# Goodreads Giveaways -- revised program -- MERGED threads



## BillyDeCarlo (Apr 11, 2017)

Wow, the standard is $119 and the premium is $599. To give away my books! No thanks. There goes another good thing. What are they thinking?

As an author who uses Goodreads Giveaways, we want to let you know we’ll be introducing our new Goodreads Giveaways program on January 9, 2018, offering even more powerful book marketing benefits that authors have been asking for. Our new Goodreads Giveaways program includes two packages, Standard and Premium—you can learn more about them below. And for the first time, Kindle Direct Publishing authors can run giveaways for Kindle ebooks—a feature previously only available to traditional publishers. The new program, which replaces our current Giveaways program, will initially be for giveaways open to U.S. residents.

Since we launched Goodreads Giveaways nine years ago, we’ve helped authors and publishers get millions of books into the hands of readers to drive prerelease buzz, discovery, and reviews. Giveaways have become a core part of Goodreads’ suite of book marketing tools (advertising, deals, and giveaways), and have become a must-do tactic for authors and publishers, helping many titles – including The Girl on the Train – break out to early success.

From January 9, 2018, you can choose from the following two packages:
***

Standard Giveaway
(available in your choice of print book or Kindle ebook format).

1. (NEW) Everyone who enters your giveaway automatically adds the book to their Want-to-Read list, promoting your book via updates in their friends’ updates feeds, and building an audience for your title.

2. (NEW) The author’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their Want-to-Read list get a notification, letting them know there’s a giveaway starting. This helps generate even more entries, creating more stories in the Goodreads updates feed.

3. About eight weeks after your Giveaway ends, winners receive an email from Goodreads to remind them to rate and review your book. This will help other readers discover and decide to read the book too.

4. Giveaways are featured in the Giveaways section of Goodreads.com, allowing readers to discover new books.

The new Standard Package is $119 per giveaway for either print book or Kindle ebook format. From January 9, 2018 to January 31, 2018, take advantage of our introductory price: only $59 (save 50%).
***

Premium Giveaway
(available in your choice of print book or Kindle ebook format).

Premium Giveaways are designed to give you more opportunity to connect with readers than ever. A Premium Giveaway includes:

1. (NEW) Premium placement in the Giveaways section of Goodreads, with tens of millions of visitors each month, giving your giveaway significantly more visibility and more entrants.

The Premium package also includes all of the benefits of the Standard package:

2. (NEW) Everyone who enters your giveaway automatically adds the book to their Want-to-Read list, promoting your book via updates in their friends’ updates feeds, and building an audience for your title.

3. (NEW) The author’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their Want-to-Read list get a notification, letting them know there’s a giveaway starting. This helps generate even more entries, creating more stories in the Goodreads updates feed.

4. About eight weeks after your Giveaway ends, winners receive an email from Goodreads to remind them to rate and review your book. This will help other readers discover and decide to read the book too.

5. Giveaways are shown in the Giveaways section of Goodreads and the book page, allowing readers to discover new books.

The new Premium Package is $599 per giveaway for either print book or Kindle ebook format. From January 9, 2018 to January 31, 2018, take advantage of our introductory price: only $299 (save 50%).
***

New Giveaways created on or after 1/9/18 will initially be open to US residents only. Giveaways created prior to 1/9/18 will continue to run as scheduled, but will not benefit from any of the enhancements in our new Giveaways program.

We encourage you to take advantage of this introductory pricing and try the new products out!

Have questions? Take a look here to learn more.

Thanks,

The Goodreads Team


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

The only thing that surprised me it is how long it took for the 'Zon to get their profit-hungry hands on it. I'm sure the next thing to come is premium GR memberships.

Disappointing, yes, but I stopped using GR giveaways. Over the past couple of years they've done nothing for me. Zero reviews. Zero anything. Just a few "author signed" copies showing up on eBay. In fact, there's one showing up as a "collectible" option on my Amazon product page.

The only real no-cost giveaway options left are LibraryThing and Booklikes. Did I miss anything?


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## BillyDeCarlo (Apr 11, 2017)

What I saw when I did the giveaways (usually two paperbacks at a cost of about $3 each to me and two bucks for media-rate shipping) was that my books got added to tons of to-read lists of Goodreads users, and thereby visible to the people who they are visible. That's pretty inexpensive exposure to voracious readers for a few bucks. That's why I liked it. I never had any illusion that the winners would read or review the books. It was all about the exposure, getting the book in front of readers.


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## quiet chick writes (Oct 19, 2012)

Are they making traditional publishers pay $119 or $599 to give away their books too?


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## Ethel_Abbott (May 9, 2016)

Yes, the trad pubs have to pay too. That's in fact where GR is hoping to make its money. The move may backfire, however, if too many publishers refuse to pony up. My publisher (Macmillan) already does not do GR giveaways for all their titles. Now they are likely to reserve them for the authors who need the least help, i.e., the current bestsellers who have a larger marketing budget.


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## jeremyflagg (Oct 28, 2016)

I appreciate the reminder and the notice being sent out to my followers, but does that warrant a $119 price tag? With international shipping in the mix, it can already cost upward of $30 per book. I wouldn't mind if it were $119 per year to use the features, but per giveaway? I think they just wiped out indies who I would assume use it mostly as a discovery tool. Now, I would only use it on first in series when launching a book, and even then, chances are slim. Nice job Zon, you're screwing yourself as much as us!


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

I'm in two minds about this. It's either a great opportunity for someone to come along and develop/ expand a rival site for booklovers, or it's the beginning of another widespread squeeze on "free" as a strategy for getting an author known.


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## Nate Hoffelder (Jun 9, 2014)

Didn't this used to be limited to publishers:
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1108-goodreads-introduces-new-u-s-giveaways-program-a-more-powerful-book-mar



> Today, we're announcing our new U.S. giveaways program, with two packages offering new high-impact features to drive increased book discovery and reader reviews. The new program is designed to deliver additional marketing benefits that authors and publishers have been asking for, including more ways to reach the author's readers, and automatically adding the book to the Want-to-Read lists of anyone entering the giveaway. And for the first time, Kindle Direct Publishing authors can run giveaways for Kindle ebooks-a feature previously only available to traditional publishers. All of these benefits are included in the Standard package which costs $119 for up to 100 copies (either Kindle ebook or print book). The new Goodreads Giveaways program, which replaces our current Giveaways program, will go live on January 9, 2018, and will initially be for giveaways open to U.S. residents.
> 
> We're also introducing a Premium package, offering special "Featured" placement on the highly-trafficked Giveaways page, as well as all the benefits of the Standard Package. The Premium package is $599 and is available for either print books or Kindle ebooks.
> 
> To celebrate the new Giveaways program, we'll be offering special introductory pricing of $59 (save 50%) for all Standard giveaways and $299 (save 50%) for all Premium giveaways created between January 9, 2018, and January 31, 2018.


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

Let the kvetching commence!

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1108



> Today, we're announcing our new U.S. giveaways program, with two packages offering new high-impact features to drive increased book discovery and reader reviews. The new program is designed to deliver additional marketing benefits that authors and publishers have been asking for, including more ways to reach the author's readers, and automatically adding the book to the Want-to-Read lists of anyone entering the giveaway. And for the first time, Kindle Direct Publishing authors can run giveaways for Kindle ebooks-a feature previously only available to traditional publishers. All of these benefits are included in the Standard package which costs $119 for up to 100 copies (either Kindle ebook or print book). The new Goodreads Giveaways program, which replaces our current Giveaways program, will go live on January 9, 2018, and will initially be for giveaways open to U.S. residents.
> 
> We're also introducing a Premium package, offering special "Featured" placement on the highly-trafficked Giveaways page, as well as all the benefits of the Standard Package. The Premium package is $599 and is available for either print books or Kindle ebooks.
> 
> To celebrate the new Giveaways program, we'll be offering special introductory pricing of $59 (save 50%) for all Standard giveaways and $299 (save 50%) for all Premium giveaways created between January 9, 2018, and January 31, 2018. _more at the link_


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

They already cost me the book and postage... I stopped doing them awhile ago too.


