In Thinking About My Storygraph Giveaway...

One thing I've learned from my book giveaway is that The Storygraph is very popular. For a relatively new startup, five million members is an impressive number. And I'm all on board with anything that'll give Goodreads a run for its money. One thing the site does right is apply moods to a book (or its readers do--somebody does). Goodreads, of course, does nothing, not for readers and not for authors.

When I learned that the place existed and read some glowing reviews, I checked it out and quickly determined that, yes, I'd like to do a giveaway. I could have paid the same amount to FreeBooksy to give away my book (and I have), but since I've been told that The Storygraph's readers are highly engaged, that was exactly what I was looking for. Time will tell.

I'm sure there's a reason why the site runs each giveaway for a full month. Ahh, here it is:

1. Feeding the "For You" Personalization Engine

The StoryGraph does not rely on random scrolling; it uses a proprietary machine learning filter to match books with readers based on specific reading moods and pacing. Running a giveaway for a full month gives the algorithm ample time to surface the book to the top of the "For You" feed for highly targeted users who are statistically most likely to enjoy it and review it. 

2. Capitalizing on Global Scale

Unlike Goodreads, which traditionally limits individual giveaways to localized regions, The StoryGraph Giveaways allow authors to target up to 177 countries simultaneously. A full 30-day window accounts for international time zones, different holiday schedules, and rolling app engagement across a truly global user base. 

3. Creating a Predictable Monthly Habit

Because Group Round giveaways follow a fixed monthly schedule, users are trained to log in, browse, and enter the latest cycle all at once. This batching creates a massive surge in concentrated traffic, ensuring that indie authors get consistent eyeballs on their work throughout the entire 30 days. 

4. Maximizing Organic "To-Read" Growth

The StoryGraph does not automatically force an entrant to shelve a book to enter a giveaway. Readers must explicitly choose to click "Add To-Read". A longer, one-month timeline gives the book continuous exposure, allowing it to slowly accumulate genuine, intentional additions to readers' backlogs via word-of-mouth as the month progresses. 

This all sounds great...for me, as an author. Discoverability, baby!

Time will tell. 

Call me cynical, but aren't all free book grabbers essentially hoarders? I've mentioned about a thousand times that I've never gotten one single review by giving away my book. Still, I'm hoping this time will be different (and in a positive review way).

But, man, a month is a long time! I don't even know why I keep pulling up my stats, but here are the current ones:

 

I wish the "to reads" number was larger. This points to my "hoarder" characterization. 850 entries, but only 35 people want to read it? Still, thirty-five is thirty-five more than I've ever had before.

There's still eight days to go in my giveaway, and had I not saved the email, I likely would have forgotten all about it. Discoverability is only effective for so long; then people start seeing the same book over and over, which they passed over the first twenty times they saw it. But maybe there's a steady stream of new members. (Stop being such a killjoy, April!)

Here's why my fallback position is cynicism: Nothing I've ever done has moved the needle. I received two wonderful editorial reviews and I was momentarily excited, but that wore off as soon as I understood they meant nothing in terms of sales. And yes, I posted them on my Amazon book page. I've also been excited to net over a thousand hoarders readers for my free book, but as I noted, either no one read it or they didn't care enough to leave a review. 

At this point, I would take (positive) reviews over sales, because that's the only thing that might make a difference. 

But won't my 100 winners follow the same path? They win, they tuck the book inside their Kindle, never to open it. Hey, I totally get it. Amazon offers me a choice of "first reads" every month and I always choose one. I've never read any off them. I keep thinking, well, one day I'll be so bored, I'll be grateful to have some new reading material. 

But there's always hope. Hope is what indie authors live by. I still have my eReader News book of the day coming up on August 17. Maybe that will work. Time for this novel is running out. I only have 4 1/2 months left before all my marketing stops. I gave myself 'til the end of the year, and I was being extremely generous with myself. If you can't extend some generosity to yourself, you're pretty much cooked.

To keep plugging this novel is akin to a group from the sixties that's still out there performing at county fairs and small casinos, with only one original member justifying the use of the name. They had one monstrous hit in 1967 that only a handful of oldsters remember, so they start the show with a bunch of generic tunes and save that hit for their grand finale. How long can they keep it up? Frankie can't even reach the high notes anymore.

I'm Frankie.

Except I won't continue to kid myself.

And that, my followers, is my Ted Talk for today.