[Alex Owens]

I'm sure I'm not the first to notice this, but I thought it bears repeating. I've been a Librarything member for years, but I only recently started using it as an author too. Unlike another major site, they allow members to give-away ebooks as well as printed copies, for the purpose of garnering reviews.

I listed the three books I have in my sig over the weekend, giving away between 10 and 30 copies of each in the hopes that at least some of the recipients will leave reviews. So far, I've got close to 90 people entered in the drawings. And it's going to cost me nothing but my time to send out ebooks to the winners.

As a reader, I've won several great ebooks/novels from the site and I've posted reviews for each of them on Amazon, my personal site, Librarything and Goodreads, so maybe the Karma-gods will bless me with a smattering of reviews as well. (fingers crossed)

You can see the current list of giveaways here:http://www.librarything.com/er_list.php?program=giveaway&sort=startdate

There are two lists, one for paper books( Early Reader/ ARC's), and a Member list that allows ebooks as well. Hope this helps some of you searching for a way to get your book into the hands of readers!

 

[39179]

I hope it works out well for you, Karen. I have one up there now (two actually - I screwed it up the first time I did it) that ends in Sunday and it's gotten a great response so far.

I also just finished one at Goodreads, which got a phenomenal response - I think they must be a higher traffic site. It was a great way for me to gauge interest in my book. Of course, on Goodreads you can only do it with a paperback version.

Best of luck!

 

[Alex Owens]

Good luck to you too! I do plan on doing a Goodreads giveaway as soon as I publish my current WIP (Blood Chord) since that will be the first book I launch in paperback format as well. I've won several books from Goodreads and it's a great site (just wish they allowed ebooks!) I just finished reading my first paperback won from there (well, the first one I've received-- Jodi Picoult's published seems to be very slow getting out ARC's) and it's a lot more work getting through a real book now that I've gotten used to flicking through my ipad

 

[39179]

Thanks, Karen! Are you going to publish Blood Chord through CreateSpace when it's finished? I highly reccommend it. It's very user friendly and free if you use their cover designer (which has lots of options to get creative).

 

[Alex Owens]

Yep, that's the game plan I haven't looked too far into create space yet, so I'm oping its something I can handle myself. I've received a few review books that were printed through them, and the quality looks great so I'm pretty much sold!

 

[Romi]

Hi Karen, thanks for the tip!  When I read your thread I set up my profile last night, and hit the "Is this you?" button to confirm that I'm the author...I was wondering if you remember how long it takes for the website to comment on your profile and confirm your author status is approved?...

 

[Sybil Nelson]

Hi Karen, thanks for the tip! When I read your thread I set up my profile last night, and hit the "Is this you?" button to confirm that I'm the author...I was wondering if you remember how long it takes for the website to comment on your profile and confirm your author status is approved?...

Usually only takes a day. If it takes longer, just send them an email and they'll do it immediately. I've done several giveaways over there and the upside is that it's free. Free always makes me happy. There's not a great return on reviews, but something is better than nothing. For example, I gave away 200 copies of Guardian of Eden and so far I've gotten 15 reviews out of it. They are great reviews and they didn't cost me anything in shipping so I'm not complaining. Just be prepared to offer a lot of books. The return rate is like 10%

 

[Romi]

Usually only takes a day. If it takes longer, just send them an email and they'll do it immediately. I've done several giveaways over there and the upside is that it's free. Free always makes me happy. There's not a great return on reviews, but something is better than nothing. For example, I gave away 200 copies of Guardian of Eden and so far I've gotten 15 reviews out of it. They are great reviews and they didn't cost me anything in shipping so I'm not complaining. Just be prepared to offer a lot of books. The return rate is like 10%

Thanks for sharing your experience Sybil! (and Karen and Andrew as well! ). It seems like a great way to get your books into more readers' hands, and if any extra reviews come out of it, yay!!

 

[Paul Clayton]

KP, I think the Goodreads giveaway is a good thing.  I went from having about a dozen folks 'adding' my book to their queues to over four hundred.  How many of them eventually get around to reading it, well, that's a different story.  But as you know, you can post a 'taste' of the book, so that might entice them.  I gave away six copies and had, I think, about fifteen hundred people entered to win.  Haven't seen any reviews yet.  Here are my latest stats:

White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke
468 people added it
22 ratings | 9 reviews

Well, good luck!

 

[Alex Owens]

Hi Karen, thanks for the tip! When I read your thread I set up my profile last night, and hit the "Is this you?" button to confirm that I'm the author...I was wondering if you remember how long it takes for the website to comment on your profile and confirm your author status is approved?...

I think a day or two, but remember that I *think* it's actually one person adding them manually, so if they don't get back to you within a few days, gently follow up with an email

 

[aaronpolson]

I just finished my third giveaway. I think they're great--and definitely generate buzz.

It's the cousin to the old adage: you have to spend money to make money.

 

[JM Gellene]

I've got one up at the moment and have 64 requests so far.  Will post how many reviews it generates.

 

[Jennybeanses]

I just started utilizing Library Thing as an author as well and posted my first giveaway over the weekend. It's gotten a decent amount of interest, so I'm really excited. I hope it generates some good reviews. Good luck to everyone else doing giveaways there as well.

I'm going to do paperbacks for a giveaway on GoodReads too when I release my sequel.

 

[Alex Owens]

I just started utilizing Library Thing as an author as well and posted my first giveaway over the weekend. It's gotten a decent amount of interest, so I'm really excited. I hope it generates some good reviews. Good luck to everyone else doing giveaways there as well.

I'm going to do paperbacks for a giveaway on GoodReads too when I release my sequel.

I saw your giveaway...I would suggest adding a cover to your listing though. The first day or so, before I got around to adding covers interest just trickled in. Once I added the covers it seemed to pick up. Just a thought!

 

[Alex Owens]

JennyBeanses - I meant to ask you if you liked your Kickstarter experience. I noticed that your campaign was successful so that's great! Would you consider doing it again? I only ask because its all new to me (just started one for editing/cover funds) and I'm wondering if there's anything that you would do differently, etc. How did you promote?

((Sorry folks, I know it's off-topic!)) Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

[Todd Russell]

I've done one LibraryThing giveaway so far and thought the results were favorable and I'll definitely be doing again. I'm doing my first Goodreads giveaway now for a PROOF copy of the DTB for Mental Shrillness due out next month. I got more TBR in the first day of the Goodreads giveaway than the prior 60 days of other activity around Goodreads. As I've seen others saying around here, these giveaways seem to work well