HelloOoOo everybody!
If you've ever used social media at any point in your life, you've stumbled across a giveaway. A giveaway is when someone offers some type of prize in return for engagement. For example, “Like this post and follow me, and in turn, one lucky winner will be walking away with a free makeup kit.” Giveaways are a powerful tool utilized by so many authors, so I'm gonna teach you how to work them in your favor.
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Number 1: Why Do Authors Use Giveaways?
Giveaways are a low risk way to expand your readership. If for whatever reason, the giveaway doesn't pan out, all you're out is a signed copy of one of your books or some other bookish goodie.
Number 2: What Do Authors Typically Give Away?
Like I already said, usually authors give away a signed copy of their book, but you could throw in some extras like bookmarks, stickers, candles—whatever.
Now, giveaways are a great way to give back to your audience and show that you care, but they do far more than that. Typically, an author hosts a giveaway with a particular goal in mind.
Number 3: Before You Start Your Giveaway, Ask Yourself, What Do You Wanna Get Out of This Event?
One popular goal is to gain followers on a particular social media platform. You can do this on YouTube or TikTok, but quite often, authors choose Instagram because it has a huge bookish community. If you want to gain more followers on Instagram, hosting an Instagram giveaway is a great option.
Another popular goal is to cross-promote, which means to gain readership from other authors who write in the same genre as you. If that's your goal, the best option is to host a group giveaway, which is where multiple authors pitch in to host a giveaway together.
And the last goal we'll be talking about today is increasing your newsletter subscriber rate. Your author newsletter is a great way to reach your audience directly. Thus, a lot of authors are very eager to increase their subscriber rate. If that’s the case you wanna host a giveaway that is specific to newsletter subscribers.
There are other potential goals you can have when hosting a giveaway. Some authors host giveaways on Goodreads. Others do fan art contests. But since these three types of giveaways are the most popular that I've seen, that’s what we're talking about today.
Number 4: The Instagram Giveaway
This is when you post a pretty graphic to your Instagram timeline, letting everyone know that you are hosting a giveaway. This graphic should be eye-catching, and usually, it'll showcase a picture of the book you are giving away. Make sure your description is very clear. Detail exactly what you're giving away, how many people can win, and how to enter. It's up to you how many winners you want to choose. I usually see one to three winners. Any more than that, and it's gonna get expensive.
You also wanna make sure you list whether or not the giveaway is international or domestic. Remember, you will most likely be shipping a signed copy to the winner of this giveaway, and shipping internationally can get expensive. Hosting internationally will expose you to a lot more readers. So that's the plus side of that. However, if you really can’t afford international shipping, then a domestic giveaway is always an option. Now, typically when you host an Instagram giveaway, these are the rules to enter.
Number 1: Follow me, the author, here on Instagram.
Because duh, the goal is to increase your Instagram follower rate.
Number 2: Like this giveaway post.
This will help in regard to the Instagram algorithm, which means your giveaway will be featured on more people's timelines.
Number 3: Comment on this post.
You might wanna ask them to answer a question like, who's your favorite fantasy character? Or, what's your favorite romance book? But at a minimum, you should ask them to tag at least three people who might be interested in this giveaway. This may seem annoying, but it's pivotal for these giveaways. One, because your comment will boost your post within the Instagram algorithm. And two, because you are exposing this giveaway to even more people who might be interested in participating.
And lastly, 4: Have the option of giving bonus entries to anyone who shares the giveaway in their Instagram Stories.
Be sure to say in the description of your post how long the giveaway lasts. I usually see giveaways lasting about one to two weeks. Any longer than that and it’s gonna get stale. Once the giveaway is over, use a randomizer to choose your winner. You then want to contact the winner asking for their mailing address so you can ship that book over. With a giveaway like this, it's really easy to tell if it was successful, because, in theory, your Instagram follower count should increase. If it didn't increase, then your giveaway was a dud. But like I said, this is a low-risk marketing tactic. All you’re out is a signed book.
Number 5: The Group Giveaway
More often than not, group giveaways are also hosted on Instagram.
For these types of giveaways, we’re looking at nearly the exact same format. There are only a few key differences.
Number 1: With a group giveaway, you are recruiting multiple authors from within your genre to participate. In turn, every single one of those authors is donating a signed copy of their book to give away. Usually, that means one winner is going to receive a signed copy of every single author's book, which is a pretty huge prize. That gives people a really big incentive to participate. Again, make sure the authors write in your genre. The entire point of this giveaway is to expose your work to readers who are within your target audience.
Number 2: Feature every book in the giveaway within your Instagram graphic. Again, you wanna make this image pretty, because pretty attracts likes, but make sure every single book is featured so that each author gets the exposure they were promised.
Number 3: The steps for entering the giveaway will be the same, except now all of the entries need to follow every single author who's participating in the giveaway. Not just you. That means you need to tag every single author in the post so that entries can easily follow them one by one. Again, this is a group giveaway which means every participating author needs to share this post as well. These giveaways are super popular because you are being exposed to a zillion different audiences all at once. And once again, once a winner is chosen, every single author will send a signed copy of their book to that winner. So be sure to be in good communication with these authors. Make sure they all have the winner's mailing address so they can ship the book off with ease.
Number 6: The Newsletter Giveaway
The newsletter giveaway is the simplest to plan because it's the simplest to enter. One to three winners will receive a signed copy of your book, or a signed copy of your series, or a signed book, plus bookish goodies. All they have to do is subscribe to your newsletter, which is completely free. Boom, you're done.
Now, some people might say, “What the fuck? I've been a member of your newsletter for years already. What am I? Chopped liver?” This is why I recommend making the giveaway available to all newsletter subscribers, both new and old. That way you are encouraging more people to subscribe, while still honoring those who have had your back from the beginning.
Once again, give people a limited amount of time to subscribe, maybe one to two weeks, and then use a randomizer to choose your winner. The best part is you already have their email address, so you can easily contact them to let them know that they won. Promote this giveaway across all social media platforms, share your newsletter link, and sit back and watch the subscribers roll in. You’ll know your giveaway was successful if, once again, your newsletter subscriber rate increases.
So that's all I've got for you today!
Again, there are other giveaways that you can run, but these are the ones that I most often see floatin’ around the internet. They're giveaways I've participated in. Some have been wildly successful. Others have been a bust. Either way, all it costs you is a signed copy of your book, plus the shipping fee, so a lot of authors find that it's worth the risk.
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