A Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Your Book - Blog #6: New Goodreads Platform
Hello readers, followers, and fellow indie authors!
February is upon us, so the New Year is truly underway. With every New Year, one might say there are new possibilities, but an optimist might argue that every day brings new opportunities! Every day also brings changes, but oftentimes, these changes actually create new opportunities as well. It’s natural to be a bit hesitant – perhaps even resistant – towards changes, but uncertainty should never hold anyone back from what could be a wonderful opportunity.
On that note, for our sixth blog in “A Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Your Book,” we’ve decided to talk about a change we’re navigating in real-time. As indie authors, we’re always on the hunt for new marketing ideas. Goodreads has always been an excellent platform for reaching interested readers and getting reviews, and it’s also our favorite way to provide free book giveaways! Yet, many of you have probably noticed that Goodreads no longer offers free book giveaway services to authors. So, in order to host a giveaway, authors must choose among standard and premium packages, which are priced at $119 and $599, respectively. However, they ran a 50% off discount in January, so we jumped on the standard package.
It might seem on the surface like paying to give away free books (not to mention the costs of the books and postage) would in no way be lucrative for authors. Many indie authors, whose budgets can’t compete with those of major publishing houses, are especially dismayed by the recent change. Yet, it is worth mentioning that Goodreads did add some enhancements to their free book giveaways, including a follow-up email that prods readers to leave reviews. They’ll also ping more readers who have shown interest in your books.
Will these features actually generate further interest, yield more reviews, and perhaps even lead to sales? We’re here to find out! While it remains to be seen whether the advantages of the new system will outweigh its costs, we decided to take a risk because we had planned to host a giveaway in early 2018 anyhow.
Our free book giveaway began in January 2018, but now you only have until today, February 24th, 2018 to enter for a chance to win a signed copy of any book in our sci-fi series! We are giving away three copies of each of our three books in the Computer Love Inc. thriller series for a total of nine free novels! In aggregate, entries for our free book giveaway exceeded 1700 entries! So, fellow indie writers, you can see that giveaways do indeed continue to generate interest!
As writers of a sci-fi series, we know that anything can happen. We’re hoping that our new Goodreads giveaway will attract some readers, and that this blog will inform and encourage fellow indies. In the meantime, we’re happy to be your Guinea pigs! Keep an eye out for an upcoming post in which we’ll share our results.
-Kurt & Jess