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

It's just another way of making money from authors. You can giveaway your book, but we'll only charge you $119 or $599 for the privilege! I'll pass, thanks,


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Nate Hoffelder said:


> Didn't this used to be limited to publishers:
> https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1108-goodreads-introduces-new-u-s-giveaways-program-a-more-powerful-book-mar


They introduced ebook giveaways a while ago, but it sounds as if the new package might have some features that were not present before.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

I guess I've had my last Goodreads giveaway! They're shooting themselves in the foot. I'd be really surprised if we don't see giveaway numbers fall off a cliff in the new year.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

I guess I'll be the contrarian. I've been waiting for them to roll out the ebook giveaway option for a couple years now. Of course, I'm not sure I like the price of it...It would all depend on what kind of sellthrough I'd see to the rest of a series. I can pay $5 and give away four times that number with other promo services, but there's almost no follow-on from most of those cheap services.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Bill Hiatt said:


> They introduced ebook giveaways a while ago, but it sounds as if the new package might have some features that were not present before.


To self-publishers? Where do you access it?


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

$59 to give away up to 100 ebooks seems like a HORRIBLE deal--and that is just the introductory rate, it's going up to $119. I know that it will put us on the "Want to Read" list, and I'm sure those have some value, but paying $80 to Freebooksy and getting onto thousands of eReaders (not just Kindles) seems like it is a better deal.


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## H.C. (Jul 28, 2016)

Nate Hoffelder said:


> Didn't this used to be limited to publishers:
> https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1108-goodreads-introduces-new-u-s-giveaways-program-a-more-powerful-book-mar


I only have to pay $600 to give away my books?


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

It really sucks.

Plus it's only open for the US. I didn't even understand if it's only for US authors or readers... How many people do they want to piss off? 

Anyways, I live in Canada. 

I did a GR giveaway, worldwide, I got winners in 3 continents, and it was cool. (Thank Ingram for printing.) Lots of people added it to their to-read list, and they weren't forced. I thought it was good for the price (printing and shipping), but now it's not that great anymore. People need to go elsewhere for giveaways, I guess.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

> Plus it's only open for the US. I didn't even understand if it's only for US authors or readers... How many people do they want to p*ss off? Anyways, I live in Canada.


Yeah, me too. It says open to U.S. residents but doesn't specify whether they mean you need to be a U.S. resident to enter or to hold a contest. Either way, what a ridiculous amount of money even for the "standard" package. Boo, hiss.


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## DmGuay (Aug 17, 2016)

My not very elegant but honest thoughts on the whole thing.

https://dmguay.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/rest-in-peace-goodreads-giveaways/

To sum up: It was barely worth it when the cost was only postage and printing.

- You might end up on a lot of to-read lists, but some of those folks have 30,000 books on that list. 
- 2/3 of my giveaway winners immediately listed the book for sale on Amazon, and those books sold, meaning I paid postage and printing only so I could lose two royalties. 
- 3-4 / 700 people who entered my giveaway ended up reading the book via Kindle Unlimited, which was great. But I can't pay $119 for those results.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I've merged three threads on the same topic .  . . sorry for any confusion.


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## Bob Stewart (Mar 19, 2014)

C. Gockel said:


> I know that it will put us on the "Want to Read" list, and I'm sure those have some value...


In practice, the to-read lists are pretty meaningless, many people just do it automatically when they enter a giveaway. And since now it will be done automatically, it will mean nothing at all.

There is no way doing paperback giveaways will be worthwhile unless you are offering something like 50+. And then the real cost will probably be $3-400.

And one more thing: even if 50% of people leave a rating on Goodreads with the reminder, if there isn't also a review on Amazon, it doesn't count for much.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Cassie Leigh said:


> To self-publishers? Where do you access it?


I never did one. I just remember the announcement.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

A few years ago, I was getting about 30% return in terms of reviews from giveaway winners. It sounds as if the review rate has declined.

If in fact people really aren't getting reviews from Goodreads giveaways, then if one wanted to do a giveaway, an Amazon giveaway, which has no cost beyond the books and shipping, would be a much less expensive option.


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## Longtime Lurker (Sep 14, 2016)

northstar said:


> They currently have a survey going to tell them what you think.
> 
> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/goodreadsgiveaways20


Thanks for sharing, I filled it out.


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## 98368 (Sep 4, 2017)

I filled out the survey too. And have far better ways to spend my promo dollars than on this service.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

Filled out the survey too. I've run close to 20 giveaways and know they're nowhere near worth the price tag.


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## jeremyflagg (Oct 28, 2016)

SummerNights said:


> Filled out the survey too. I've run close to 20 giveaways and know they're nowhere near worth the price tag.


Agreed. I'm probably 30+ in and while it helps with little bumps, it would never justify the cost. Not even if every one of them left a review.


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## VirginiaMcClain (Sep 24, 2014)

jeremyflagg said:


> Agreed. I'm probably 30+ in and while it helps with little bumps, it would never justify the cost. Not even if every one of them left a review.


I dunno, if everyone actually left a review it might be worth the temporary half price cost for a decent sized ebook giveaway (if you could garner 50 honest reviews for $60 wouldn't you do it? I would). But, as many have said, that will not be the case. An eight-week reminder to review the book is only going to get 1/10 winners or fewer to actually leave a review so the cost is not worth it. I certainly liked the giveaways before this. They were good visibility on a book for the price of book + shipping and that was a decent marketing value in my opinion. Not because any of the winners reviewed it (although a couple of mine actually did) but because being on over a thousand "to read" shelves helps give an indie book credibility. My books look way more established on GR than they do on the zon. Anyway, I agree with everyone else that adding a cost to these (especially an over $100 per use cost) ruins the value completely. I might have been willing to pay $5 - $20 per giveaway, maybe, for the added benefit of giving away ebooks (takes away my shipping costs) and all the other notifications, automatic 'to read' adds etc., but definitely not $119. That's bogus.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

VirginiaMcClain said:


> I dunno, if everyone actually left a review it might be worth the temporary half price cost for a decent sized ebook giveaway (if you could garner 50 honest reviews for $60 wouldn't you do it? I would). But, as many have said, that will not be the case. An eight-week reminder to review the book is only going to get 1/10 winners or fewer to actually leave a review so the cost is not worth it. I certainly liked the giveaways before this. They were good visibility on a book for the price of book + shipping and that was a decent marketing value in my opinion. Not because any of the winners reviewed it (although a couple of mine actually did) but because being on over a thousand "to read" shelves helps give an indie book credibility. My books look way more established on GR than they do on the zon. Anyway, I agree with everyone else that adding a cost to these (especially an over $100 per use cost) ruins the value completely. I might have been willing to pay $5 - $20 per giveaway, maybe, for the added benefit of giving away ebooks (takes away my shipping costs) and all the other notifications, automatic 'to read' adds etc., but definitely not $119. That's bogus.


We can always run a giveaway on FB and elsewhehre where people have to add the book on their GR shelves to enter.


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## VirginiaMcClain (Sep 24, 2014)

SummerNights said:


> We can always run a giveaway on FB and elsewhehre where people have to add the book on their GR shelves to enter.


Good point! All the more reason to avoid this crazy price point!


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## DmGuay (Aug 17, 2016)

I personally will be hosting more Rafflecopters...


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

DmGuay said:


> I personally will be hosting more Rafflecopters...


Yep... a much more efficient way to reach your intended audience, too.
Way too many people on GR are there just to enter every single giveaway.


