Help with Amazon Giveaway

[IsadoraSpiegel]

So, I'm currently doing research for, specifically, Amazon.com author giveaways as a way to promote my recently published book. I've never done this before and I admit I am a little frustrated because the actual mechanics of it seem a little confusing, particularly choosing prizes. Like, you can select from eligible prizes on the Amazon website to also giveaway in addition to the book? So, it's not just "free book" there's an added incentive to even get involved?

Also, how do I choose prizes that people will want? It's an erotic post-apoc with nightmarish creatures. Could I select something like plush heartless from KH or Silent Hill DVDs with copies of the book because of similar monster themes or would I get in trouble for using their works to promote my own?

Anyone who has held one before, I'd love to hear from you, and any links to resources I can look at to really explain each part of this process. Videos, tutorials, blog articles, anything at all. I'm just looking to amass all of this information right now to eventually host a couple of these things this summer.
(it was suggested that I try asking this here as well)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Anything where you give something away that you have to buy from Amazon before you can give it away, is suspect as away to produce revenue for Amazon not for you.

With Amazon, stay away from anything that benefits Amazon and not you monetarily.

 

[IsadoraSpiegel]

Anything where you give something away that you have to buy from Amazon before you can give it away, is suspect as away to produce revenue for Amazon not for you.

With Amazon, stay away from anything that benefits Amazon and not you monetarily.

Okay, so, what other sort of giveaway is there? Do giveaways not work? Because I thought the whole point was to put the book in people's hands.

 

[lovecraft68]

That doesn't sound legit.

You can give your book away for free on amazon if you enroll it in kindle unlimited. Supposedly in that program you get paid a very(and I mean very) small amount per read-and I don't know how they calculate that-and if anyone who downloads your book keeps it as one of the ten they are allowed for free during the month.

But....you have to be exclusive with them, which is insanity.

And from talking with a lot of people who did this, your book gets a lot of downloads because its free, then when that is over and you charge for it, you get nothing at all.

I know others will disagree, but free benefits you nothing these days, charge for it and any sale you get you at least made something. Otherwise you're feeding the vultures who have never paid for an e-book in their lives.

 

[sr71plt]

If you have other books to launch at the same time, doing a freebee of a short piece can help a bit with publicity. A bit. If this is your only book to release in the near future, there isn't much reason to just give it away unless the only thing you're interested in is that a some people read it without you knowing much about who or how many or why.

Doing a free giveaway becomes less and less beneficial with time, because there's so much of it out there for free (and here too) that a good many readers never are going to pay to read anything--even anything of yours after you've given them something for free.

The flip side of this, which has always amazed me, is that I can leave something in the marketplace even after posting it here, and there are still folks in the marketplace that will buy it.

 

[lovecraft68]

Doing a free giveaway becomes less and less beneficial with time, because there's so much of it out there for free

Smashwords says right on their home page they have 63,739 free books.

407,222 books total

So roughly 1 in every 6.3 or so books are free. Its amazing anyone gets sales over there and also shows why free gets nothing, because it proves your point of there being too much.

I at times wonder why sites allow so many free books? They make nothing on them either.

 

[Learin]

I at times wonder why sites allow so many free books? They make nothing on them either.

In the hopes that someday those free loaders start buying books from the same author. Almost like an investment. It costs almost nothing to add a new page to a website for a free book.

I'm very choosy regarding what I buy and read. If it's from an author I've never heard from, I would definitely like to sample their work before giving away my money.

 

[IsadoraSpiegel]

In the hopes that someday those free loaders start buying books from the same author. Almost like an investment. It costs almost nothing to add a new page to a website for a free book.

I'm very choosy regarding what I buy and read. If it's from an author I've never heard from, I would definitely like to sample their work before giving away my money.

See, this is what I thought was the point of it. Because if I was given a free book, like I won a prize, I think I'd be more likely to talk about it. Also, same here as a reader. I will often read extensively about a book before buying it if I've never read anything by the author before and if it's a nobody, I'll read whatever free samples they have available. I've been burned by a$.99 purchase before and regretted the spent dollar because the author is unreadable.

 

[sr71plt]

Of course LC and I have been in the book market for years and seen it at work. But, sure, try out whatever you think might work, if you like.

