What Good is a Giveaway, Anyway?

A very well meaning person asked me why I was doing giveaways for authors when I wasn’t getting anything in return. I understand their question, and although I know my reasons for doing this it got me to thinking about how to explain it to others.

Wait, first of all… who says I’m not getting anything in return? No, they’re not paying me to promote them. I’m purchasing the e-books that I’m giving away. But, when I mentioned it to an author friend, she did offer to donate a signed paperback to the giveaways. And how freaking awesome is that?

Now that I have that disclaimer out of the way, let’s discuss what I do get in return. Bear with me, this may be a circuitous route to get there, but that’s kinda how my brain works.

I’m a giver. I have no idea what my love language is (pretty much feed me and tell me I’m pretty, I guess) but as far as personality wise, I share. I give. Some may even say I’m an oversharer. And they’re not wrong. But that doesn’t completely explain why I’m offering to purchase books from some of my favorite authors and give them away to other people.

I’m doing it because I want others to know the same joy I have when reading these books. I want to talk to them about the books. I want them to have access to the stories and not have an obligation to purchase something they’re not sure they’re going to like.

I want to support these authors. Every author I’m doing a giveaway for is an independent author. An Indie. They aren’t represented by a big publishing house. There’s no sales rep hawking their wares to Barnes & Noble. When most Indie authors start out, they often write, edit, proof, and ultimately publish their work completely on their own. As authors grow their audience and their book sales, they’ll begin to rely on Beta readers and ARC readers, PAs, and hired editors, but ultimately they’re responsible for their own work. If they want to sell their stories they need to establish their social media accounts, monitor them, engage in them, and find trustworthy people to help them do all those things as well. There’s no staff members at the ready to do it all for them. Word of mouth, aka SHARING, is the lifeblood of their craft and absolutely essential for their survival in the book world. So, I’m sharing by giving.

Some of the authors I love to read and share started writing during the pandemic last year as a way to make ends meet. Or because they finally had time to pursue a lifelong goal as a writer. Or because they were inspired by others to try something new. Some have thousands of followers on social media, some not as many. And I want to be part of their success. Part of their framily. I want them to be seen by people I know, and loved for the amazing writers and people they are. I want them to recognize that the work they are doing, the change they made over the last year, the risk they took, is seen and appreciated, and share worthy.

I can give information all day long. I can post on social media, talk to friends I see, send texts and e-mails, make phone calls. But not all of that is really comfortable for me. But, I can give someone a book to read. I can purchase a copy on Amazon and send them a link to download their copy to their Kindle. Then I can follow-up with them to see what they think. And maybe they’ll love the book so much they’ll buy the next one in the series. Or maybe they’ll just talk to me about the book and provide us both with some wonderful friendly bookish interaction. And wouldn’t that be a perfectly wonderful thing.

So, yeah, I am getting something in return from these giveaways. Damn, actually, I think I might be getting more out of this than the person who gets that free book. And I think I’m okay with that.