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## Ethel_Abbott (May 9, 2016)

I agree the benefit of the giveaway program is exposure, not reviews. My book had two Goodreads giveaways (one from me, one from the publisher), and several thousand people signed up each time. The end result was one review. But thousands of readers paid enough attention to my book to click "enter," and by entering, they had the book added to their "to read" shelves. This manufactured "demand" shot the book up the list of popular releases and landed my book a slot in the Goodreads newsletter...which led to another 700 readers adding the book overnight. Will this help sales? I don't know because the jury is still out on that one.

I think Goodreads is a much more valuable place for reviews than Amazon, despite the fact that they can be more tetchy. Once you have enough Amazon reviews for social proof, they don't so much help your book get discovered. On GR, when someone enters a giveaway, the book is shown to their friends in their newsfeed. When they review a book, it is shown to friends in a newsfeed. They also have a direct recommend feature where you can recommend a specific book to an individual person. I have friends who do this for me and for others. GR helps word of mouth in a way that Amazon does not, which is why this development is so distressing.

I see comments on Twitter suggesting that trad pubs will happily eat the $600 fee, and my experience is that they will not. Marketing budgets are highly stratified, with the big fish eating up most of the available dollars. I'm a newbie, and I doubt my publisher would be shelling out $600 for a giveaway. It's also devastating for small presses and of course for indies, most of whom can't afford to eat the high fees even if they wanted to. The result is that readers will have less exposure to new authors and the diversity of books on offer will plunge. That's no good for anyone.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

Just writing to say that I looked at the information, and all authors can host a giveaway. They don't need to be in the US.

But only people in the US can enter the giveaway. I'd feel very uncomfortable discriminating readers like that, so it's a no no.


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## MyCatDoesNotConsent (Sep 11, 2017)

Я не согласен с новым TOS


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## AlexaGrave (Jun 11, 2015)

I'm sad to see this. I knew they'd planned to charge for ebook giveaways, but I'm sad to see they're getting rid of the free option for paperback giveaways.

I did my first giveaway in October, and it went well. I only gave away 3 copies, but one person just left a review yesterday, and another has moved the book from To Be Read to Currently Reading. I mainly did it for exposure, not reviews, so the review was a pleasant surprise.

Trying to get seen in this growing sea of books and authors is so difficult, and I felt this helped a little bit at least.

Ah, well. I filled out the survey. Here's hoping they reconsider the crazy cost.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

Very disappointed that its only open to the US. I'm outside the US and have run a number of international giveaways. They're a great thing to share on social media and there is a whole world of book lovers out there who don't live in the US.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

Tilly said:


> Very disappointed that its only open to the US. I'm outside the US and have run a number of international giveaways. They're a great thing to share on social media and there is a whole world of book lovers out there who don't live in the US.


Not to mention all the readers who used to enter GR giveaways who now will be turned down. I mean, I understand that they don't care for indie authors, but to disregard readers?


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

Well, this will be my last Goodreads giveaway, then (ending tomorrow). Production and shipping of paperbacks is already costly, and I can't justify an additional expense on top of that.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

> I see comments on Twitter suggesting that trad pubs will happily eat the $600 fee, and my experience is that they will not. Marketing budgets are highly stratified, with the big fish eating up most of the available dollars.





> they'd probably have done better to get a lot of authors/publishers paying a little rather than trying to get the big 5 to pay a lot for their best-selling authors.





> I personally will be hosting more Rafflecopters...


I agree on all counts! Incredibly rank decision on Amazon's part, disregarding readers outside the U.S. as well as any indie or traditional authors whose publisher either isn't willing or able to throw a big wad of cash at a future Goodreads giveaway.


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## DmGuay (Aug 17, 2016)

Ethel_Abbott said:


> I agree the benefit of the giveaway program is exposure, not reviews. My book had two Goodreads giveaways (one from me, one from the publisher), and several thousand people signed up each time. The end result was one review. But thousands of readers paid enough attention to my book to click "enter," and by entering, they had the book added to their "to read" shelves. This manufactured "demand" shot the book up the list of popular releases and landed my book a slot in the Goodreads newsletter...which led to another 700 readers adding the book overnight. Will this help sales? I don't know because the jury is still out on that one.
> 
> I think Goodreads is a much more valuable place for reviews than Amazon, despite the fact that they can be more tetchy. Once you have enough Amazon reviews for social proof, they don't so much help your book get discovered. On GR, when someone enters a giveaway, the book is shown to their friends in their newsfeed. When they review a book, it is shown to friends in a newsfeed. They also have a direct recommend feature where you can recommend a specific book to an individual person. I have friends who do this for me and for others. GR helps word of mouth in a way that Amazon does not, which is why this development is so distressing.
> 
> I see comments on Twitter suggesting that trad pubs will happily eat the $600 fee, and my experience is that they will not. Marketing budgets are highly stratified, with the big fish eating up most of the available dollars. I'm a newbie, and I doubt my publisher would be shelling out $600 for a giveaway. It's also devastating for small presses and of course for indies, most of whom can't afford to eat the high fees even if they wanted to. The result is that readers will have less exposure to new authors and the diversity of books on offer will plunge. That's no good for anyone.


All of this ^^^
Another instance of diversity of voices being shut out. American capitalism= pay up or shut out.


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## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

I've done several giveaways on Goodreads and got a few lovely reviews as a result. I'm running one right now, in fact. If these prices stick, though, this one will be my last. It's great exposure, yes, but for sales? I don't know. I personally haven't seen big results there. There's just no way it's worth $119 plus book cost plus postage. Not to me anyway. And that $599 package? Wow. No way. I see it gets you "premium placement" though, which means all those $119 giveaways are going to be pushed behind the $599 listings, making the $119 even less valuable. What a shame.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

I found a free unit on my Month to Date chart on KDP, and couldn't account for it. No perma-frees, none of the Amazon stores are price-matching to free, could be a Matchbook but not showing any corresponding paperback sales. Then I took a look at the sales spreadsheet and found this:

__
https://flic.kr/p/ZVcTeS


__
https://flic.kr/p/ZVcTeS

What the heck? I am not now, never have, and never will run a giveaway on Goodreads. Are they giving away free copies of random author's books to promote their new scheme? No one asked me if this was ok 

ETA: And I'm not the only one. Over in Patty's Facebook group, Devyn Jayse has a screen shot that they've given away 5 of her books.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

> that $599 package? Wow. No way. I see it gets you "premium placement" though, which means all those $119 giveaways are going to be pushed behind the $599 listings, making the $119 even less valuable.


Very true.

And, Krya, wow! What the hell is going on there?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I've clocked up over 100 free downloads on all titles, many I have NOT authorised to be given for free.

I am effing FURIOUS.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Kat M said:


> Very true.
> 
> And, Krya, wow! What the hell is going on there?


No idea. Patty Jansen just discovered they've given away over 100 copies of her books, without her knowledge or permission.

ETA: er, what Patty said.


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## Longtime Lurker (Sep 14, 2016)

Anyone else have the same issue?


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

What in the world is going on? I just checked and, sure enough, 5 free downloads I didn't authorize. While I was typing this, I re-checked and they were up to 7!


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

I just checked and had three, but they all also showed me getting paid the full amount on them. So if they want to give away some of my books and pay me for them? On $4.99 titles. Okay.


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

Bill Hiatt said:


> If in fact people really aren't getting reviews from Goodreads giveaways, then if one wanted to do a giveaway, an Amazon giveaway, which has no cost beyond the books and shipping, would be a much less expensive option.


The only problem I had with Amazon giveaways is the only time I tried to set one up, it said it would be non-discoverable, meaning no one would actually see it unless I advertised it elsewhere and directed readers to it. Kinda sucks what Goodreads (cough ... Amazon) is doing here. I was getting 600-700+ entrants on some giveaways and that was without any extra advertising.


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

I had a random free book pop up last month.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Cassie Leigh said:


> I just checked and had three, but they all also showed me getting paid the full amount on them. So if they want to give away some of my books and pay me for them? On $4.99 titles. Okay.


