One Year Later: Goodreads on Its Paid Giveaways Program

A year after Amazon’s Goodreads platform started charging for book giveaways in both Kindle and print formats, the company reports that giveaway use is up—and effective

In January last year, Amazon-owned Goodreads started charging for giveaways on its site while also opening up an ebook giveaway program to all authors. As we wrote prior to that launch, Goodreads has become an attractive marketing and promotion platform because of its ability to get books in front of highly engaged readers—with the giveaway as a key tactic.

A single Goodreads giveaway fee of $119 covers up to 100 books (print or ebook); a premium $599 edition of the program offers additional exposure on the highly trafficked giveaways page. The basic starter page on which you choose between a Kindle or print book giveaway is here (login required), and an extensive FAQ is here.

The newly revamped program is more successful than ever on a numbers basis. Otis Chandler, the co-founding CEO of Goodreads, says, “We’ve seen a 31 percent year-over-year increase in the number of books given away in giveaways.” Also, Chandler says there now are 252,000 authors participating in the Goodreads Author Program. When we wrote just over a year ago about the giveaways program, the platform had more than 65 million members. Today it has more than 80 million.

Like any large operation in the commercial sector, it’s not without its problems. Goodreads is known for sharply toned reader reviews and behavior, at times with uneven efforts by the company at policing and intervention. By and large, however, Amazon’s ownership has come with a fairly light touch. Still, indie authors have long questioned the value of Goodreads giveaways (even when they cost nothing) and consider it a wasted investment. They believe the giveaways end up in the hands of members who may not read and may in fact resell copies. Traditional publishers, however, are more likely to look on the program positively. For example, Goodreads teamed up with Penguin Press at BookExpo last year to present a study of Penguin’s deployment of six giveaways in 2017 in its year-long campaign for Celeste Ng’s bestselling Little Fires Everywhere. You can review Goodreads’ report on that case study here.

In response to publisher and author requests, Chandler says Goodreads automatically adds a book to the Want-to-Read list of anyone who enters a giveaway. That, in turn, generates a “story” in the user’s newsfeed, so the promotion is socially amplified. Also, in October the system began including giveaways that target Canadian residents. Chandler says that more country updates will be forthcoming.

At our request, Chandler and his team provided us with what they feel are their own best tips for maximizing the effects of Goodreads giveaways:

• The book description in the giveaway is critical. Like the proverbial elevator pitch, it needs to grab readers’ attention and persuade them to read the book. The team talks about “that all-important first sentence.” If you have reviews of the book in hand, Goodreads suggests you comb them for clues to what readers are saying they liked most about your book and incorporate that into your description.
• Offer as many copies as you can. Users are drawn to giveaways that have a high number of chances to win. You’re also generating more opportunities to get reads.
• As in all social-media settings, your bio is key. Review your Goodreads author profile bio. Goodreads displays the first few sentences of that bio, plus a Follow Author button, on the giveaway’s custom landing page. As with the book’s description, you want to nab interest with your bio’s opening lines.
• Run your first giveaway for a book several months ahead of publication. This goes back to those use-case reports the company has been compiling: the success stories show that the earlier you can start building reviews, the stronger your book page when heavier attention arrives. You can also time a giveaway around your publication date, of course, to create more excitement in that critical period.
• Maximize the premium giveaway’s ability to send custom messages to all entrants. You’ll find specifically tailored tips on composing that messaging here. And the FAQ we referred to earlier includes a list of distinctions between the standard and premium giveaways.

Bottom line: We note that even a year after the launch of the all-paid giveaways, one of the FAQs is still “Why aren’t you offering free giveaways anymore?” The company’s decision to develop the giveaways as a salable marketing component provides it with a revenue center. But charging for giveaways also keeps pressure on the company to ensure those giveaways deliver value. It’s an expenditure worth considering as part of a planned, comprehensive marketing approach for traditionally published authors. For indie authors on a tight budget, take a look at LibraryThing, which offers free ebook giveaways within a smaller community (2.3 million members); other alternatives include self-promoted giveaways via BookFunnel or paying to advertise free or cheap books via BookBub Ads.