I'm thinking of running a comp. Advice?

SuperluckyDi

I have a few friends who have published books on Amazon - they offer a free download for a day or two and push it as hard as they can via social media (bloggers may be able to help with this at a small cost). Then ask those who have downloaded to leave a review; these reviews are usually good as the recipients are grateful for their free book, and will hopefully push your book up the download charts with the good reviews.

I would be nervous about giving away a cash prize to a reviewer - you may well get a complaint to the ASA about it being unfair. You would have to use at least one independent judge too! Perhaps choosing a reviewer at random would be better - in that case the entrants may be wary about leaving a bad review, but shouldn't be too OTT either!

An alternative is to give a few bookish bloggers a free download and ask them to review, as well as offer a free download to one of their readers in a giveaway - although of course you couldn't guarantee a good review...!

Di

Crombus

emmaglet wrote: »

As a blogger who runs competitions, I would suggest lowering the prize but running the competition more than once.

I just give away £20 Amazon vouchers, and I receive thousands of entries. So £500 is very, very generous.

Are you definitely set on using Adwords? It is expensive and not very effective. I've got a few ideas for you, but I'm not going to waste my time posting them here if you definitely want to use them. I'm available on PM though

Given that the book will cost £1.20, and people may need to spend an hour writing a review, I need to make the prize worthwhile. I did think that perhaps a £500 prize was over-egging the cake, but that £200 may not represent enough eggs. However, your suggestion of running the competition multiple times (back-to-back) is interesting.

If I announced "A £100 cash prize will be awarded for every 200 entrants", people could see that I was giving away 50 pence per sale ... but would a 1 in 200 chance of winning £100 be sufficient motivation to spend £1.20, then read a book you may not like, then spend maybe an hour writing a review?

My gut feeling is that £300 should be the minimum on offer. Yes, I'd be giving away £1.50 for every £1.20 sale, but that wouldn't matter - because I just want to kick-start sales and get a hefty number of reviews. Once the book is in the top-20 (and it could be with high initial sales volume), then it should stay in the top-20 if the book is any good.

To answer your questions, I'm not set on AdWords, and would welcome any suggestions. I've sent you a PM!

Crombus

Quick observation: I've noticed that most posters on here are female, so I'd assume most compers are female. Slight problem is, my book will probably appeal more to a male audience!

Crombus

SuperluckyDi wrote: »

I have a few friends who have published books on Amazon - they offer a free download for a day or two and push it as hard as they can via social media ...

I could go down the social media route, but not sure if it would deliver the volume of £1.20 downloads and reviews I'm after.

SuperluckyDi wrote: »

I would be nervous about giving away a cash prize to a reviewer - you may well get a complaint to the ASA about it being unfair.

The criteria for winning would be to write the most "insightful" review. That way, people would feel that they could criticise without being penalised.

SuperluckyDi wrote: »

You would have to use at least one independent judge too!

An independent judge isn't a problem: my solicitor could approach a local councillor or JP who I didn't know.

softpad

I think it a good plan but the prize far too high! Would not do per so many entrants as that could turn into a can of worms. £200 is more than enough.

How about using Goodreads??

hannonle

I would never spend an hour writing a book review. If you want thorough from me you'll get maybe 2 or 3 paragraphs (spoiler free) and 10 mins max. I think you're expecting a lot of your reviews.

Most people will just comment on the characters/the storyline/if it moved them. You're not going to get an essay of constructive feedback. If you want that you need a literature student not a general reader.

I'd set a word limit, as suggested or you'll just get short comments such as "I enjoyed reading this".
I don't think your prize needs to be very high. If the book is free then something like a £50 amazon voucher (to be spend on books/kindle) would be more than fine imo. But I guess it depends how long your book is. How much time am I investing in reading it? 30 mins or 5 days. Anything that can be read in one sitting (up to, say 3hrs) I would be fine with the £50.

Crombus

softpad wrote: »

I think it a good plan but the prize far too high! Would not do per so many entrants as that could turn into a can of worms. £200 is more than enough.

How about using Goodreads??

Thanks for your comments. I'll check out Goodreads this evening.

Crombus

hannonle wrote: »

I would never spend an hour writing a book review. If you want thorough from me you'll get maybe 2 or 3 paragraphs (spoiler free) and 10 mins max. I think you're expecting a lot of your reviews.

If you only spent 10 minutes writing a review, you probably wouldn't win the competition. The prize is for the most "insightful" review. Nor is this free to enter. You'd have to buy the book to write the review. Here's how it pans out:

1. Download the book from Amazon Kindle for £1.20
2. Read it (maybe 4 hours)
3. Write an "insightful" review

The point of this exercise, for me, is to get in the top-20(ish) on Amazon Kindle. The only way to do this is through volume sales. When Amazon rank an author, the only thing they consider is volume of sales. People buying the book to do the competition will (hopefully) create a surge of sales, thus pushing me up the rankings.

To enter the comp, people must write an insightful review on Amazon, and email a copy to me so I know who wrote it.

Putting a review on Amazon - the more the better - encourages non-compers to buy (assuming good reviews!) when they see the book in the Amazon charts, thus adding to sales volume. Once the book is up in the charts, it should stay there on its own merits if it's any good.

hannonle

Crombus wrote: »

If you only spent 10 minutes writing a review, you probably wouldn't win the competition. The prize is for the most "insightful" review.

Insightful doesn't mean long. You are asking for an analysis.

People's attention spans wander. Other prospective purchasers wouldn't read an hour long essay on a book. They want to know what it is about and what sort of tone the book has. The only opinion they need to form is if it is a book they might enjoy reading, or if it is a genre they like.
You don't need more than a star rating and the equivalent of the blurb on the back of the book to make that decision.

We make quick judgements these days and I can pick books up off the shelf and know from the first few sentences of the blurb if I would like it.

TLDR - I don't think a long "insightful" review would get you more sales. In fact a long droning boring review is more likely to be off-putting imho

Crombus

hannonle wrote: »

Insightful doesn't mean long. You are asking for an analysis.

People's attention spans wander. Other prospective purchasers wouldn't read an hour long essay on a book. They want to know what it is about and what sort of tone the book has. The only opinion they need to form is if it is a book they might enjoy reading, or if it is a genre they like.
You don't need more than a star rating and the equivalent of the blurb on the back of the book to make that decision.

We make quick judgements these days and I can pick books up off the shelf and know from the first few sentences of the blurb if I would like it.

TLDR - I don't think a long "insightful" review would get you more sales. In fact a long droning boring review is more likely to be off-putting imho

When I said an hour to write a review, I was only guessing how long people may take. You would only take ten minutes, and maybe most others would too. Of course, a review that took someone an hour to write may only take four minutes to read.