Yeah, someone else in the FAcebook group looked and they're getting paid, and I got paid for my book that they gave away (it's a 99 cent book, so yay). So maybe I got all mad over nothing. But, ya know, they could have asked? And I didn't even get the email about the new program.

Still not buying their stupid ripoff giveaway packages.


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## Kay7979 (Aug 20, 2016)

I’m glad I just finished a giveaway with them because it will be my last.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

tknite said:


> Looks like they've given away 4 copies of one of my UF titles as well, the one I've got discounted to $0.99. Sales report claims I was paid for it, so I guess it's "okay." But it would've been nice if they'd, you know, MENTIONED they were going to promo me or whatever. Like, what the heck?


I know.

Here's my further thoughts on the subject:

I've been feeling kinda silly for getting so mad over the giveaways (at least it looks like we're getting paid for the books), but at the same time not. I think I figured out why I still have good reason to get mad.

It's just more of this attitude that authors, especially us self-pubbed authors, are SO DESPERATE for attention and exposure we'll do anything and put up with anything. "Hey, we'll give away your books without asking you or telling you and you'll love it because EXPOSURE!!!!"

Well, maybe free giveaways doesn't fit into our strategy for that book at this time. Or maybe we don't want to be associated with their ridiculous, overpriced program. Or, I don't know, maybe the book has some problems and is being re-edited (that was the case with my book they gave away; fortunately, I uploaded the new and improved version last week). Or maybe they could just let us know what the blazes is going on BEFORE we see a bunch of free downloads on our dashboards on books that aren't supposed to be free.

It's the lack of respect that's got me mad.


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## Guest (Nov 29, 2017)

I'm glad you guys are getting paid but, hell yeah, they should be asking permission. What are they playing at?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

About 120 downloads now, and I'm not seeing anything on my MTD spreadsheet.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> About 120 downloads now, and I'm not seeing anything on my MTD spreadsheet.


The only place where it shows it is on the ebook royalties tab. You've probably looked there already, but that's the only place. They don't make it easy to see what's going on. Maybe yours are just delayed showing up.


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## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

Kyra, if there's a giveaway running it should show up on the book's Goodreads page directly under the book's info. I looked and don't see it, but I guess if it was given out today then the giveaway ended yesterday? Is there any chance you could go back in time and check your book's Goodreads page to see if it's there? Just to satisfy my curiosity. This is super weird.


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## dkgould (Feb 18, 2013)

Kat M said:


> I'm glad you guys are getting paid but, hell yeah, they should be asking permission. What are they playing at?





Kyra Halland said:


> I know.
> 
> Here's my further thoughts on the subject:
> 
> ...


logging in in the first time in a long time to say mine were given away this month too, 17 so far and not even first in series which just kind of baffles me. I'm also upset about it-- it isn't the money, there are good reasons I haven't run giveaways on Goodreads. Like audience targeting reasons. And this takes that out of my control. If I somehow signed up for something in the TOS that I didn't realize, okay, that's on me, but they could have at least warned us. Now I'm worried about backlash or weird reviews for something I didn't prepare for. I don't think you are silly for being angry. I am too.


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## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

tknite said:


> I looked at my GR author dashboard and didn't see any ebook giveaways listed or unauthorized giveaways of any kind.


I think you'd have to catch it in the act on the book's page. I could be wrong, but I'm thinking what shows in your Author Dashboard are only the giveaways you've listed yourself.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

I'm only seeing them on one of seven active pen names, but across multiple titles under that name. And all the ones I've seen reported so far have been at full price. They're not on the Sales Dashboard. On the Month to Date report they show in the Free Units Promo tab. If you download the Excel file from the Sales Dashboard they show as Free-Goodreads Giveaway but then if you scroll to the far right you'll see that the payout is what it would be for a normal sale. For me this is $25 I wouldn't have made today so I have no problem with it.

How is this different from if someone loved your book and bought a copy for a friend?


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Kyra Halland said:


> I found a free unit on my Month to Date chart on KDP, and couldn't account for it. No perma-frees, none of the Amazon stores are price-matching to free, could be a Matchbook but not showing any corresponding paperback sales. Then I took a look at the sales spreadsheet and found this:
> 
> __
> https://flic.kr/p/ZVcTeS
> ...


Kyra, I saw in the later posts that you all got paid. I don't know how GR works but at least on Amazon it is entirely set up for anyone to be able to give your book away as an Amazon Giveaway. Amazon is not the one giving books away. It's most likely another author. Whoever sets it up does have to pay retail price though.

Maybe GR also allows for anyone to do a giveaway for any book, and someone picked yours? I don't know what incentive GR offers for people to do giveaway. But for Amazon giveaways, if I were a horror author, I can set up a giveaway for one of Stephen King's books to my readers and followers, and also choose to increase my Amazon followers or Twitter followers. Maybe GR provides something similar?

That said, hell no way I'd pay $199+ to do a GR giveaway.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)

> I looked at my GR author dashboard and didn't see any ebook giveaways listed or unauthorized giveaways of any kind.


This is so incredibly weird. Has anyone tried to contact Amazon or Goodreads for an explanation?


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## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

AlexaKang said:


> Maybe GR also allows for anyone to do a giveaway for any book, and someone picked yours?


One of the terms you have to agree to when listing a giveaway on Goodreads is this:
By listing your book on Goodreads for a giveaway, you confirm and agree that you are the author or publisher of the book or have the permission of the author or publisher to list the book for promotional purposes only.

So yes, I suppose someone could list another author's book but they'd have to click the "I have read and agree" box.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)

Whatever this is, it's huge. Just about every author I know has the Goodreads downloads. Maybe it's a massive glitch or maybe they're testing something.


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## Escapee (Jan 31, 2014)

I saw a bunch of 'free units-promo' on my reports today and sent an email to Amazon asking what was going on, since most of them were for full priced books. It will be interesting to see what their answer is.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Kay Camden said:


> Kyra, if there's a giveaway running it should show up on the book's Goodreads page directly under the book's info. I looked and don't see it, but I guess if it was given out today then the giveaway ended yesterday? Is there any chance you could go back in time and check your book's Goodreads page to see if it's there? Just to satisfy my curiosity. This is super weird.


It just showed up on my sales dashboard today.


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## A Dark Path (Aug 24, 2015)

Kay Camden said:


> Kyra, if there's a giveaway running it should show up on the book's Goodreads page directly under the book's info. I looked and don't see it, but I guess if it was given out today then the giveaway ended yesterday? Is there any chance you could go back in time and check your book's Goodreads page to see if it's there? Just to satisfy my curiosity. This is super weird.


I've just checked my month to date, and it logs two books given out as part of a Goodreads Giveaway. I'm also showing a royalty for each. Here's a strange thing though, the last time I checked my books had been requested about 7,000 times on Goodreads, and to be honest getting 'noticed' is the only reason I ever run giveaways. So here's my point: A giveaway usually results in the book being shelved by several hundred users. But I'm not seeing this. I'm still loitering around the 7,000 number. Go figure?

Anyways, the competition itself is a total ripoff. If you want to win a giveaway, enter during the final two hours it is running. It's almost a banker, and there is a clique of users who know this. Two of my last giveaways got shelved almost 3,700 times. And the same person won each time. To make matters worse, this person has been a Goodreads member since 2012, and in that time has written one review.


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## Miranda Honfleur (Oct 12, 2015)

Yep, I too am showing 14 "Free Units-Promo" between two books, and on the eBook Royalty tab of my KDP spreadsheet, it says: "Free - Goodreads Giveaway."

I get that this was probably somewhere in the TOS (knowing Amazon), but it would've been nice to get _some_ notice about it, as a courtesy at the least.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

David Brian said:


> Anyways, the competition itself is a total ripoff. If you want to win a giveaway, enter during the final two hours it is running. It's almost a banker, and there is a clique of users who know this. Two of my last giveaways got shelved almost 3,700 times. And the same person won each time. To make matters worse, this person has been a Goodreads member since 2012, and in that time has written one review.


