What's the most effective contest/promo an author can make to promote a novel?

I'm guessing every book and audience is different, but this is what I'm seeing from my angle:

When I do a contest to give away someone else's book the contest draws wayyyyyyyyyyyy more attention. I'm guessing because it doesn't look like promo. For your own contest, unless you can get it publicized outside the circle you're already dealing with, you're preaching to your choir.

I'd love it if I could get someone with a different audience to give my book away once. That's what I liked about my free day. It grew so far past what I'd reach with my audience or even my friends' audiences that I'm still seeing a bit of a bump. Now I’m seeing the corresponding bump on GR as those three-plus circles out people start doing their reviews and pushing the viewing out further.

Hi Caitie,

I can see the rational in that approach. Let's do it soon. For the moment I'm not yet in a position to do it since my "American circle" is very scarce, but I expect that to change in about two months. Where has someone else gave your book away? I'm currently working on some translations from my blog and believe those will gain traction soon.

Happy 2013 and tks for your comment!

F.

Blogs, and their corresponding facebook pages, are great places to do giveaways. I do them on my blog and facebook page often. And as most bloggers are friends with other bloggers, we share each others contests, which gives you much more of an audience and exposure.