OK, I promised not to be negligent and pull a disappearing act. But I swear I’ve been busy. Just not, you know, on this blog. I’ve been writing guest blog posts left and right though. That probably isn’t the right thing to say, is it? “Sorry I haven’t been home having sex with you; but it’s OK–I’ve been out banging other people!”
Sorry. But here I am again. Blogging where I belong. Begging for forgiveness. Promising never to stray again to try to be more attentive. That’s got to count for something, right?
I started my first Goodreads giveaway this week. Being a complete neophyte to any promotional activity at all, and an infrequent Goodreads participant at best prior to this, I have no frame of reference. But it feels like it’s going well. Almost 450 people have registered to try to win a free autographed copy in the five days since I posted it. And one of those days was a total wash, because I’m kind of a jackass and decided to add “AUTOGRAPHED COPY” to the header of the giveaway, not realizing the good folks at Goodreads would need to re-approve the thing. Which makes sense, I suppose. I mean, I could have put in a picture of two camels having sex. With a small Norwegian man. So I guess they need to check to make sure the authors aren’t up to any crazy shenanigans.
So, there are a couple of days left on the first go around. I’m going to run a second giveaway hot on its heels though, with probably two or three copies, and probably for two or three weeks instead of just the one. This, in conjunction with running an ad on Goodreads. Which I’ve heard helps with traction and exposure.
Of course, it’s hard to track how much good this all does in getting my name out there or boosting sales. But I figure the giveaways only run me some postage, which won’t be terrible unless someone on the other side of the planet wins. And you set the cap on the ad, and being a cheap bastard who has to pay for milk for three thirsty girls, I won’t be ponying up a ton there either. So I figure it can’t hurt, right. Other authors seems to think this helps, and while that might be only anecdotal, it’s all most of us have to go on in the promo game, so why not?
I was going to use Goodread’s funky little giveaway widget, but apparently WordPress doesn’t allow Java script, so just visualize a cool widget right here that tracks how many awesome readers are trying to get a free copy of the book. If it helps, imagine the widget naked. I know I do.
No comments yet.