Odd. I only ever won anything shortly after I signed up for a goodreads account. I won 3 books back then. Years ago, within a few month period. 
I have entered a bunch of them since and I haven not won even once again. Doesn't matter if I enter one that is about to end, just started, or what have you. Nothing, nada, nichts. I have given up entering. I always wondered how they pick the winners. I assume its random and as I never win anything else random in life, I just thought its a normal state of mind.


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## A Dark Path (Aug 24, 2015)

Atunah said:


> Odd. I only ever won anything shortly after I signed up for a goodreads account. I won 3 books back then. Years ago, within a few month period.
> I have entered a bunch of them since and I haven not won even once again. Doesn't matter if I enter one that is about to end, just started, or what have you. Nothing, nada, nichts. I have given up entering. I always wondered how they pick the winners. I assume its random and as I never win anything else random in life, I just thought its a normal state of mind.


This is a valid point. Three of my previous winners had joined Goodreads during the months my competitions ran. And, actually, the only time I ever won anything was shortly after joining the site. In theory they claim to pick prizewinners based on having shelved books in the same genre, writing reviews, writing reviews for any books previously won. None of which has proven applicable to any competition I've listed.
In summary: Join Goodreads and enter a Giveaway immediately = likely winner.
Enter competition just before it closes = likely winner.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

David Brian said:


> Actually you have a valid point. Three of my previous winners had joined Goodreads during the months my competitions ran. And, actually, the only time I ever won anything was shortly after joining the site. In theory they claim to pick prizewinners based on having listed books in the same genre, writing reviews, writing reviews for any books previously won. None of which has proven applicable to any competition I've listed.
> In summary: Join Goodreads and enter a Giveaway immediately = likely winner.
> Enter competition just before it closes = likely winner.


Hmm. Entering before it closes has never worked for me either. Reason I used to pick that is just in case I missed something since its so hard to search of sift through. So I always sorted by ending soon. Never made a difference in winning so I don't think that is it. I also review, I have 276 on goodreads and many more ratings. I always enter books in the genres I read, so those that are shelved, etc. Still nada. I don't have the right voodoo I guess.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Something is wonky with the reporting. I released a book a few hours ago. Bought it to test and it shows as Goodreads Giveaway-Free.


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## A Dark Path (Aug 24, 2015)

Atunah said:


> Hmm. Entering before it closes has never worked for me either. Reason I used to pick that is just in case I missed something since its so hard to search of sift through. So I always sorted by ending soon. Never made a difference in winning so I don't think that is it. I also review, I have 276 on goodreads and many more ratings. I always enter books in the genres I read, so those that are shelved, etc. Still nada. I don't have the right voodoo I guess.


I'm just rolling out of bed round about when the competition ends (due to location, not because I'm lazy! ), and my last half-dozen winners all entered right at the death. Who knows?
Either way, the competition is seriously flawed, and with these price listings it becomes a moot point.


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## A Dark Path (Aug 24, 2015)

Monique said:


> Something is wonky with the reporting. I released a book a few hours ago. Bought it to test and it shows as Goodreads Giveaway-Free.


That is bizarre.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Monique said:


> Something is wonky with the reporting. I released a book a few hours ago. Bought it to test and it shows as Goodreads Giveaway-Free.


That's weird


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## horrordude1973 (Sep 20, 2014)

I sometimes use amazon giveaways of my kindle book to gain Amazon followers. At least for now they don't seem to be charging extra for those.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Taking a closer look between my orders tab and me eBook Royalty tab I think the Free - Goodreads Giveaway entries are just standard sales that ended up with the wrong transaction code applied to them. I don't know why it was only on one of my pen names (others had sales during that period), but looks to me to just be a weird glitch. Someone failed to adequately test something before they rolled out a change to the production environment.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Cassie Leigh said:


> Taking a closer look between my orders tab and me eBook Royalty tab I think the Free - Goodreads Giveaway entries are just standard sales that ended up with the wrong transaction code applied to them. I don't know why it was only on one of my pen names (others had sales during that period), but looks to me to just be a weird glitch. Someone failed to adequately test something before they rolled out a change to the production environment.


Yeah, it looks like all of today's sales and downloads are going into that column.

*insert mental picture of someone in the IT team receiving a stern talking-to*


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> Yeah, it looks like all of today's sales and downloads are going into that column.
> 
> *insert mental picture of someone in the IT team receiving a stern talking-to*


Oops.

Whoever it is, I'm glad I'm not them.


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## Rose Andrews (Jun 1, 2017)

Kyra Halland said:


> I found a free unit on my Month to Date chart on KDP, and couldn't account for it. No perma-frees, none of the Amazon stores are price-matching to free, could be a Matchbook but not showing any corresponding paperback sales. Then I took a look at the sales spreadsheet and found this:
> 
> __
> https://flic.kr/p/ZVcTeS
> ...


FYI I've gotten 2 of these in the past week but I figured they were price matches (one of the books is permafree wide but I haven't yet made it so on Amazon). But the second book is paid. I have no idea how or why this happened.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Kyra Halland said:


> Yeah, someone else in the FAcebook group looked and they're getting paid, and I got paid for my book that they gave away (it's a 99 cent book, so yay). So maybe I got all mad over nothing. But, ya know, they could have asked? And I didn't even get the email about the new program.
> 
> Still not buying their stupid ripoff giveaway packages.


Perhaps they didn't tell you in case you started a big marketing campaign for a FREE book knowing that you would get paid


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## Rose Andrews (Jun 1, 2017)

tknite said:


> I looked at my GR author dashboard and didn't see any ebook giveaways listed or unauthorized giveaways of any kind.


Same here. I'm back to post that I went and looked and had 1 more unauthorized freebie. Not sure what's going on but I'd prefer it if someone asked me first before giving my book away for free.

Edit: if it's a glitch that makes more sense. I'm glad the mystery is solved!


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## A Dark Path (Aug 24, 2015)

Cassie Leigh said:


> Taking a closer look between my orders tab and me eBook Royalty tab I think the Free - Goodreads Giveaway entries are just standard sales that ended up with the wrong transaction code applied to them. I don't know why it was only on one of my pen names (others had sales during that period), but looks to me to just be a weird glitch. Someone failed to adequately test something before they rolled out a change to the production environment.


This issue being caused by a glitch certainly makes more sense, otherwise a lot more books would have been shelved on Goodreads by those entering all these competitions, and my figures have barely changed over the last months.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I got this reply from KDP:

"I checked your Sales Dashboard report and see that the units under free units' promo is because of "Free - Goodreads Giveaway" promotion under which your book was given for free. However, you have received royalties for the free units given under this promotion and this is the reason you do not see any free units reported on your Sales Dashboard graph.

To clarify it in a single sentence, customers have received your book for free, but you have received royalties for your books."

Sorry, this is BS. I did NOT authorise them to give my books away for free. Never mind I've been paid. They didn't ask me. If they had, I might have said yes. But they didn't. They fact that they will still pay me only marginally reduces my level of being pissed off.

I did not sign for KDP to give any of my paid books for free to anyone. Heck, they won't even price-match one of my books via the regular method.

*DO NOT GIVE AWAY MY BOOKS FOR FREE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION*


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

Was that the first-level response? Because as you know that first-level of responders are notorious for being wrong as many times as they're right.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

What do you know? My sales graph shows no free units for yesterday, but the month-to-date shows seven "free units-promo."

Is this a system-wide glitch? It certainly seems pretty common suddenly.

I raised the question. I think anyone affected should. The more inquiries, the more likely someone above first responder level will take note.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> *DO NOT GIVE AWAY MY BOOKS FOR FREE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION*


Well, they are going to look at this as "we bought your book and then gifted it to someone."

