Books for contests

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Thu January 8th, 2009, 3:59 pm

Do you know what book it is?

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Thu January 8th, 2009, 9:11 pm

Now, maybe if I post a question about how to get a book contract, an editor will call with one in a few days....

HA! I get offers for free books too since I do Author Interviews. I haven't gotten an offer to do a giveaway though.

For my giveaways, I save my author copies that the publishing house gives to me. The number of copies an author gets can be negotiated at contract time.

Julianne Douglas · Post by **Julianne Douglas** » Thu January 8th, 2009, 10:10 pm

[quote=""michellemoran""] The number of copies an author gets can be negotiated at contract time.[/quote]

Good thing to keep in mind when the time comes! Do you remember what a typical, non-negotiated number is?

Julianne Douglas · Post by **Julianne Douglas** » Thu January 8th, 2009, 10:11 pm

Divia, I want to wait until I actually get them before I announce it. Shouldn't be more than a couple of days.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Thu January 8th, 2009, 10:44 pm

Geez, I'm not sure what's typical. I'd guess that it's between 5-20. If you're on good terms with your publicist, they might send you some as well. From England, I often end up with about 20-40 books for the hardcover, and the same number for the paperback (they're very generous). I get more in the US between my contract, the marketing team, the publicity team, and my editor.

Julianne Douglas · Post by **Julianne Douglas** » Fri January 9th, 2009, 12:40 am

I worry about people I know (relatives, good friends) asking me for a copy and having to tell them I don't have any to share! I get the impression people think authors have lots of free copies to throw around. Maybe in the past they did, but now it seems you need to use practically every copy you can for publicity purposes.

michellemoran · Post by **michellemoran** » Fri January 9th, 2009, 2:07 am

I worry about people I know (relatives, good friends) asking me for a copy and having to tell them I don't have any to share!

I solved this by telling everyone I knew waaay ahead of time that I would have no free copies for friends and family. Which is technically true. My free copies are for reviewers and contest winners. So it's not exactly a lie... And by complaining about it as vociferously and early as possible, I made sure that not a single person asked me for one. True story.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Fri January 9th, 2009, 2:30 am

OK, my book isn't a novel, but maybe some of this applies... I negotiated for double the number of author copies in my contract (from 5 to 10), and got them, no questions asked. It was a minor item compared to other things I could have asked for! And I did give copies to some close family members, but even that had some positive repercussions. My mother-in-law brought her copy to two local branch libraries and suggested they buy their own, and they did. She also displays it proudly on her coffee table - and not just when we visit!

Julianne, I think I heard from the same publicist you did! (Same timing, same place...) I'm probably going to pass on it, though, as I already have a copy of the book in question, planned to do a writeup of it elsewhere, and would rather not duplicate coverage too much anyway - many of our blogs have the same audience. I've got another small stack of books lined up for giveaways that I'll be doing soon, though

pat · Post by **pat** » Fri January 9th, 2009, 5:16 am

[quote=""michellemoran""]I worry about people I know (relatives, good friends) asking me for a copy and having to tell them I don't have any to share!

I solved this by telling everyone I knew waaay ahead of time that I would have no free copies for friends and family. Which is technically true. My free copies are for reviewers and contest winners. So it's not exactly a lie... And by complaining about it as vociferously and early as possible, I made sure that not a single person asked me for one. True story.

[/quote]

Good plan!

Julianne Douglas · Post by **Julianne Douglas** » Fri January 9th, 2009, 5:24 pm

[quote=""Ariadne""]

Julianne, I think I heard from the same publicist you did! (Same timing, same place...) I'm probably going to pass on it, though, as I already have a copy of the book in question, planned to do a writeup of it elsewhere, and would rather not duplicate coverage too much anyway - many of our blogs have the same audience. I've got another small stack of books lined up for giveaways that I'll be doing soon, though

[/quote]

Thanks, Sarah! I wondered how many of us got the same offer. All of our blog audiences overlap a lot. I bet there will be several giveaways of the same book in the coming weeks! I just hope I can get my copy read fast enough for it to matter.