Goodreads logo | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's bookSince March 2016, Amazon has been offering both print and e-book giveaways. Goodreads, however, has only been allowing giveaways of print copies. As my author friend, Elle Boca, notified me the other day, this will no longer be the case.

Goodreads will be introducing its new Goodreads Giveaways program on January 9, 2018. It includes two packages, Standard and Premium. And for the first time, Kindle Direct Publishing authors can run giveaways for Kindle ebooks—a feature previously only available to traditional publishers. The new program, which replaces the current Giveaways program, will initially be for giveaways open to U.S. residents.

However, there is a catch: whereas the old giveaways were free, the new ones come at a steep price that starts at over $100. Specifically, from January 9, 2018, you can choose from the following two packages:

Standard Giveaway

(available in your choice of print book or Kindle ebook format).

  1. (NEW) Everyone who enters your giveaway automatically adds the book to their Want-to-Read list, promoting your book via updates in their friends’ updates feeds, and building an audience for your title.
  2. (NEW) The author’s followers and anyone who has already added the book to their Want-to-Read list get a notification, letting them know there’s a giveaway starting. This helps generate even more entries, creating more stories in the Goodreads updates feed.
  3. About eight weeks after your Giveaway ends, winners receive an email from Goodreads to remind them to rate and review your book. This will help other readers discover and decide to read the book too.
  4. Giveaways are featured in the Giveaways section of Goodreads.com, allowing readers to discover new books.

The new Standard Package is $119 per giveaway for either print book or Kindle ebook format, although throughout January Goodreads offers an introductory price of $59 (save 50%).

Premium Giveaway

(available in your choice of print book or Kindle ebook format).

A Premium Giveaway includes all of the benefits of the Standard package, plus Premium placement in the Giveaways section of Goodreads, giving your giveaway significantly more visibility and more entrants.

The new Premium Package is $599 per giveaway for either print book or Kindle ebook format, although throughout January the introductory price is $299.

New Giveaways created on or after 1/9/18 will initially be open to US residents only. Giveaways created prior to 1/9/18 will continue to run as scheduled, but will not benefit from any of the enhancements in our new Giveaways program.