From a brand standpoint, you might not like devaluing your book, but I doubt there is much you can do about it. People buy things and then give them away all the time. Consider it a free promotion.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

IreneP said:


> Well, they are going to look at this as "we bought your book and then gifted it to someone."
> 
> From a brand standpoint, you might not like devaluing your book, but I doubt there is much you can do about it. People buy things and then give them away all the time. Consider it a free promotion.


Not the same at all. If someone buys a book and then gives it away, they do so in the capacity of being a private gift-giver to another private third (or fourth?) party. They don't do so from a position of a distributor, playing ball with the people who submit their work in good faith.

Again, I have no problem with things like this, if they let us know. If they'd have said "we're going to have a free day on goodreads and like to include your books," I'd have been COOL BEANZ. But not like this. This is misuse of trust.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

I've got a couple of books with this issue. I notice the Excel report doesn't match my sales dashboard, with a lag of several sales - is this normal? 

I assume this is a labelling glitch, due to how widespread it seems to be and how closely it seems to match legitimate sales. As usual, it would be nice to have some communication from Amazon on this issue.


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## renamed (Nov 27, 2015)

Patty Jansen said:


> I got this reply from KDP:
> 
> "I checked your Sales Dashboard report and see that the units under free units' promo is because of "Free - Goodreads Giveaway" promotion under which your book was given for free.
> 
> To clarify it in a single sentence, customers have received your book for free, but you have received royalties for your books."


Okay, so then when, where, and why was your book given away for free? That's what I'm curious about. I wonder if you could contact the Goodreads staff and ask if they could tell you this. Giveaways that are over still have a page on Goodreads, it just says "this giveaway has ended" or something like that.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Reporting glitches aside, I'm actually interested in what this program can do. Yes, $119 is expensive, but it was always expensive to ship out 5 - 10 paperbacks ($50+ usually after all the costs, then there was the time involved). So if I can give 100 copies away as kind of an ARC program thing, where Goodreads will nudge the winners to review, I think that could be really valuable. Not sure the value of adding the book to the to-read list; tend to think that'll probably get lost in the swirl, but maybe that could be helpful for word of mouth or additional exposure. 

I'm definitely going to try this for half off when it drops in January. And I wasn't a fan of the paperback giveaways at all. Just seems like a good opportunity to reach voracious readers and maybe build a presence on the world's largest reading social media platform. That's worth testing IMO.

Nick


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2017)

Yeah, as a reader I don't want to be forced to add books to my TBR shelf and I certainly don't want pesky follow-up emails from Goodreads about those books either.  I'm encountering mighty few people who are actually happy with these changes, whether they're writers or readers. All readers outside the U.S. are being shut out of giveaways now which is an enormous snub. Goodreads haven't mentioned whether they even intend to change that as time goes on or not.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Puddleduck said:


> So, costs more money for authors, and for readers, instead of getting a physical book, you only get an e-book, which most people would consider of less value. Sounds like Goodreads/Amazon is setting it up that this system is better for them and worse for both authors and readers. And the whole "forces readers to put the book on their TBR list" thing that it portrays as a benefit? Not from my perspective as a reader. I always untick that box when I enter a giveaway. If it's going to take that option away from me and force me to add it to my TBR shelf, I'm going to enter far fewer giveaways (well, I already don't enter many, but still).
> 
> Forcing people to add something to their TBR shelf isn't actually a benefit to anyone. I guess it's possible that it'll get someone to read it who otherwise would forget about it, but I think it's far more likely that readers will just get annoyed and/or completely ignore their TBR shelf.


Many of us readers have actually waited for ebooks to be available in goodreads giveaways. Its another reason I stopped entering the contests. I just can't read paperbooks anymore. I just much prefer reading on my kindles where I can control the font size so I can read comfortably. The value of a book is in the story for me, not the medium it comes in. Sure, I have some collectible type books in a shelf and some boxes, they are rare and not on ebook. They also have really cool covers. But I can't read them anymore, I can only look at them, which does me no good.

I know there were a few readers just on this board that wanted ebooks in goodreads giveaways or they just aren't entering. 
I don't really care if it adds anything to a shelf. Its not like one can't take it back off in a second if needed. But for most readers, the whole point of goodreads, books, giveaways is reading books one enjoys. And we track them and we share them that way with our friends and followers.

I know I have seen a book many many times pop up on my time line from folks I follow/friend when they entered a giveaway. Since I follow many people that like the same stuff I like, there is a good chance its a book I might be interested in. Getting it any which way, as long as its ebook.

Sure, many of you give books away different ways. Many of those ways mean having personal contact of some sorts with the author. There are many of us readers that do not want that. I don't want to sign up for newsletters, lists, or use raffle thingies. Giveaways like goodreads are for those of us that like their privacy, their separation from the authors. I just prefer approaching books that way. That way when I do review, I have no connections, nobody expecting anything from me. I disregard any and all arc and such type reviews when I look for books so I provide the same type reviews I look for. Unconnected in any way with the author.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

This doesn't seem to be a KU/wide thing either, just as another reference point. My odd 'goodreads giveaway' reportings are on both KU and non KU titles.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Lorri Moulton said:


> This is why I do Free days on KU. People can try the book and not have to do anything in return. I don't get many reviews (which is fine) but I do have people read the book. If they like it, they can (hopefully) tell their friends. As a reader, I like free books and ebooks are great for changing font sizes!


Yep, free books direct from amazon are also great of course. Same idea for me. Ebooks were and are a life changer for me. I hadn't read maybe more than 10 books in the couple years before 2008 when I got my first kindle. I just couldn't read paperbooks anymore. Font being one of the reasons. I read around 450 books in the first 2 years with my first kindle . I went from 0 to that. Priceless.


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## BillyDeCarlo (Apr 11, 2017)

Lorri Moulton said:


> This is why I do Free days on KU. People can try the book and not have to do anything in return. I don't get many reviews (which is fine) but I do have people read the book. If they like it, they can (hopefully) tell their friends. As a reader, I like free books and ebooks are great for changing font sizes!


Is there a way to tell that people actually read the giveaway books from free days on KU? I always imagined most of them just downloading because it's free and never getting around to it, as many are probably free-hoarders to some extent. It's one reason I always went with 99c rather than free, the fact that they have a little skin in the game raises the chance they will read it (slightly, probably).


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## Kathryn Meyer Griffith (May 6, 2013)

Hmmm...this has happened to me, too. I am NOT in KU and the eBooks that are now appearing (for the first time in 2 years...or since I left KU) in the "Free-units Promo" column are NOT eBOOKS I am offering for free at all. I hope they fix this because they are (according to my  Month-to-Date table) giving away some of my NOT-FREE eBooks and I never okayed it. Weird.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Reporting glitches aside, I'm actually interested in what this program can do. Yes, $119 is expensive, but it was always expensive to ship out 5 - 10 paperbacks ($50+ usually after all the costs, then there was the time involved). *So if I can give 100 copies away as kind of an ARC program thing, where Goodreads will nudge the winners to review, I think that could be really valuable. *Not sure the value of adding the book to the to-read list; tend to think that'll probably get lost in the swirl, but maybe that could be helpful for word of mouth or additional exposure.


I think that in an ARC program, you'd only get readers who are interested in your book, which increases the chances of positive reviews, and increases the chances of finding readers.

With Goodreads giveaways, there will be few giveaways for a bunch of readers, so readers who want to win prizes will enter every single giveaway. That means that you'll give 50 or 100 e-books to people who aren't necessarily interested in your book. That can backfire tremendously, especially if Goodreads is nudging these people to review.

For the paperback, we could give 3 paperbacks only, or even 1. I don't remember if there was a minimum (I did it with 3). So even if 3 people who don't really care about your book won it just because they entered every single giveaway, and if they don't like your book, that's fine. No harm done. You were added to some TBR lists and got a tiny visibility.

