The Joy of Getting a Giveway

So here’s the other side of giving away books and other bookish things…. Winning a Giveaway. I recently won a giveway for one of Pippa Grant’s The Grumpy Player Next Door Book Boxes. I was so excited to win one, I literally jumped out of bed and did a happy dance when I got the notification. I checked the notification twice (ok, maybe 5 times) before actually clicking on the link to fill out the form with my information to make sure it was really my name. Winning something is awesome! That feeling you get is exhilarating. It could be a $1 keychain door prize at a model train convention (true story), I am going to celebrate that awesomeness like I just won a Ferrari in Vegas. Because winning something feels good.

So, anyway, back to the Book Box. Sometimes the thrill of winning something eclipses what you actually won (think $1 keychain at a model train convention, or the plastic slinky you got from Chuck E. Cheese after 6 hours of skeeball). Other times, what you win surpasses what you expect. By a lot! Check out the video for the unboxing of the Grumpy Player Book Box, but in case you can’t tell from my voice, getting the box was, in fact, even more exciting than winning the box.

In the case of The Grumpy Player Next Door I was really familiar with the author and had been looking forward to the book release, so getting the full book box was squee-worthy! But there have been several giveaways in multiple Facebook groups where the author was completely new to me. And whether I won the giveaway or not (usually not, but ya gotta play to win, and playing is fun, too) that author’s books were added to my TBR. That author gained a new fan before I even read their books. Seriously, how cool is that? That was the case with the Swag Pack I won from author Morgan James. Morgan is a new-to-me author who writes books with similar themes to books I already love to read. And she was doing a giveaway in one of my favorite author’s groups. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what an author writes from a book cover, even a title can be misleading or ambiguous. But a picture of carefully selected items that represent themes or events from a book? Well, you know the saying… a picture’s worth a thousand words. And the picture she posted spoke to my love of military and protector romance novels.

Now I know this all boils down to marketing. Authors are in business to write words they want others to read. If people don’t read their books, they don’t make any money. And I’m not sure how many of you have tried to write a book, or have actually written a book, but those words don’t come easy. And the heart and soul you pour into your writing starts to look awfully depressing and frustrating if people aren’t reading something you put your heart and soul into. So yeah, authors need to market their work. And when they market their work as a giveaway, the reader gets to feel like they’re getting something a little extra in return for giving the author a peek. So, gentle (and not so gentle) readers, embrace the joy of the giveaway. Join author groups & book clubs. Follow authors on social media. Be part of the party. You never know what new author you’ll discover. And when you win something, share the frack out of it. Let everyone else know how awesome that author is. You could help someone find their new favorite read, and help an author reach another perfect fan.