Goodreads rocked the indie world on November 28th when they announced their popular giveaway program—the service that allows authors and publishers to offer their paperback for free to potential reviewers—will no longer be free. The responses were predictable:

And this about the effectiveness of Goodreads Giveaways:

“We aren’t going to spend the small marketing budget we have on a service that we’ve already noticed isn’t that effective.” —Lesley Conner, Apex Publications

A couple years ago I read about one self-publisher’s Giveaway strategy in IBPA’s Independent magazine: offer 1 book, and do this continuously, well after the release date. Goodreads would give an offer like this the same marketing push as a Giveaway for a new release offering multiple copies. (It was such a good idea that I used it for several of the 30+ Goodreads Giveaways my company ran for clients!)

Could this be a contributor to the ineffectiveness cited by Apex Publications, and many others. I sure think so.

3 reasons why I am not concerned

The level playing field perspective

My frustration comes when traditionally published books are favored over self-published books for no other reason than the name of the publisher. Anything that provides equal opportunity is a good thing in my mind.

When this program was announced more than a year ago, the cost was $119 and it was available only to certain publishers. Self-publishers were excluded.

That’s win #1.

The P&L perspective

How much does it cost the indie or self-publisher to manage today’s Goodreads Giveaway? One of our clients paid $799 to a major vanity press for a “Advertising and Giveaway on Goodreads w/ Resubmission & Cover Copy Polish.”

If you are a DIY self-publisher giving away 10 copies, here’s the likely tally:

• Cost of POD books. For argument’s sake, let’s say those are $3.50 each, plus tax and shipping (to you), for a total of about $45.
• Cost of supplies and postage to mail 10 copies to a U.S. address via media mail is about $3.25 each, or $32.50
• We’re at $77.50 in hard costs excluding our time to manage all this.

I realize that under the new policy these costs will be added to the program’s starting price of $119, but at least now the self-publisher isn’t required to invest in a paperback. And if you only giveaway your eBook, then your investment is essentially the same, assuming you value your time.

Side note: Your expenses multiply if you’d like to offer your book to readers in other countries. With the new program, it isn’t a question whether the program will expand to other countries, it’s when. That’s why the announcement says “New Giveaways created on or after 1/9/18 will *initially* be open to US residents only.”

There are alternatives

Consider doing an Amazon giveaway instead. You’ll pay for the cost of your Kindle books, but there is no fee like there is with the Goodreads’s program. Read how to do it in this article by Chris McMullen.

There are many blog tour organizers that offer books to readers on behalf of authors. They usually charge a small fee, but it is often less than $119 and there is a higher probably of reviews being posted, if that’s your goal. Here are 5 of 40 profiled in the current Book Reviewer Yellow Pages:

• Enchanted Book Promotions
• iRead Book Tours
• RBTL Book Promotions
• Sage’s Blog Tours
• Silver Dagger Book Tours

Two more points about this change are worth mentioning

My takeaway is that this recognizes the viability of self-publishing. As traditionally published writers opt for self-publishing, and publishers reduce their marketing investments, businesses like Goodreads are finding it necessary to charge for formally free services. While there is little chance Amazon/Goodreads will go the way of Pronoun and Type & Tell, the good news is that self-publishers are no longer excluded from the KDP giveaway program.

1. One of the arguments in favor of KDP Select was being able to give your Kindle eBook away for free, ostensibly to help encourage reviews and build your audience. The new Goodreads program has no such requirement, only that your book is available on the KDP publishing platform.
2. Second, producing a quality paperback is much more expensive than publishing a title in eBook format. For those self-publishers who publish in eBook format only, and wanted to get in front of the largest group of readers in the world, a very high bar has now been lowered.

Now let’s see how the readers like it.

Here’s a brief summary of the new program.

 
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash