[HollyElizabethjean]

I did a Library Thing giveaway and the winner information is all one list. I copied and pasted them all into a BCC on my email provider which refuses to send it. After all that work I can't help but wonder if there is an easier way to send 30 people their books in one swoop. Or am stuck copy pasting?

I used mail.com which could be my first mistake. Maybe Gmail is the better route.

 

[beccaprice]

I use gmail to send both epub and mobi versions to my Library Thing giveaways, usually 25 people, and I rarely have problems with it.

 

[Allyson J.]

I used gmail. I sent out individual emails with epub mobi and pdf attached. I had no trouble.

 

[HollyElizabethjean]

I used gmail. I sent out individual emails with epub mobi and pdf attached. I had no trouble.

So you sent them 1by1?

 

[A Woman's Place Is In The Rebellion]

I send mine individually as well.  I email each winner congratulating her/him and then ask which format they would prefer. 

 

[HezBa]

I send mine individually as well. I email each winner congratulating her/him and then ask which format they would prefer.

Doesn't that take forever though? I just sent out a mass e-mail with a coupon code to Smashwords. But then, I usually had 50-100 winners.

 

[Daniel Dennis]

When you set it up, did you separate with commas or semicolons?

 

[HollyElizabethjean]

When you set it up, did you separate with commas or semicolons?

I pasted and it automatically sets each as an individual address. I tried sending sending myself an email and it works. I think mail.com is just not a good solution. I liked their custom addresses. I chose writeme.com but now I am in the process of trying again on my Gmail.

 

[Daniel Dennis]

Okay. But when you pasted it how were they separated? One per line? I've never used mail.com so trying to figure out how it delimits addresses. With most webmail services, you just need a semicolon and a space between each address, all on one line, and some will limit you to thirty addresses at a time.

 

[HollyElizabethjean]

It was the same as Gmail. I think I will just skip lesser known email providers and just use Gmail from now on. It sent without any issues.

 

[hardnutt]

If I remember rightly, you select the BCC option when you compose your email so the recipients can't see each other's email addresses and just copy and paste the email addresses, one after the other, with semi-colons after each, all into the one email with all the attachments so they can choose their preference.

Yes, this means you can't address the winners by name. But often their email addresses give no hint to what this might be anyway!

 

[Allyson J.]

Yes I did it individually. I had something like 42 winners. I wanted to personalize it because maybe they'd feel more inclined to review. I got a few nice replies.

 

[A Woman's Place Is In The Rebellion]

Doesn't that take forever though? I just sent out a mass e-mail with a coupon code to Smashwords. But then, I usually had 50-100 winners.

Not at all. I send the same message so it's mostly pasting and adding the email address from a spreadsheet I make of the winners' details. I also save it as a job I can do while watching TV so it's not done in lieu of writing time. Like Allyson said, it makes it feel more personal and I've picked up a number of dedicated readers this way. While not a necessity, it feels nice.

 

[HezBa]

Maybe I'll do that next time then. I'll just do smaller giveaways, at least at first.