Does giving away your books lead to more readers, and in turn, more fans?
A few weeks ago I conducted a pretty in-depth study regarding the effectiveness of a Goodreads.com book giveaway in which I found that 93% of entrants had never heard of me and 88% planned on reading my books. Couple that with 51% of entrants signing up for my email newsletter, and the giveaway was well worth the two books I sacrificed.
Science must be repeatable, right? A couple of weeks ago I ended yet another giveaway.
The Setup
I listed a 2 copy giveaway for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin to take place between 3/14/2012 and 3/31/2012. During this time the giveaway received a total of 378 entries. After the giveaway was closed for entries, I sent a 9 yes/no question questionnaire to 222 entrants. 156 entrants could not be sent the questionnaire, either because I know them personally or because they entered the previous giveaway. I figured sending to these 156 entrants might spoil the results. The questionnaire contained the following questions:
- Had you heard of author Caleb J. Ross before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
- Had you entered a Goodreads Giveaway for a Caleb J. Ross book before?
- Had you heard of the book I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before this Goodreads.com giveaway?
- Do you intend to purchase I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
- Do you intend to read I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin in the future?
- Do you intend to read any other books by author Caleb J. Ross?
- Do you plan to connect with author Caleb J. Ross on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+?
- If Caleb J. Ross were to visit your city/town for a reading, would you consider attending?
- Did you answer these questions honestly?
The Results of my Goodreads.com Giveaway
- 84% of non-winning entrants had never heard of me before this contest. Translation: I’m speaking to an audience who might not otherwise have heard me. This is down from 93% from my initial giveaway. Am I becoming more popular among readers?
- 86% of non-winning entrants had never heard of I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin before the contest.
- 24% of non-winning entrants said they planned on purchasing the book, even though they didn’t win. This is a strange percentage when compared to the 8% of people who intend to read the book. This number is down significantly from the previous giveaway, I assume because of the addition of the “Not Sure” option into this recent questionnaire, which accounted for 67% of the entries.
- 34% of non-winning entrants intend to read other books by me. This is a strong number, especially when compared to the 86% of entrants who had never even heard of me. Also, keep in mind the “Not Sure” option which made up 65% of responses.
- 19% of non-winning respondents plan to connect with me on social networks. Not sure: 57%
- 78% of non-winning respondents would come to a reading event if I were to visit their town. Not Sure: 19%
Additional Results Not Included in the Chart Above
- 62% of non-winning respondents signed up for my Email is Dead email newsletter (not included in the chart above). This is up from 51% from the previous giveaway. I credit a couple of things to this increase: 1) the newsletter purpose was spelled out more explicitly this time around. 2) I gave the questionnaire takers the choice of receiving newsletters for readers, one for authors, or one for both (as opposed to offering just a single non-descript newsletter option). Transparency about the content of these emails I feel made people more comfortable with signing up.
- 26% of non-winning respondents left additional comments. New to this most recently giveaway, I included the option for the takers to provide feedback in a comments section. Generally speaking they were great comments, most of which I responded back to directly.
- 31% of entrants for I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin also entered the As a Machine and Parts giveaway. This could mean they really liked my book idea and was inspired for another try, or it could mean they are serial giveaway-enterers.
- The incentive to complete the questionnaire was free ebook copies of my story collections Charactered Pieces: stories and Murmurs: Gathered Stories Vol. One. 31% of entrants downloaded at least one copy of the books. Either people love filling out surveys or they’ve simply forgotten to download the books.
Why so effective?
The response-rate for the survey was an amazing 41% (compared to 29% for the previous giveaway. I wonder why). The industry open-rate for Art/Artist newsletters is 17.54% [1]. This isn’t exactly a parallel comparison, as open-rate is not the same as response-rate, but it’s a close enough comparison to provide some valuable insight. The response rate is also likely inflated because of the following factors (these are the same factors as the previous giveaway, so if you’ve read those, you’ve read these):
- The entrants were already “in the sales funnel” in that they had already reached out with an interest in my book. In other words, I’m not blindly sending the survey to readers. I’m instead sending the survey to interested readers.
- It’s possible that users may have only considered certain actions because the survey included them (connecting on social networks, for example). Would the respondents have connected with me on social networks had they not been introduced to the idea by way of the survey itself? Possibly not.
- I promised free ebook downloads to all respondents. Obviously, free books must have a lot to do with the high response rate.
- My communication was very sales averse. I approached giveaway entrants with respect. Truthfully, I am a naturally respectful guy, so I just spoke the way I would normally speak.
- The survey was incredibly simple. 11 questions with 9 of them being yes/no questions.
What are your thoughts? Have you conducted a similar survey? What did your results indicate?
