Book giveaways are a popular way for authors to get their books in front of new readers.
The basic idea is simple: you offer one or more copies of your book as a prize, usually in return for people entering a competition or signing up for something such as your mailing list.
But a giveaway can do more than simply give away a few free books.
If it’s planned carefully, it can help you attract new readers, grow your email list, generate interest in a new book and give you useful content to share on social media.
So how do book giveaways actually work?
What is a book giveaway?
A book giveaway is a promotion in which you offer readers the opportunity to receive a free copy of your book.
There are several different ways you can do this.
You could:
- Give away a signed paperback
- Give away several copies of a new novel
- Offer an ebook as a prize
- Give away a complete series
- Run a competition connected with your book
- Offer a free book in exchange for joining your mailing list
- Work with another author on a joint giveaway
The important thing is to decide what you want the giveaway to achieve before deciding how to run it.
Why do authors run giveaways?
Giving away books might seem counterintuitive.
After all, the purpose of marketing is usually to sell books.
But a giveaway can introduce your work to people who haven’t encountered you before.
Someone who wins your book may become a reader of your other books. They may recommend you to friends. They may join your mailing list. They may follow you on social media.
And if you’ve written a series, giving away the first book can potentially introduce a reader to the entire series.
A giveaway therefore shouldn’t necessarily be judged by the number of books you give away.
The more useful question is:
What happens after someone discovers my book?
Give away your first book
If you write a series, one particularly straightforward strategy is to give away the first book.
You aren’t necessarily trying to give away your entire catalogue.
Instead, you’re giving a new reader an opportunity to discover your writing.
If they enjoy the first book, they may go on to buy the second and third.
This works particularly well if the first book is designed as a natural introduction to the rest of the series.
Use a giveaway to build your email list
One of the most useful things you can achieve with a giveaway is to attract new subscribers to your author newsletter.
For example, you might offer:
Win a signed copy of my latest novel
and ask entrants to provide their email address to enter.
Your website can contain the competition information and an entry form.
However, there is an important point here: don’t assume that someone entering a competition has automatically agreed to receive your marketing emails.
Your competition entry and your email marketing consent should be handled clearly and appropriately, with the necessary privacy information and consent mechanism.
If you’re collecting personal information from people in the UK or EU, make sure your giveaway and mailing-list arrangements comply with applicable data protection and electronic marketing rules. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides guidance on direct marketing and consent. (ico.org.uk)
Your author website can be the home of the giveaway
Social media is useful for publicising a giveaway, but your own website can provide a permanent destination for it.
For example:
Win a signed copy of my new novel
could be a page on your website containing:
- A photograph of the book
- A description
- Details of the prize
- How to enter
- The closing date
- Terms and conditions
- Information about the winner
- A link to find out more about the book
You can then send people to that page from Facebook, Instagram, newsletters or other promotional activity.
This is preferable to putting all the information into a social media post that quickly disappears down someone’s feed.
A giveaway can generate website visitors
Suppose you announce a giveaway on social media.
Rather than asking people to send you a message or comment on a post, you could direct them to a page on your website.
Now you’ve brought a potential reader onto your own website.
Once they’re there, they can discover:
- Your other books
- Your biography
- Your blog
- Your newsletter
- Your events
- Your other writing
The giveaway has therefore become an entry point into your wider author platform.
What should you give away?
The obvious answer is your book.
But you don’t necessarily have to stop there.
Depending on your audience, you could offer:
A signed book
A signed copy feels more personal and can make an attractive prize.
A complete series
If you have several books in a series, a complete set can be a particularly appealing prize.
A book plus something related
You could combine your book with something connected to its subject.
For example, a historical novelist might offer a book alongside a relevant map, print or other appropriate item.
A crime writer might offer a signed book alongside another crime novel.
The prize should make sense for your audience.
How should people enter?
Keep the entry process simple.
The more complicated you make it, the more people will abandon the process.
Depending on your objective, you could ask people to:
- Complete an online form
- Answer a question
- Sign up for your newsletter
- Submit their name and email address
If your main objective is to build your mailing list, make sure the process clearly explains what the entrant is signing up for.
Don’t collect information you don’t actually need.
What about social media giveaways?
Social media can be an excellent way of publicising a giveaway because your existing followers can share it with other people.
You might post:
“I’m giving away three signed copies of my new novel. Enter through the link in my bio.”
You can then direct people to the giveaway page on your website.
This has an additional advantage: your website remains the central source of information.
If the social media post disappears, the competition page can still contain the full details.
Consider working with other authors
A joint giveaway can help you reach readers beyond your existing audience.
For example, several authors who write in the same genre could each contribute a book to a prize package.
A reader who enters the giveaway might discover several new authors.
This can be particularly useful for independent authors because you are effectively sharing audiences and promotional effort.
The key is to choose partners whose readers are genuinely likely to be interested in your books.
Beware of attracting people who only want free books
This is one of the biggest problems with giveaways.
If your only objective is to collect thousands of competition entries, you may end up with a large number of people who have no particular interest in your writing.
That’s not necessarily useful.
A smaller giveaway aimed specifically at your target readership can be much more valuable than a huge competition attracting anyone who likes winning things.
For example, if you write historical fiction, it makes more sense to promote your giveaway to people interested in historical fiction than to advertise it indiscriminately to anyone looking for free prizes.
Quality of entrants matters more than quantity.
Ask an interesting question
If you’re running a competition rather than a simple prize draw, the question can be a way of encouraging people to engage with your book.
