A little while back, I launched a book giveaway campaign on TikTok. These are also known as “bookaways” or “shmivaways” because the platform frowns on any account purporting to exchange goods and services at no cost (i.e. running promotional giveaways) for their audience’s attention.
These bookaways and shmivaways are popular campaigns among indie authors promoting their self-published books. Thanks to the algorithm, I was delivered a number of Black Friday giveaway offers, so I jumped on the bandwagon and added this to my to-do list.
The book giveaway didn’t go as expected. In fact, it was a total failure.
I employed my marketing skills and a little salesmanship.
First, I limited the giveaway to 10 Kindle copies. I figured if I had more than 10 requests, then I’d happily extend the offer beyond 10. I’d even welcome the extra cost, which seems a better use of funds than spending money on ads through Amazon where I pay for every click and not every click leads to a sale, which is what defines your ACOS score.
Why build the book giveaway around Kindle only? Spending $2.99 to send a reader a Kindle copy of the book ends up only costing me $1.00 because I earn $1.99 on every sale. Spending $1.00 per sale is marketing dollars put to good use because it would not only improve my sales rank on Amazon, it will also goose the Amazon algorithm and start serving the product to more site visitors organically because if it delivers more transactions, then it’s suddenly relevant to the Amazon marketplace.
Naughty Week suffers from a lack of visibility, partly because it contains the word “naughty” in the title. This has been confirmed with Amazon support.
Second, I put a time limit on the offer. Scarcity marketing does wonders in e-commerce, so why wouldn’t it work for a TikTok bookaway?
I didn’t expect my bookaway-shmivaway book giveaway to draw a huge amount of attention. And I didn’t actually think I would give away 10 Kindle copies, but I would have been delighted if a few people wanted a copy of Naughty Week for their Kindles.
So I launched my inspired book marketing campaign and waited for the requests to come in.
They did not.
To date, as of this writing, the video has only been viewed 117 times. Granted, I had fewer than 300 followers when I posted the video. But still. I mean, come on, right? Surely someone would have wanted a copy of Naughty Week for their Kindle.
Uh-uh. I can’t even give the book away.
There were no requests in those 24 hours and there have been no requests since the video was posted. However, if anyone out there sees the videos and comments or reaches out over DM to request a Kindle copy, I’d be happy to honor it.
And on that note…
I am giving away 10 Kindle copies of my book Naughty Week!
I’ll let you know how to get your copy in just a second, but if this is the first time you’ve stumbled on me talking about my book, Naughty Week is that time between Christmas and New Year’s when Santa goes on vacation and kids are allowed to go nuts. Or at least that’s what the two brothers in my book believe.
It’s a fun and easy holiday-themed book that features a misfit elf, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, and a special cameo by Barack Obama, and it’s great for young readers or for grown-ups who love Middle Grade fiction or just love reading to kids.
So here’s all you need to do to get your free Kindle copy — just like the post on TikTok, follow the account, and DM me the email address that’s associated with your Kindle account. Once I receive your message, I’ll send you a free Kindle copy of my book, no strings attached. All you need to do is accept it.
Happy holidays, and for those of you who write, keep writing!
