#248: Author Giveaways That Work (Marketing Minute)

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

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Welcome to this week's Marketing minute. My name is Shelly Hitz and I'm here with my husband, C.J.

Hey, guys.

And we're going to share today on a topic, author giveaways that work. So I'm going to teach a little bit and then at the end, we're going to have C.J. pray for you. One way to build buzz about your book is to host a giveaway or a contest. And the thing is, you can use these anytime to promote your book, not just during a book launch. However, I recommend that you do it in a strategic way. So I've seen many different people use this strategy and I really want to recommend that you consider doing a giveaway of of 10 signed copies of genre specific books. I love this idea. And, you know, like I said, I think any author, both new and experienced, can benefit from it. And there's so many benefits to a giveaway like this. First of all, it connects you with other authors in your genre as you reach out to buy a signed copy from them. And this could lead to other collaborations or strategic partnerships in the future. You know, I think as social media gets more and more busy, it's harder to stand out. I just think strategic partnerships are going to be so key. And we have a complete lesson on this in Christian Book Academy in the book launch challenge. But not only that, there are nine other people who may help you promote the giveaway because it's helping promote their book, right? And best of all, a giveaway like this attracts readers. People who enter to win a giveaway that has 10 books from your specific genre, they're readers and they're going to be more likely to be interested in buying books from you. So also, signed copies are special and give the wow factor two the giveaway. I don't know, I think 10, you know, is kind of like it's the double digit number and it gives a greater perceived value. But you can do any number that works. You don't have to do 10, but that's what I've seen done most often. You know, you'll be mailing one package at the end and if you want, you can use media mail since it will only contain books. And this is cheaper when you're mailing packages to the US but you want to think about like, okay, what is your genre? So let's say I did one for all of you for writers, and I was choosing specific books for writers. And I would look for different authors that have really helpful books, but they also have a following and I would reach out to them and ask them for a sign if I could buy a signed copy. But if you wanted to save on shipping costs, you could also just ask the authors that you buy the copy from to ship the book directly to the winner after your giveaway is over. So I've done this with collaborative giveaways in the past and it works well too. So this is a quick tip and I have three action steps for you to close. So number one, research and choose 10 authors in your genre. Reach out to them and ask if you can buy a signed copy of their book from them. Action step Number use those 10 books for your giveaway. Create a fun graphic with all the book covers of all 10 books. And action step number three is let all the authors know when the book giveaway goes live so they can also share about it and tag them on social media. Now if you want to learn more about giveaways, like I've just scratched the surface. So if you want to learn about the tools you can use, how to promote it and so much more, you can get instant access to our giveaways and contest training inside Christian Book Academy. So we would love to have you join us@christianbookacademy.com and like I said, I have seen authors succeed successfully use this strategy for both nonfiction and fiction books. So definitely let us know if you try this. And cj, why don't you just say a prayer for all of our listeners and those that may end up implementing this giveaway idea.

So Father, we just thank you for each one of these who are listening in. And we just pray, Lord, that you would give them.

Insight into who they can contact. I pray, Lord, that you would allow them to find 10 people and that you would just bring about strategic connections in their lives that would allow them to not only be encouraged but to be helped along in this process in their own marketing journey of their books. And we just continue to ask that your spirit would give them the very words that you desire them to write and we'll give you the glory and the honor. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. And we appreciate each one of you as a listener. If this has encouraged you or if you found it helpful, please just take a minute and leave a review for us. Also, take a screenshot and share it on social media and tag us at Christian Book Academy. We'll see you next time. Bye Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives and and encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers.