Goodreads Giveaways Part 2

I’ve been away from my home in Melbourne for months, busy helping my daughter in Sydney with her four teenagers, two sets of twins born 14 months apart!

Here we were in Paris together, 4 years ago, before they all shot up to 6ft and more, much taller than their Mum.
I don't show my grandkids' faces on my social media - but I don't have any recent backview shots! 

With a bit of spare time on my hands today, here’s an update on my recent experience with Goodreads, when I gave away 100 free copies of my new release 'Still Waters Run Deep' to American readers. 

Six months later my results out of 100 are:

Three ratings! 

All from women in their mid-forties, fitting  my target readership group, so I give some Brownie points to Goodreads for selecting them as potential readers. 

Two women, who have read 660 books and 760 books respectively, gave me a 5-star rating for 'Still Waters Run Deep', so my book withstood tough scrutiny from these avid readers.

One 3 star rating came from someone who has read 98 books - see her comments below. 

Two reviews! 

‘Thank you Goodreads for this giveaway. This book was a story about love, loyalty and heartache. Sara and Jacks story was beautifully written. This story takes place in New Guinea and Australia. The authors vivid description of the New Guinea landscape was very enjoyable.’ (5 stars)

‘GoodReads giveaway book. This was a sweet star-crossed lovers story. Imagine meeting your soul mate after you both were married to other people and then longing after each other for years. …[Spoiler alert omitted] …. It all comes together nicely. The story is well written and I enjoyed it. My only criticism is the reunion of Sarah and Jack seemed to have stretched on too long. I mean, we all knew it was coming. Why take ten years in the story to do so? All in all, an enjoyable read.’ (3 stars)

Verdict

Maybe I expected too much, but I call that a disappointing outcome for a book sent to 100 people. My Giveaway copies were sent to one reader with 6 books on her TBR (to be read) pile, to one with almost 151,000 books on her TBR pile, and to 98 others in between. Recipients averaged 14,021 books on their TBR pile. Surely the Goodreads algorithm can do better than this! For a start, why does Goodreads allocate a giveaway book to someone with almost 151,000 to-be-reads, even if she has read 1,567 books?

This coming week I’m attending a webinar run by Alessandra Torre - 'Unlock 125M Readers using Goodreads'. Maybe Alessandra will have some answers for me.

Meanwhile I'd love you to read 'Still Waters Run Deep' - a story tapping into that powerful sense of longing for something - or someone - we might want badly, but can't have. It should appeal to anyone who is childless - but not by choice. And to anyone who likes armchair travel to unusual parts of the world.