3 Ways to Give Back to Readers on the Holidays
As much as we want a sale, it’s also important to give back to readers around the holidays.
Giving back to readers around the holidays allows readers to feel valued and shows that you care.
Giveaways
If you haven’t hosted a giveaway, it’s rather easy!
Post on social media that you will be giving a copy of your book away (but be specific if it’s an e-book or a paperback), and ask your followers to comment to enter the giveaway. If offering a paperback, be aware of shipping and be specific about what area you are willing to ship to.
Here is an example:
Amazing news! I’m doing a giveaway for The Backup Superhero. You will receive a paperback, a bookmark, and a special superhero item. Anyone participating must comment something about superheroes over the next 24 hours and must live in the US.
Once you have enough comments or have waited the amount of time you specified in your post, choose someone to win the giveaway.
But…if you aren’t able to ship something right now or don’t feel comfortable hosting an online giveaway, try thinking smaller.
Tons of Little Free Libraries can help you out with this.
Consider filming your process for social media as well. Grab some festive paper or just plain paper, wrap up a paperback copy of your book, and create a pocket to place a bookmark, maybe some stickers, or a little freebie for readers. Or, why not turn it into a blind date with a book?
Then place it in a Free Little Library and share the location on social media, asking readers to share a post about it if they happen to grab it.
Book Sale
If you are part of Amazon’s KDP and participate in Kindle Unlimited, you regularly get countdown deals and free promotions to use.
Why not treat readers with it?
For example, I saved all my deals as long as I could and used them on Black Friday. I posted on social media that many of my books would either be participating in a countdown deal or a free promotion.
And wouldn’t you know, it worked, and I had tons of copies of my books go out to readers?
If you aren’t part of Amazon’s KDP select, can you run a sale and let readers know about it?
Create a Free Short Story
Passing free content to your readers now and then can really go a long way.
I try to regularly pass along free content when I can to my readers and newsletter subscribers. By this I mean, I create short stories either entirely stand-alone or based on the universe of one of my books. And then I give it to readers for free.
Depending on how long the short story is:
If it’s shorter and based in another book’s universe, I add it to the back of one of my existing books.
If it’s longer, I add it to platforms for free.
Doing so can also encourage more newsletter signups for you.
If you aren’t sure of how to help readers during the holidays, I hope some of these ideas are useful.