Tuesday Toolbox - Book Giveaways, Part 2

Last week I talked about the promotional tool of giving away copies of books you’ve published that readers would otherwise have to pay for. Readers have to comment or register to be entered to win a copy of these books.

Today, I’d like talk about a giveaway where you don’t have to pick a winner. Everyone wins with free book/short story downloads.

The great thing about free reads is an unlimited number of readers can download the story and read a sample of your writing. Hopefully, they’ll love it so much that they’ll want to pay money to read everything you've ever written!

Free read story involving a character from a “for sale” book: In December 2011, I did a free story that followed two secondary characters from Mr. Forever that followed up with them after Mr. Forever ended, an epilogue essentially. This was available from my publisher’s website for a couple months, and then I used it on blog hops last spring. (If you want a copy of Penelope’s Pleasure’s, email me or leave a comment with your email address and file format preference and I’ll shoot it out to you.)

Free read stand-alone story: Last Valentine’s Day, I wrote a short story entitled Second Chance Valentine. This is still available for free from Musa Publishing, All Romance eBooks, and Bookstrand. Anyone searching for free reads on these sites can download it. Hopefully, they’ll read it and love it and want to check out other books I've written…or at least remember my name.

Both of my free reads were done through and edited by my publisher. I highly recommend that if you give away free reads, make sure they are professionally edited and of the same caliber as your “for sale” books. You don’t want your free reads to be so riddled with errors that they turn off potential readers! 

Second Chance Valentine

What would you do if you got a second chance at love…with your husband's best friend?

Rick has always been a shoulder for his best friend's widow to lean on, but to him she will always belong to his friend. Gianna is ready to move on with her life, and no other man affects her like Rick. To give them both a second chance at love and life, Gianna must convince him that her husband would have wanted him to be the man she moves on with.