And I don't like the automatic adding to TBR lists. It just reduces the value of the lists and makes them even more meaningless than they already are.

So yes, in all I think 119 is not a lot to give away 50 or 100 ebooks, but I'd rather spend that money finding readers interested in my genre.


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## Escapee (Jan 31, 2014)

I received an email from Amazon yesterday that this is a widespread glitch and they're working on it. No details about what happened or when it will be resolved.


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## Kyle Alexander Romines (Aug 31, 2017)

I am sad to hear this. I loved doing Goodreads Giveaways and getting followers. I am still relatively new at this, and Goodreads was an inexpensive way to increase my visibility before I found out about promo sites or AMS or even mailing lists. In many ways it was my first baby step to try to increase awareness of my books. I used to love putting little extras with the package, like bookmarks or secret epilogues. I met some of my best supporters and reviewers there. But I have no plans  to pay money for the opportunity to give something away for free, especially when I can do the same thing with Amazon Giveaways for just the cost of the book and get followers in the process.


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## Adomwrites (Nov 2, 2015)

https://www.goodreads.com/help/list/giveaways

*Why aren't you offering free giveaways anymore?*

_With our new program, we have priced the package options to reflect the marketing value we are offering._

Marketing value? You mean the value of having someone add it to their "to-read" shelve (along with the other thousands of books they have there) and never paying attention to your book again? Or, the fact that you're going to pester people about reviewing the book they won which in turn will frustrate them resulting in a negative review.

I'd rather send that $119 on a Facebook ad, a Freebooksy, or a Booksends promotion that will directly affect my sales rank.


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

Adomwrites said:


> I'd rather send that $119 on a Facebook ad, a Freebooksy, or a Booksends promotion that will directly affect my sales rank.


I'm with you. I have two GR giveaways coming to an end in the next few days and they will be the last ones I run. I've come to the conclusion, as have many others here, that GR giveaways are a waste of time and money. I was looking through a handful of the readers that have added my books to their "To-Read" shelf and I've seen some that had over 100,000 books on that shelf.

Yeah, they really cared about my book.


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## srobards (Dec 1, 2017)

I found the first read giveaways excellent, only gave away one book, not for reviews but for the capacity it had to put the book on thousands of feeds from goodreads, facebook, and twitter if the the entry user had their a social network connected to their goodreads profile.

That said, I won't be paying for it though.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

shimmering said:


> As I understand it, the new program is only available in the US. I'm not clear as to whether that means US authors or US readers (or both). (am I right?)
> 
> Anyway, I'm not in the US. I'm in the UK. And I'm wondering whether I might run a giveaway to UK only in the new year under the old rules --- as the new rules do not apply. Does anyone know the answer as to whether or not this would be possible. Perhaps I should just write to goodreads and ask ...


It's only for US readers. Any author can run a giveaway. But do you want to run a giveaway that excludes people from the country where you live? I know I don't.


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

Accord64 said:


> The only thing that surprised me it is how long it took for the 'Zon to get their profit-hungry hands on it. I'm sure the next thing to come is premium GR memberships.
> 
> Disappointing, yes, but I stopped using GR giveaways. Over the past couple of years they've done nothing for me. Zero reviews. Zero anything. Just a few "author signed" copies showing up on eBay. In fact, there's one showing up as a "collectible" option on my Amazon product page.
> 
> The only real no-cost giveaway options left are LibraryThing and Booklikes. Did I miss anything?


Yeah i agree.

Well it wasn't that good anyway.

Amazon is so damn greedy now


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

shimmering said:


> As I understand it, the new program is only available in the US. I'm not clear as to whether that means US authors or US readers (or both). (am I right?)
> 
> Anyway, I'm not in the US. I'm in the UK. And I'm wondering whether I might run a giveaway to UK only in the new year under the old rules --- as the new rules do not apply. Does anyone know the answer as to whether or not this would be possible. Perhaps I should just write to goodreads and ask ...


Actually there are a number of problems

1. You now have to pay ( it used to be free )

2. Unless you pay the premium amount of 299 i believe it is, your book will not end up in the USUAL giveaway place. STANDARD ( $59) only gets your book to show up in your goodreads friends feed. Which means you aren't going to get the exposure like you did before, especially if you have only 200 friends. Oh and goodreads limits the number of friends you can add.

3. If you have multiple pen name accounts ( good reads ) only 1 can be linked to your amazon account if you want to do a kindle giveaway.

The whole thing is crap. Greedy people at the top.


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## Bob Stewart (Mar 19, 2014)

thevoiceofone said:


> 2. Unless you pay the premium amount of 299 i believe it is, your book will not end up in the USUAL giveaway place. STANDARD ( $59) only gets your book to show up in your goodreads friends feed. Which means you aren't going to get the exposure like you did before, especially if you have only 200 friends. Oh and goodreads limits the number of friends you can add.


Can you post a link verifying this?

On their Faq it only says the the $299 option includes "Premium placement on Goodreads' Giveaways page with tens of millions of visitors each month, giving your giveaway significantly more visibility and entrants."

I took that to mean that they'll be listed before other listings.


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## DJ Edwardson (Mar 15, 2013)

So my $59 giveaway went live on Saturday. It's the third day in and I currently have 61 people requesting and I am giving away 100 kindle copies.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/275553-the-last-motley

Very underwhelmed at this point. I did a physical giveaway a few years ago and got 500+ requests and one bad review out of it so I had not ventured to try it since then. I was lured out of my complacency by the prospect of giving away digital copies and not having to mail them. Also, my book is releasing Feb 6th so with the introductory pricing I figured I would give it a shot.

The one positive is that it has caused the book to be added to about 50 more "to-read" shelves and I don't recall that happening with the last giveaway. Seems like this is just a very high price, though, for getting the book on readers' shelves. From my experience, getting books on "to-read" shelves does not translate into a great number of sales.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

DJ Edwardson said:


> So my $59 giveaway went live on Saturday. It's the third day in and I currently have 61 people requesting and I am giving away 100 kindle copies.
> 
> https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/275553-the-last-motley
> 
> ...


With a print copy giveaway you can get CreateSpace to mail them directly to the winners .
Giveaway books automatically go onto the 'to read' shelf unless you untick it. I doubt if very many people who enter actually go on to buy and read the book


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2018)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Giveaway books automatically go onto the 'to read' shelf unless you untick it.


Adding the giveaway book to the TBR shelf is now compulsory, which has caused much discussion on GR and users are not happy about losing that tick box.

I used to run international giveaways for paperbacks and would usually see 2,000-3,000 entries for 1 book. I'll be following results of the new giveaways with interest as given all the criteria now (US only, users who have linked Amazon & GR only, MUST shelf book as TBR) and talk on GR would indicate that entries will be down significantly.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Glad someone bumped this thread. Totally forgot about it. Just submitted a giveaway for my newest urban fantasy novel. 20 digital copies, set to run for about 10 days. We'll see how that goes. Linking the KDP account and going through the setup process was painless. From what I can remember, the setup is basically identical, save for the part where you pay (via Amazon Pay). For the $59 special price, it'll cost me less than the paperback giveaways did, anyway, and it only took 3 minutes, so if it's useless, at least I won't be out much money/time. 

Nick


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## Rich Amooi (Feb 14, 2014)

Okay, I decided to splurge and try the premium giveaway for $299.00, since it was half price. I have no idea what to expect, but I'll let you know how it goes. I had over 1500 entries the last time I gave away a signed paperback copy of one of my books internationally, so it will be interesting to compare the difference in entries, as well as the placement on the page. I'll be giving away 100 copies of _Mr. Crotchety_ starting tomorrow.