 

[IsadoraSpiegel]

Of course LC and I have been in the book market for years and seen it at work. But, sure, try out whatever you think might work, if you like.

Well, thank you both for your input anyway. I do really appreciate the difference of opinion and I'll take it into consideration. My book has been out a month and I'm willing to try new things to help promote it.

Still looking for anyone who's held a giveaway of any kind, either on Amazon or otherwise to give me a couple pointers.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, thank you both for your input anyway. I do really appreciate the difference of opinion and I'll take it into consideration. My book has been out a month and I'm willing to try new things to help promote it.

Still looking for anyone who's held a giveaway of any kind, either on Amazon or otherwise to give me a couple pointers.

If you launched the book a month ago, you need to check with whoever you launched it with to know if the deal with them allows you to offer the book for free anywhere at all. And again, if you only have one book available, giving it away for free isn't going to get you anywhere. Such offers are something you'd consider when you have other books to sell--now, not somewhere in your intentions.

But, yes, do whatever you like and make your own discoveries about marketing erotica.

 

[IsadoraSpiegel]

If you launched the book a month ago, you need to check with whoever you launched it with to know if the deal with them allows you to offer the book for free anywhere at all. And again, if you only have one book available, giving it away for free isn't going to get you anywhere. Such offers are something you'd consider when you have other books to sell--now, not somewhere in your intentions.

But, yes, do whatever you like and make your own discoveries about marketing erotica.

Who I have a deal with? What does that mean? Are you talking about my coauthor? We're making these decisions together. Are you talking about the site we published through? We self published with createspace and amazon; thats why it says amazon giveaway in the thread title. This is one book as part of a trilogy that the other parts will be released later this year.

 

[sr71plt]

Who I have a deal with? What does that mean? Are you talking about my coauthor? We're making these decisions together. Are you talking about the site we published through? We self published with createspace and amazon; thats why it says amazon giveaway in the thread title. This is one book as part of a trilogy that the other parts will be released later this year.

If you published through Amazon and you're considering an Amazon giveaway, seems you should be talking to Amazon about this. You've heard enough here to make your decision on a book giveaway in your circumstance, I think. I don't know of any Amazon paperback giveaway deals (and my publisher does publish paperbacks for me through Createspace), only about the Kindle one, which has a very specific and limited usefulness, as already noted. So, if you find an Amazon program and decide to go with it, you'll be a trailblazer as far as published folks here know, I think, and we'll be looking forward to you reporting back on what it's done for you.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I once offered a short story for free on Smashwords. I let it go for two days. It was downloaded 636 times. Once I changed the price back to $0.99 downloads stopped and for months no one purchased it. Not until I wrote a part 2. Those who hadn't gotten in on the freebie bought it to see what was going on.

My opinion...if you going to sell books, don't give them away. They can sample the first 10, 20, n % of your book online to get an idea what and how you write. Why give them the whole thing for free, if your final objective is to make some money.

The only free stuff I have is what I post here at Lit.

 

[Handley_Page]

Okay, so, what other sort of giveaway is there? Do giveaways not work? Because I thought the whole point was to put the book in people's hands.

Maybe, but at who's expense ?

 

[HandsInTheDark]

The flip side of this, which has always amazed me, is that I can leave something in the marketplace even after posting it here, and there are still folks in the marketplace that will buy it.

There are a LOT of people who want a little titillation from erotic romance, or ever harder stuff, who would never in their wildest dreams have anything to do with a sleazy site like Literotica. (I mean incest and whoring wives, who wants anything to do with that vileness when you just want a hot romance?) Other folk will assume the paid version has improvements (and who's going to compare word for word to check that?). Still others would feel that authors should be recompensed. Others are under the illusion that owning a copy on an e-reader gives them more reliable or more private access than a website. An e-reader can at least be more convenient...

 

[lovecraft68]

In the hopes that someday those free loaders start buying books from the same author. Almost like an investment. It costs almost nothing to add a new page to a website for a free book.

I'm very choosy regarding what I buy and read. If it's from an author I've never heard from, I would definitely like to sample their work before giving away my money.

But the fact you'll give away some money at some point makes you the minority. When free was a rarer thing it worked, now most are doing it. When people read a free book they like, they are no more apt to buy another from that author, they are more apt to wait for the next free one from them or someone else.

