GoodReads Giveaway Success...And Another One Is Coming

Good morning, readers & visitors! My first GoodReads Giveaway officially ended last night at midnight, and now I have 10 lucky winners who will be receiving my book, BLOOD MOON, in the mail.

What a fun process! I am so glad that I took the plunge with CreateSpace to craft paperback versions of my self-published books. Without physical copies to give away, I never would've been able to experience what GoodReads Giveaways can do for an author.

Here's an overview of the Giveaway:

1. I had 1029 entrants in a giveaway that lasted only 1 week.
2. Over 45% of the entrants added my book to their 'to-read' list.
3. Most of my winners were from the UK!
4. I had 2 people add ACAPULCO NIGHTS to their 'to-read' list.
5. I had 2 people add THE LITTLE BLACK BOX to their 'to-read' list.
6. I had 1 person add THE NINTH CURSE to their 'to-read' list.

This rousing success (since I had NO clue if people would even be interested in reading my book or would find my giveaway amidst the many listed) encouraged me to immediately schedule another giveaway for my book, ACAPULCO NIGHTS. (You can see in my sidebar the link to that giveaway.) The giveaway opens on the date of its release: September 22nd, 2015 and runs through October 6th, 2015.

I expanded the giveaway time frame, allowing for 2 weeks' worth of entrants. I have been reading up on how to use the giveaway to an author's best advantage and am going to try a couple of different things to see what the results are.

One of the mistakes I made with my first giveaway is not paying more attention to the categories I'd listed my book in. Somehow I only chose "suspense" as my category and didn't add a second one, like "young adult" or "paranormal." That was DUMB. For my second giveaway I made sure to cover the two areas I think my book fits into the best: "chick-lit" and "romance."

I know romance is a popular category, so I'm guessing I will have more entrants than my first giveaway. Which is GREAT. I see now that the giveaway is not so much about the books you are giving to the winning entrants nor the hope that they review it, but the exposure you get. I was shocked at how many people added my book to their 'to-read' list. I get that likely many of them will never get around to ordering my book and reading it, but they MIGHT. And that is what you want as an author. Exposure, exposure, exposure.

I have another plan up my sleeve for promotion. I wish I'd learned all of this stuff years ago...but that's how it goes sometimes. You have to experience what it's like to have no one read your book, no one care to review it and your book falling into a black hole before you find the determination to do better.

The GoodReads Giveaway experience has really kickstarted my excitement into promoting myself more and in better ways.