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## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> With a print copy giveaway you can get CreateSpace to mail them directly to the winners .
> Giveaway books automatically go onto the 'to read' shelf unless you untick it. I doubt if very many people who enter actually go on to buy and read the book


Exactly. The first giveaway I ran garnered me 800+ people "interested" in the volume. And, of course, most of them "added" it to their to-be-read list (via the checkoff box that they didn't clear). Including the one guy who already had 70,000+ books on his list (that's NOT a typo). Out of the three giveaways I ran, I got two good reviews and one mediocre review by someone who didn't like the book but felt compelled to review it because they won a copy. Ah, well.


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

I forgot about this too--my giveaway test went live yesterday and I have 75 requestors so far. No idea if that's good or not; great for me since this is the first time I've tried this.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/276094-beacon-s-spark

Guess I'll pop it over to my FB and mailing list. More readers and eyes on the book doesn't hurt.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I can't see that the Giveaway of an ebook has any benefits for the reader over getting a 'freebie', unless it is a book that the author never usually gives away free. Reviews from Giveaway print books are mostly hit and miss, but I think readers feel more of an obligation to review if they've received a physical copy of the book. 
The only benefit for the author would be more, or different, eyes on the book. Be interesting to see if the reviews pan out the same as the freebie reviews: 'I don't usually read this genre so I didn't enjoy it"  .  Or am I missing something?


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

I've done many Goodreads giveaways that garnered hundreds of entries, but it's hard to measure the ROI once it's over. Like Jan said, reviews are hit and miss. A few years ago, you might sell some ebook copies but that didn't seem to be true anymore in 2017. Not sure about now. Is Goodreads advertising the book to readers who didn't win? Then it might be worth the hefty price tag.


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## DJ Edwardson (Mar 15, 2013)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I can't see that the Giveaway of an ebook has any benefits for the reader over getting a 'freebie', unless it is a book that the author never usually gives away free.


Psychologically, I would think that winning a book (digital or print) would instill more value for that book in the minds of the winners since it required some extenuating circumstances to acquire. You are also now one of a select group of winners so the copy you hold has more value (scarcity = value). With a true freebie it's just click and get. Overall the experience is a bit more serendipitous. It's nice to win things.

I do agree that receiving a print book would make readers even more likely to read and review a book since paper costs more than pixels.

Having said this, I'm still skeptical about the ROI for authors on this.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

I'm confused. 

I live in Canada, so ebook giveaways are not available for me (as a reader). But if I go to the Goodreads giveaways, I still see print giveaways, and many of them were recently listed.

I just wanted to confirm if it's true. The new giveaway rules state that they are only available for US readers, but, again, that's not what I'm seeing. 

Anyone else experiencing something similar? 

EDIT: Nevermind. As a test, I tried to list a giveaway, and it's only available for US entrants. Sorry, but it sucks. And I don't understand why I see giveaways available for Canada. I think they are from trad publishers. That's super infuriating. 

I think it sucks because it means a lot less exposure than before. Before, most authors (being cheap), listed giveaways only to the US or US and Canada. If you listed to more countries, you'd get a lot more entries. I guess it's over now. It also means that you have to pay for a lot less exposure.


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

Tilly said:


> I used to run international giveaways for paperbacks and would usually see 2,000-3,000 entries for 1 book. I'll be following results of the new giveaways with interest as given all the criteria now (US only, users who have linked Amazon & GR only, MUST shelf book as TBR) and talk on GR would indicate that entries will be down significantly.


I checked back in the middle of December, to see how many giveaways there were and there were 101 pages of giveaways. Right now there are 93 pages and I would assume that, as the last of the Free giveaways ends, that number will go down. Even if it falls to ten pages, it will still be a bit of a cash cow for GR. Imagine that every ad is the lowest price ad at $119. There are thirty ads to a page. That's $35,700 for basically doing nothing.


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## Adomwrites (Nov 2, 2015)

I just went over the FAQ of the kindle giveaway. Apparently Goodreads purchases the Kindle version of your book and delivers them directly to the winners. So, if you have 100 entrances and your book cost $2.99, I suppose the $119 price tag is justifiable. If they leave a review on Amazon it will show up as a verified purchase. I guess this is good news.


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## kalencap (Jan 20, 2012)

So, started a short duration (one week) one today as well - 52 people requesting so seems in line with what others have stated. Mine might be running a little light, but am seeing what happens the first day before posting to a bunch of mystery sites.

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/278338-the-ancient-tripod-of-peace

Given that this wasn't even an option with the launch of my first novel way back in 2012, thought I'd try it out. Other than getting it listed on goodreads book shelves for requestors, not sure what the advantage of getting so many more to request than what is available. Hoping it results in an eventual review or two since it is a challenge to get someone to break the ice.


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## Dean F. Wilson (Aug 15, 2014)

I tried a Goodreads Giveaway on two books (I got a discount on the giveaways) and it was a bad decision. It ruined the Also Boughts for both, far worse than any free promo would. I don't think I got any reviews from it either. I'd avoid these.


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## kalencap (Jan 20, 2012)

kalencap said:


> So, started a short duration (one week) one today as well - 52 people requesting so seems in line with what others have stated. Mine might be running a little light, but am seeing what happens the first day before posting to a bunch of mystery sites.
> 
> http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/278338-the-ancient-tripod-of-peace
> 
> Given that this wasn't even an option with the launch of my first novel way back in 2012, thought I'd try it out. Other than getting it listed on goodreads book shelves for requestors, not sure what the advantage of getting so many more to request than what is available. Hoping it results in an eventual review or two since it is a challenge to get someone to break the ice.


So, almost to the 100 request mark at the halfway point. For both the mystery and young adult genres, a week seems to work for seamlessly moving from decent display in the recently listed to the ending soon columns. That is what I was hoping for with a short giveaway of one week (+ a few hours). This way the novel will be in the hands of the recipients quicker as well. Again, that fits better with my goals for it whereas others may have other goals in mind.

Will see if I get more than 100 copies requested, but don't expect much more than that. All postings for this have been free other than the initial giveaway setup.


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## My_Txxxx_a$$_Left_Too (Feb 13, 2014)

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## GoingAnon (Jan 16, 2014)

ORIGINAL POST MODIFIED SEPT 21, 2018. I do not accept nor do I consent to KBoards/VerticalScope's Terms of Service which were implemented without proper notification. As I await a response regarding my request for full account and content deletion - pursuant to GDPR - my continued use of this forum should not be construed as consent to, nor acceptance of, KBoards/VerticalScope's aforementioned Terms of Service.


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## GoingAnon (Jan 16, 2014)

ORIGINAL POST MODIFIED SEPT 21, 2018. I do not accept nor do I consent to KBoards/VerticalScope's Terms of Service which were implemented without proper notification. As I await a response regarding my request for full account and content deletion - pursuant to GDPR - my continued use of this forum should not be construed as consent to, nor acceptance of, KBoards/VerticalScope's aforementioned Terms of Service.


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## Adomwrites (Nov 2, 2015)

Has anyone received in actual reviews after their giveaway?


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

Adomwrites said:


> Has anyone received in actual reviews after their giveaway?


Nope, not one. And to update my "analysis" from a few months ago, back in December there were over 100 pages of giveaways on Goodreads. That's 30 books per page, so we're talking over 3000 books. By the middle of January, that number had dropped to 93 pages or about 2800 books. Right now, today, there are 32 pages of giveaways or about 960 giveaways. I imagine that this number will continue to fall as authors realize that $120 is an awful lot to pay to give away a book without much hope of any positive results.

And no, getting your book on the Want To Read lists of everyone that signs up for your book ISN'T all that. A lot of those "readers" that sign up for your giveaway have tens of thousands of books on their Want To Read list. I'm not going to hold my breath that those that put put my book on their list will actually read it.


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## Variath (Sep 22, 2017)

Dear All,

I am new in this forum, good to see you all.
My Goodreads Giveaway started for my book "The Peacewoods" ends on 4th June. Clink the link below.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/280525-the-peacewoods


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