Why you should 'Giveaway' your book, by Natasha Woodcraft

Many of us are allergic to the idea of giving our book away. I poured my blood, sweat and tears into this book. It cost me £xk to release it. Those paperback copies cost a fortune to buy! etc…

Even so, I was thrilled to see the huge numbers of ACW books donated to Joanne’s collection at the Autumn Gathering. ACW members also regularly donate books to good causes. Aside from being decent humans, somewhere deep inside, we know there are excellent reasons to give our books away. In this blog, I’m going to chat about two of them. 

Firstly:

Giveaways increase your book’s reach

Let’s consider some examples:

1. Promotions

There are several promotional opportunities that will highlight your book to new readers. They cost money, and obviously, as you’re doing a giveaway, you will not get royalties from sales. On the plus side, we’re usually talking ebooks, so the actual books don’t cost anything.

Last year I did a Hello Books promotion. It cost $30 to schedule the promotion. I set my book to free for the day allocated, and I had 700 downloads on that day, shooting me to the top of the Amazon US Chart as well as the UK one. Exciting, right?

Sort of. Let’s break it down…

Did I get my money back? Probably not. The aim of this type of promotion is to reach new readers who will go on to buy more of your books. If you only have one book, this is not going to help you much (unless of course, its such a cracking book that people go on to buy it for their friends!)

Most people that download lots of free books don’t read them all. So, while 700 downloads sounds great, the reality is, most of those downloads are probably sitting on people’s devices unread. And if they haven’t read your free book, they aren’t going to read your purchasable book!

Did ‘being a bestseller’ have long term benefits? Well, the Amazon algorithm ignores sudden spikes, writing them off as anomalies. It also treats free downloads differently to purchases. In that sense, you cannot rely on your ‘bestseller’ status lasting more than a day. Unless of course, you want to claim it on your profile (which always feels a teensy bit deceitful to me, but plenty of people do it…)

So what were the benefits? Aside from the excitement, there were a few sales of my second book the following month. Not hundreds, but a few. If I had a series of 5 or 7 books, I would probably pick up some readers who’d go on to purchase the entire series. Then the promotion would certainly pay for itself. Additionally, a few readers who discovered me through the giveaway have become fans, and they are always nice to have!

In conclusion, I would suggest that periodically giving your series starter away through paid promotions is good marketing if (and only if) you have a strong series for readers to continue reading (or an extensive back catalogue) AND you are confident your book is good enough to incentivise people who normally download free books to actually BUY one!

Furthermore, I write in a tiny genre. If you write in a more popular genre, you would probably get more downloads than me, which would multiply your results.

2. Goodreads / The Storygraph Giveaways

These are probably the most expensive giveaway opportunities. Are they worth it? The Storygraph is a relatively new kid on the block (which means they're cheaper). It works in a similar way to Goodreads, except its main classification is by mood and content rather than genre. It is also not run by Amazon (hurrah for independence!) They have just started running giveaways similar to Goodreads ones, where you (or your publisher) offer a certain number of books to giveaway and readers have a month to find you and enter to win. While there, they can read your book details and add it to their TBR. 

I have been really impressed by the reach of my Storygraph giveaway. I had decent impressions, clicks and entries. Will all those people go on to purchase? Certainly not. A lot of them will win a book, and I’ve had books sitting on my TBR for ages that I haven’t bought yet. But when it comes to the marketing rule of ‘someone needs to see something 7 times before they commit’, that’s a lot of first impressions for a book in a tiny genre. And hopefully, some of the winners will read and like it! Mine's only just rn thoguh, so I'll have to give you a true verdict later...

3. Multi-author Giveaways

These are my favourite type of giveaways. The aim is to build your mailing list, getting your lead magnet (a free example of your work) in front of new readers who may stick around to read your newsletters. All you have to do is offer a single copy of your book (usually an ebook) and supply your sign-up details. 

The best ones are genre specific. There are two I regularly take part in, and the results have been great. I know that the people entering these giveaways are interested in the kind of books I write. I have also done general fiction ones and haven’t found them as good, but hey, remember that marketing rule? 7 times!

Not all these things cost money. Do you know a bunch of other authors? Do you interact with others in your genre on social media? What about your ACW group? Could you band together to organise one of these? There are several websites that make entries and picking winners simple, but you can also do it the old fashioned way (names in a hat!)

4. Individual giveaways

As well as running your own giveaways at any time you like, there are several wonderful ACWers that offer giveaways (of other people’s books) with their newsletters. These are usually paperbacks, so they DO cost you something, but paperback lovers are a different audience to ebook lovers and it’s well worth investing in reaching both. Through giveaways, your book gets promoted to someone else’s audience.

A few months ago, one of my paperbacks was offered in a fellow writer’s newsletter giveaway. Last month, I received the most incredible email from the lady who’d won it. It’s safe to say the book impacted her in an extraordinary way and drew her back to God. Wow! I was so thrilled that she emailed me personally to tell me her story and quite frankly, that email made my month (which was pretty awful in several other ways). 

This brings me on to my final point: 

Giveaways can place your book in the hands of someone who needs it

Sales are not everything. If your writing is an overflow of your relationship with God, then it will contain messages that God wants you to share with others.

Imagine for a moment you are sitting on the train next to someone who is crying their eyes out about their failing marriage. You’ve written a book that speaks lovingly into that situation and offers hope, which just so happens to be in your bag. Do you offer it to them? Of course you do!

But you can’t always be on that train. Others are though. Others are on the train, sitting next to that crying person. Others are on the train browsing free book promotions. Others are on the train scanning the social media profile of an author you have joined a giveaway with.

What if God uses those moments to nudge them towards your message? It could change their life!

And that’s what it’s all about, isn't it?

Natasha Woodcraft lives in a slightly crumbling farmhouse in Lincolnshire with her husband, 4 sons and a menagerie of animals. She believes stories have power to communicate deep truth and transform lives. Her published novels, The Wanderer Scorned & The Wanderer Reborn, explore God’s redemptive purposes for messy people by reimagining the tale of Cain & Abel. Also a songwriter, Natasha peppers her emotional prose with poetry and song.