Answer: Man, I wish I could give everyone VENOM for free. Okay, I guess that would negatively impact my sales, so maybe not everyone. But lots of people. Especially people in Bangladesh and Romania and super faraway exotic places that probably won't be stocking VENOM on their library shelves. But I can't. So I did the next best thing and scoured the interwebz for you in order to compile this awesome list of places you can try to win VENOM.
#1 Fellow Apocalypsie Lauren Morrill is giving away a copy. You have until September 15th to enter here. I am not sure if this giveaway is international, so check with Lauren for more details.
#2 Goodreads is giving away three copies here. This contest closes Sept 15th and is apparently for US residents only. I'm not sure who is sponsoring the giveaway because to be honest Goodreads kind of scares me *delicate writer soul* so I don't delve very deeply into GR things anymore.
#3 Nikki at Fiction Freak is giving away an ARC of VENOM or a choice of about a bajillion other books on her blog. Her contest is open until September 30th.
#4 Blogger Monica Lopez, one of my original tweeps, will be giving away my last ARC in combination with an interview I did for her, sometime in September. I know, I know, that's vague, but she's got like school and stuff so just be patient and stalk her blog and/or my twitter feed for more info. This giveaway is sponsored by me so the ARC will be autographed, and hellz yeah it will be international :)
#5 Blogger (and awesome St. Louis Children's Hospital pediatrician) Christina Ahn will be hosting my first signed hardcover giveaway contest which will start on September 25th and run for about a month. Sponsored by me. Autographed. International. Watch her blog for more details.
#6 Author Nova Ren Suma has invited me to participate in this year's What Scares You blog series. I'm totally honored to be invited to Distraction 99 and since I am scared of basically everything, I know writing a guest post for her will be loads of fun. My post will go up sometime in October and will include an autographed hardcover giveaway of VENOM. Sponsored by me. International.
#7 In the days leading up to VENOM's release--October 24th through October 30th--I will be giving away two autographed hardcover books (and possibly more) randomly on twitter to people who have changed their twitter avatar to VENOM's cover in support of the release. Sponsored by me. International. I even made you an avatar. #Helpfulness
#9 MY TWITTER PARTY!! OMG guys. The details are still being worked out, but the plan is for me to have a twitter party from 7pm to 9pm Eastern Standard time on October 30th. I'll be giving away my last Breathless Reads slipcase, a signed hardcopy, multiple book-related gift certificates and a slew of ARCs and other stuff that I am currently accumulating via mad begging and bribing of all of my industry contacts. [Edited to add, my editrix of wonder, Jill Santopolo, just offered a few AMAZING things, but I won't tell you what they are until they arrive because the post office ninjas like to steal my stuff.] I'm hoping to give something away every ten minutes, and even if you can't make the party (cuz you know, some people gotta work or go to basketball practice or whatnot) you can still be a winner! More details to come on my blog by October 1st.
#10 My first hardcover signing with my awesome St Louis YA writer colleagues Antony John and Heather Brewer. Come on, dudes. Halloween is on a Wednesday and you're too old to trick-or-treat. Bring yourself and your friends and your kids and your kids' friends to the Spencer Creek branch of the St. Charles Library system in St. Peters, MO on Halloween. (Time TBA). There will be tricks, treats, mask-making, costume contests, and giveaways galore. This is seriously going to be an epic party, and I'm heading to a local haunted house afterward for more fun. So if you want, you can come with and listen to me scream like a little girl as random dudes with chainsaws chase me around.
That sucks that some countries won't have certain US books available. But it's so rude when readers e-mail authors for free books like that. I once randomly got an e-mail on Librarything/LT from a person from some exotic faraway country asking me if I would send her an out-of-print YA book that I had listed on my LT account... she wasn't even offering to purchase it from me but pleading to me to send it to her. I was kind of weirded out by that scenario, but I just assumed she was a pre-teen who didn't know any better (I felt like giving her a stranger-danger-speech on giving out her address to strangers... I actually think I did do that), so I just politely told her that I couldn't especially since it was one of my favorite books that I wouldn't depart with.
ReplyDeleteThat is super exciting that you are having your first hardcover signing on Halloween!! Are you going to sign all of the copies of Venom that Main Street Books has in-stock? Because I would love to order/pre-order a signed copy from them :)
Also, you are the first person I've seen with a VENOM avatar. *gets teary eyed* you better come to the twitter party and win big prizes!
DeleteWell. Those weren't anyone's exact words, but after like the 30th email it all starts to sound like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know a lot of foreign bloggers have this misconception that we authors get unlimited books to give out to our friends, so I understand the asking. It just sucks to tell people no.
As far as the signed book, my understanding is that if I sign a book, the bookstore can't return it to the publisher if it doesn't sell. Therefore, I doubt any stores will let me sign tons of stock, but let me check with MSB and see if we can maybe hook something up so that I can sign any book ordered on release day. Email me if you don't hear back from me, okay?
States (and anyone else who wants a signed book)--Vicki at Main Street said no problem with the signed book. You can either call them or order online and include in the comments that you'd like you like it autographed. I recommend waiting until release day to order it, since I won't probably see her to sign it until 10/31. That way it won't accidentally get shipped unsigned.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone willing to order from one of my local indies and pay the slightly higher price for an autographed book, if something were to happen and the book accidentally got shipped unsigned, I will personally make it right by sending you a signed book and paypaling you the postage to return the unsigned book straight to me. Sound good?
Huzzah!!! Thank you so much for finding out from Main Street about signed copies of Venom! I'll definitely order it on 10/30!
ReplyDeleteThat is so nice of you to offer a signed copy in case of an accidental shipment of a unsigned copy! Most indie bookstores are very good about reading the instruction messages on online orders, so I doubt there will be much accidental unsigned shipments :)
And wow, you got 30+ of those e-mails from bloggers! Yikes!
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ReplyDeleteAUTOGRAPHED BOOK? OOOHS. I should check thaat site out. Thanks! ^_^
ReplyDeleteI deleted that earlier comment so no one (besides me!) got confused.
ReplyDeleteThe store for autographed copies (sorry, they'll probably be at the slightly-higher indie price but hey you are supporting the local economy so hooray for that) is Main Street Books in St. Charles, MO at www.mainstreetbooks.net
I love indie bookstores! So gotta support them <3
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