For example:
“Which historical period would you most like to read about in a novel?”
or:
“Which character from the book would you most like to meet?”
The answer doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult.
The purpose is to encourage people to think about your book and perhaps start a conversation.
Make sure the mechanics and rules of your competition comply with the relevant laws and platform rules.
Don’t forget the terms and conditions
A giveaway needs clear rules.
Depending on how you structure it, you may need to explain:
- Who can enter
- Geographic restrictions
- Minimum age, if relevant
- Opening and closing dates
- What the prize is
- How the winner is selected
- How the winner will be contacted
- How the prize will be delivered
- What happens if the winner doesn’t respond
If you’re running a competition on a social media platform, you also need to take account of that platform’s rules.
For anything more complicated than a straightforward giveaway, it’s sensible to check the relevant legal requirements before launching it.
Think carefully about shipping
If you’re giving away physical books, remember that somebody has to pay to send them.
This becomes particularly important if you accept entries from outside your country.
You could specify that the competition is open only to residents of a particular country or region, or explain clearly where you will ship the prize.
This is another reason why ebooks can sometimes make giveaways easier.
What about giving away an ebook?
An ebook can be a very simple prize because there are no postage costs.
You could also use a free ebook as part of a wider promotion.
However, if your objective is to get people to discover your writing, make sure the process for receiving the book is straightforward.
And remember that a free ebook isn’t necessarily a giveaway in the traditional competition sense. You may instead be offering the book free to everyone for a limited period.
These are two different marketing approaches.
Tell people who won
Don’t let the giveaway simply disappear when the closing date arrives.
Announce the winner, where appropriate, and thank everyone who entered.
You could then use the opportunity to continue the conversation:
“Thank you to everyone who entered. The winner has now been notified. If you didn’t win, you can find out more about the book here…”
This gives you another opportunity to introduce the book to people who have already expressed an interest in it.
Measure what happened
A giveaway isn’t very useful if you don’t know what it achieved.
Look at things such as:
- How many people entered?
- How many new newsletter subscribers did you gain?
- How many people visited your website?
- Which social media post generated the most traffic?
- Did people visit your book pages?
- Did newsletter engagement increase?
- Did book sales change during or after the promotion?
You don’t need complicated analytics.
Even a simple record of the numbers can help you decide whether it’s worth running another giveaway.
A giveaway shouldn’t be your entire marketing strategy
A giveaway is a marketing tool, not a marketing strategy.
It works best when it sits alongside other activities.
For example:
Your website provides information about you and your books.
Your blog provides useful and interesting content.
Your newsletter keeps you in contact with readers.
Social media helps you reach new people.
Your giveaway gives people a reason to engage with you.
Each part supports the others.
Could a giveaway help with AI and search visibility?
Not directly.
You shouldn’t run a giveaway simply because you think it will make ChatGPT recommend your book.
However, the activity surrounding a giveaway can create useful content on your website.
For example, you might write an article about:
“The historical research behind my new novel”
and link it to your book page.
You might publish:
“Five things I learned while writing my latest book”
and mention the giveaway.
These are useful, permanent pieces of content that help explain who you are, what you write and what your books are about.
That is much more valuable for search and AI discovery than simply having a competition page.
Make the giveaway part of your author platform
The most successful giveaways aren’t isolated events.
They are connected to everything else you’re doing.
Someone sees your giveaway.
They visit your website.
They discover your latest book.
They read one of your articles.
They join your mailing list.
They follow you on social media.
They eventually buy a book.
You can’t expect every entrant to follow that entire journey—but the more effectively your website connects these different elements, the more useful your giveaway becomes.
A simple book giveaway plan
If you’ve never run a giveaway before, don’t make it complicated.
Step 1: Decide what you want to achieve
Do you want to:
- Introduce people to your book?
- Promote a new release?
- Build your email list?
- Generate website traffic?
- Encourage social media engagement?
Choose one main objective.
Step 2: Choose the prize
A signed copy of your book is an obvious starting point.
Step 3: Create a page on your website
Include all the essential information and clear instructions for entering.
Step 4: Set clear rules
State the closing date, eligibility, prize and how the winner will be selected.
Step 5: Promote it
Tell your existing readers and followers.
Use your newsletter and social media, and consider working with other authors if appropriate.
Step 6: Choose and contact the winner
Do this according to the rules you published.
Step 7: Follow up
Thank everyone for entering and give interested readers an opportunity to discover more about your books.
Step 8: Review the results
Look at what happened and decide whether you’d do anything differently next time.
Final thoughts
A book giveaway isn’t going to turn an unknown author into a bestseller overnight.
But it can be a useful part of a wider marketing strategy.
The best giveaways aren’t really about giving books away.
They’re about giving potential readers an opportunity to discover you.
Keep the entry process simple, target people who are genuinely interested in your genre, use your website as the central destination and think carefully about what you want to achieve.
And remember: once someone has entered your giveaway, the real marketing opportunity begins.
You now have someone who has shown an interest in your book. Give them a good reason to stay interested.
Related articles
You may also find these articles useful:
Need an author website for your book marketing?
Your author website can provide a central home for your giveaways, books, blog, newsletter and other marketing activities.
At Bookwebs, we design and manage WordPress websites specifically for authors and publishing professionals. We can create a website that you can update yourself, or provide ongoing support and make changes for you.
Find out more about Bookwebs author website design and support.