Writerly Rant #64

By M.J. Moores, OCT. Author. Editor. Freelance Writer.

So, I was part of a giveaway run by a small publishing house based out of the United States yesterday. They are somewhat of a “start up” so their author and fan-base is still relatively small compared to more established companies.

But, they have a good following on twitter, they use their hash-tags appropriately, send word to their facebook followers on a daily basis, utilize their website and all of the participating authors in the giveaway make use of their social media contacts (as I did) too – even my own publishing house re-tweeted my posts!

Of all the names of people who stopped by the event giveaway page, only one was new to me. The other names were staff members of the small publisher holding the event, participating authors, and a few of my friends and colleagues.

Talk about a lunch-bag let down.

And the winners of my personal giveaway? Of the three available prizes, two are already owned by the random draw winners. At this point, all I can do is hope they gift their winnings to someone interested in reading science fiction…

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love that my friends and colleagues supported the hell out of me, but in the end only one new reader actually won a prize. Isn’t the point of holding these things to draw in new and curious readers who want free stuff?

How do you get these things to actually work?

I mean… I really wanted to give some stuff away!

Categories: Rants, Writerly Rants

Tags: author publicity, book giveaway, giveaway, M.J. Moores, marketing, opinion, question, rant, writerly rant