I assumed that a giveaway ending October 27th meant at the end of the day, not the beginning. There’s one surprise to keep in mind with Goodreads giveaways.
The numbers surprised me as well: 731 entries for a single book. Of those, 401 unchecked the “Add to my reading list” box (that’s 55%).
But that means 330 new people have A Long, Hard Look on their Goodreads list. All for the price of a single book, mailed to (it turns out) Canada.
The fun news is that the winner entered on the very first day, and has it on their reading list.
It’s impossible to say at this point how many of those 330 wishers will eventually become readers, and will continue to be impossible since there’s no way to track where people came from to buy the book. But for my money, exposure to 330 people who have at least some interest in the book is well worth the $20 or so it cost. If 2% of those 330 buy the book, the contest actually turns a profit.
It will be interesting to see how another giveaway goes. Similar numbers? A drop? A surprising rise?
How long should I wait before doing this again? Repeat the experiment exactly, or change a variable?
Marketing. It’s always an experiment. Might as well make it a fun one.