Hey there, bookworms! I ran a book giveaway over on my TikTok and wanted to give y’all a little update. The giveaway ran from April 25th to May 2nd. So let’s talk about what happened with my recent (and first EVER) book giveaway!
To enter the giveaway, all you had to do was follow me on TikTok, comment, and share the post. And boy, did we welcome a whole bunch of new followers! In fact, a whopping 603 book lovers joined my little community during that time. It warms my heart to see so many people sharing their passion for spicy dark fantasy books.
What made the giveaway even more special was the incredible comments. It seems like a lot of people really loved the covers of both Kingdom of Ash & Shadow and Kingdom of Shadow & Ice. Your enthusiasm for books and the support you showed is truly amazing.
Let’s talk numbers for a moment. The post received an impressive 124 saves, indicating that many of you found the content worth revisiting. Additionally, we reached a wide audience with 6,000 views. But it doesn’t stop there! The giveaway also garnered 226 shares, spreading the word far and wide, and a lot of people tagged their friends for an extra entry. And let’s not forget the love shown through 955 likes. Your engagement and appreciation truly made the giveaway a success and so much fun.
After the winners were announced on my channel, I chatted with them and sent their chosen copies. One winner chose a hardcover and one chose a softcover. The winner who chose the softcover actually posted about it, she was so excited, which was really endearing and encouraging as an author. It makes me do a little happy dance every time someone posts about my books and shares their enthusiasm.
It is now the end of June, and I have a few key takeaways and tips from doing a book giveaway that I would like to pass on if you’re thinking of doing a giveaway yourself.
1
As viewers enter the giveaway, make subscribing to your newsletter a mandatory step, ensuring that their interest in your content extends beyond the fleeting excitement of the giveaway itself and so that you have another way to reach your audience if social media fails for some reason.
2
Have a way to track the entries beforehand, I went in blind, would not recommend dicking around with figuring out how to download over 1,000 comments in order to tally who entered how many times.
I think next time I do a giveaway, I’m going to set up a special submission form and it’s one entry per person or find some easier metric to track. Honestly, I don’t know if I have an amazing, mind-blowing solution at this moment, but do your own research is the main takeaway.
3
Know that doing a giveaway does cost money, but that the $10 you might spend on shipping (that’s in the continental 48 states for me, shipping from Wisconsin) is totally worth it.
Having a good relationship with your fans, the amount of exposure you gain, and buzz your book will get even from smaller creators — all amazing tools you can use in your marketing and building a genuine audience of ideal readers.
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