People have gotten spoiled by the huge glut of free because every author is trying it, many every time they put out a new book are offering free for its first few days, then charging....so anyone who saw it and was interested while it was new and at the top of the search lists got it for free, then you think you'll make sales on it?

Amazon has tailed off greatly in general and much of that is them trying to force out indy authors to kiss big six ass and anyone who has been selling for a few years can tell you that.

Another part of it is all their free schticks like Unlimited and kindle select, part is their policy of allowing people to buy and return with no limit. There are people who but an e-book read it then say they don't want it and they will do it a dozen times a month and amazon lets them.

So its no wonder sales have really sank there.

Then you have SW who as I noted 1/6 books site wide are free and Mark Coker who runs it is going around blogging about the power of free Apparently he doesn't like to make anything on 16% of the books flooding his site, he is also no longer involved in any of the day to day operations of that site(and it shows) he now thinks he's a public speaker touring the country doing e-workshops and again touting this gimmick that only works for very few people nowadays.

But I suppose free brings people to the site and that's worth something, but only if they sooner or later buy and why the hell should they?

I always buy and I know there are others like me, but we're the minority. I will only briefly mention(so no on turns this political) the sorry state of the economy makes free and free only a big draw.

I've been working with a publisher lately who is putting me on some additional platforms I no longer have time to do the work for, as it is I put myself up on six sites, they are putting me on a few more.

They have been publishing since 2001 and have seen the salad years of e-publishing and all the witch hunts and etc, they have vast experience and represent close to three hundred authors.

They made a policy change several months ago that they will no longer publish a free book. If their author wants to try free they need to do the work themselves because it is work for the publisher and at no reward because at one point 90 of their authors were doing free at the same time.

People are free(no pun) to do as they choose. I have never done a free book, because I know no one who has had any success with one. Success equaling more than a few dollars anyway.

I make $800-$1000 a month on my books with never giving into the vultures. I see no reason to start now as its not like I'm quitting the day job over that income.

I'll add one more point to the ramble for those who post free here and sell and that's many of us, do not advertise lit when you're trying to sell.

No offense to Lit at all, but there are people here trying to sell books and on the same social media platforms they are linking their lit contest stories and begging for votes or advertising them as a 'free story to my fans' and....

You just brought someone who might have bought your book to a site with hundreds of thousands of stories, the kind you're trying to sell.

Counterproductive, no?

 

[Learin]

My point was, even if I could attract a few couple of people who are willing to pay for a completely unknown series penned by yours truly, that would be a success for me.

Today's ebook market is saturated beyond imagination. Getting an ebook out in the market isn't enough. If your status is null, you have to build it. Quality matters, as does reputation. But advertisement and word of mouth is what sells a book profitably.

Just posting a free ebook on smashwords isn't enough. You'll only attract all the 'jackals' you've mentioned earlier. Advertising in the right places helps too. And more that, the word of mouth that's more effective and convincing than blatant ads.

I agree with your points, but you're missing out the key reasons for any free ebook not having success in their successive series.

(Also, I make my statements for those ebook series with relatively good quality material, having the first book free and still not getting any sales.)

 

[sr71plt]

My point was, even if I could attract a few couple of people who are willing to pay for a completely unknown series penned by yours truly, that would be a success for me.

Today's ebook market is saturated beyond imagination. Getting an ebook out in the market isn't enough. If your status is null, you have to build it. Quality matters, as does reputation. But advertisement and word of mouth is what sells a book profitably.

Just posting a free ebook on smashwords isn't enough. You'll only attract all the 'jackals' you've mentioned earlier. Advertising in the right places helps too. And more that, the word of mouth that's more effective and convincing than blatant ads.

I agree with your points, but you're missing out the key reasons for any free ebook not having success in their successive series.

(Also, I make my statements for those ebook series with relatively good quality material, having the first book free and still not getting any sales.)

I think you've also missed a key issue in the OP's circumstance. There are no other works on offer now to benefit from a free giveaway of any sort. That's the only work on offer. You're not advertising anything but a single free work. You can't use it to promote your other works for sale if you don't have any other works for sale.

 

[Learin]

You're right.

My bad.