I can’t take credit for finding out about this cheap little marketing gimmick. That credit goes to my awesome podcast partner Richard Kutz. We host a weekly podcast together called “Three Cylinder Stardrive”, a geek-out fun-fest where we break down current pop culture often from a writer’s perspective and also note a “Dollar Rental of the Week” which champions the local brick-and-mortar video rental store.
Ok. On to the good stuff.
Amazon Giveaway is a service Amazon offers that allows you to buy something on Amazon and then give it away to a lucky winner after a 7 day sweepstakes. The only catch that people have to buy into is to either follow your author page on Amazon, your Twitter account, your YouTube video, or any other thing you want within their guidelines. Not everything is followable, but most things are, and it is a cheap way for
you to get people to notice your page. I paid less than $40 and am driving people to my author page who are interested in the kinds of things I write about because of the gift I chose to offer as a prize.
First, browse Amazon for a while and find an item that fits your writing genre. Also choose something to give away that is in limited supply unless you choose to buy more than one thing to give away. I only chose one thing, and that was the “Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition” blu-ray. It’s rare, and features a black and white version of the film. The point is that it is something that a true connoisseur of the genre would love to own.
Next, scroll down past the reviews of the item you have chosen to fit your particular genre and find the button that says “Set up an Amazon Giveaway”.
Once you have selected this button you will be taken to a page that begins the process. It is important to note that the cheapest way to do the giveaway is to just offer the item as a sweepstakes where the winner is chosen at the end of the giveaway. You have the option to buy several copies of the item to give away, but this begins to raise the price of the promotion and could get really expensive. Amazon charges a fee for possible taxes in the area, and this offer is only open to Prime items.
A “random instant win” will choose the winner mid-way through the sweepstakes. The other two options are more geared for multiple items in the giveaway.
You are then given the task of writing some cool messages to people who click on your giveaway. I gave it a cool Mad-Max-speak spin, using terms from George Miller’s apocalyptic world to jazz up the prose. Have fun with it, and remember that there is a 250 character limit, not much more than a Twitter message. Be sure to tease the contestant with a very short blurb about one of your top selling books.
After you have paid Amazon using whatever payment method you choose, you will get the following screen that will announce the steps that will come after that.
Richard Kutz, my podcast partner, saw an increase in 250 followers to our Twitter page @ThreeCSD after only a few days of the promotion. It grows by the day, and this is with a small Twitter presence. I will post again after my promotion was over to share the results of my promotion.
You can check out my promotion here!
Writing Is Hard Work 