpose is not to use it and maybe force Amazon to change it to make it useful. If nobody uses it, Amazon will be forced to change it. But I don't have a lot of confidence that the "well it can't hurt" crowd won't jump on this under the misguided "well, it can't hurt" mentality.