Better to Give by Wendy H. Jones

I hope you will indulge me this month as I write my post. The second book in my DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, Killer's Craft, is being released on Monday. Therefore my head is full of all things to do with launching and promoting the book. One of the things I have been thinking about is Giveaways.

I belong to a Facebook group called Woman Alive Book Club which is affiliated to the Woman Alive magazine. This is a Christian Magazine for women. The books discussed in the group are mainly, but not exclusively, Christian. My books are not Christian but have been written for a crossover market. When Book 1, Killer's Countdown, was released the owner of the group asked if I would like to do a giveaway. I agreed and this involved emailing me the answer to a question about Dundee. In some ways this went well as it got people talking about my book. In other ways there wasn't much point to it as anyone who entered got the answer from the internet. I was fortunate that those who received the book enjoyed it and reviewed it on Amazon. So in some ways it was a success. 

I agreed to do another giveaway in the same group for book 2. This time I made sure that the answer was on my website. It was also in my first book, so I put an excerpt from the book on the website in an area people would not think of looking. This time there has been more of a buzz around the giveaway and it has increased traffic to my website. Again it has got people talking about my book and saying how much they enjoyed reading the first one. I have also had people saying they bought book one because they enjoyed the excerpt so much. However, I would like to point out that the giveaway is mainly to give something back to a group which has given me so much enjoyment over the past few years. The group members are helpful and encouraging and this is my way of saying thank you. 

As an author I am thinking that future giveaways could be linked to building my email list, but at the moment that is not the main priority. The main priority is, as I say, to give something back and to get people talking about my books. It has also given me pleasure knowing that people are excited about winning a copy of Killer's Craft.

In case you are wondering the question was:

Dundee is famous for three things beginning with J. What are they?

The answer can be found somewhere on my website but not where you might think. 

Please note there is no giveaway on this blog. It is just for a bit of fun. If anyone has any words of advice on how I could develop my giveaways in the future then please comment below.

About the Author

Wendy lives, and writes, in Dundee Scotland. Her first book, Killer's Countdown, was published in November, 2014. The second book in the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, Killer's Craft, will be released on 20th July, 2015. You can find out more on her:

Amazon Author Page
Website
Blog