The ultimate guide to hosting a successful book giveaway: 8 tips from authors 

Hoping to host a successful book giveaway? Pick and choose which of these 8 tips from authors to plan and execute yours.

When I asked authors to give me their best tips for book giveaways, I had limited-time raffles or contests in mind. Those who responded with advice opened my mind to other options, though.

They include:

• What I consider the classic giveaway, where you have a specific goal in mind when inviting people to enter to win a book
• Using the book as an always available email subscriber lead magnet
• A device for giving back to your community
• A chapter giveaway lead magnet with a strategic twist

So what’s their advice? Here’s what we can learn from them.

Tip 1: Your giveaway must have a strategic goal.

This applies to everything you do to market your book. Giveaways are no exception.

Why are you considering a giveaway? What will it help you achieve? It might be to generate excitement around a book launch, grow an email list, or reignite interest in an older title.

Exposure was Alexander Debelov’s TikTok giveaway goal for The Prayer: Rise with Jesus. “I wanted real buzz and a wall of authentic, unpaid reader testimonials,” he says.

To do this, Debelov used a TikTok Shop with a twist. Print book giveaway recipients were required to post a video. If they didn’t, TikTok charged them for the book.  

David Ghozland also required an extra step when he offered just a chapter of TRImesters: A Scientific Approach to Healthy Eating for You and Your Developing Baby to his target audience, pregnant women. By asking subscribers to submit a pregnancy worry they’d like information about along with their email address, Ghozland knew who was most interested in his book’s content.

“That one question alone weeded out those who were just coming for the freebie. The ones who answered the question were interested, read the content, and continued to be on my list well after the giveaway was over,” he reports.

Elizabeth Harrin, author of Managing Multiple Projects, likes to use giveaways to thank her community. “My giveaway goals have always been to raise interest in the book I am giving away, but also to simply do something nice for my community,” she says.

Tip 2: Explore making it an evergreen offer.

This is smart only if you’re doing it for the right reason.

To build an ongoing reader pipeline, Celtic fantasy romance writer Shea Hulse gives away her book Fireflies as a newsletter lead magnet.

She says, “The readers who opt in via the giveaway/newsletter have the highest engagement of any segment on my list.”

Tip 3: Be thoughtful about the book format you give away.

Alan Watt, author of The 90-Day Novel, advises, “Give away e-books, not books in print, or you will go broke before you build momentum.”

On the other hand, Megan Mary, author The Dream Dimensions: A Metaphysical Mystery of Magick, recommends giving away multiple formats when the giveaway is part of an event, like her virtual book launch. “This allowed me to randomly pick a winner for each format – e-book, paperback, and audiobook – live and during the event,” she explains.

Through his experience with several Goodreads giveaways, Debelov has learned that print book giveaways generate better results than those offering e-books.

“You get a lot of people adding your book to their bookshelf or to their reading list so they can participate in the giveaway,” he says.

Tip 4: You need a system for managing entries.

Mary used Wheel of Names to select giveaway winners for her book launch party. As you add names in the template on the right of the free tool, they’re automatically added to the wheel. Click the wheel to spin, and you get the winner.

Harrin likes managing her giveaways with KingSumo, a WordPress plugin available in free and paid versions. She promotes the blog-based giveaways to her email list and on social media.

KingSumo prompts entrants to share the giveaway on social media, too. Harrin’s most recent event generated 324 individual entries who bumped that number to 462 when Harrin set up the tool to offer bonus entries when they shared it with their social networks.

Tip 5: Offer a book bundle.

“My best tip for a giveaway is to bundle several books. The best giveaway I’ve done, in terms of responses, was my ‘birthday giveaway’ where I offered a bundle of three books,” says Harrin. “This had a much better response and interest rate than where I have offered a single book.”

You’ve only written one book? No worries. Bundle with someone else’s, too. (See Tip 6.)

Tip 6: Use someone else’s book for the giveaway.

That’s what Nicky Blewitt did as part of the launch plan or his humorous fantasy novel, Escape from Samsara.

After finding a signed copy of a Terry Pratchett book – “a master of the genre” – on eBay, Blewitt used KingSumo to give it away. He promoted the giveaway with Facebook ads, in social media groups, and in online forums.

Offering the genre star’s signed book paid off. By Escape from Samsara’s launch day, Blewitt’s email list had grown to 4,000 subscribers. He sold 300 books during the launch.

Harrin uses this approach, too. “I sometimes give away books that are my own, other times they are from other authors in my field where I know my audience would appreciate the opportunity to read them,” she says.

Tip 7: Be smart about how you use paid advertising to promote the giveaway.

“If you use Facebook ads, be incredibly specific with your audience targeting or you will spend a lot with little to show for it,” says Watt.

His Facebook-advertised giveaway used The 90-Day Novel as an email list-building lead magnet. During the year-long advertising campaign, Watt increased the list size by 65%.

Tip 8: Follow up with people who entered but didn’t win.

When Harrin keeps her books in front of her target audience by following up with giveaway entrants who didn’t win, she sometimes sells a few books in the process.

“I’ve been reaching out to participants who were unsuccessful and either offering them a discount or signposting them to where they can get the book if they still want a copy. This gives the secondary benefit of driving a few sales,” she notes.

Be selective about tactics to have a successful a book giveaway

As you think about your next giveaway, remember that the only true essential is that the program must serve a goal. That goal will help you decide which of these tips – if any – could work for your situation.

Like so much with book marketing, giveaways aren’t one size fits all. An evergreen giveaway isn’t necessarily the best option when the goal is to build excitement around a book launch or cover reveal. And, many of you will structure a giveaway that doesn’t require an online tool like Wheel of Names or KingSumo.

Pick and choose what works for your planned giveaway.

And… big thanks to these authors for sharing their experiences with us.

Quick video tip about the most essential element of your book giveaway

Here’s a short summary about why you must have a goal for your book giveaway.

Have you done a book giveaway? What did you learn from the experience?