Definite Free EBook, Possible Free $25 Amazon Gift Card
Catherine Ryan Hyde
An announcement. And a giveaway I already like a lot. (And it hasn't even started yet.)
Just after midnight tonight (this was written Wednesday the 7th--it's free now) the U.S. ebook edition (*UK readers, please see update below) of my novel When I Found You is going to enjoy five free promotional days. Thursday March 8th through Monday March 12th, you can get a Kindle copy absolutely free. Not a contest, a free ebook for everybody who wants one.
This is one of my personal favorites of all my books, and of course I want as many people as possible to discover it. If you want to read more about it, you can jump to its book page on this site, or if you just want to snag your free copy, go ahead and jump right to its Amazon page. (Assuming, of course, that's it's Thursday the 8th, Monday the 12th, or something in between.)
Here's where the contest comes in: I'm giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to someone who posts an Amazon review for this book between today and the middle of April.
Two important things I want you to know about the giveaway: One, there is no purchase necessary, because I purposely tied the timing to the ebook's free days. So you can pick up a copy for free, and if you post a review, you can get in the running. Two, and this feels even more important: I will be choosing a winner at random. This means I'm not giving a prize to the person who raves the most. All honest reviews will have exactly the same chance. I would never try to give you an incentive to say anything other than what you really thought. I just think a lot of you will like it. Anyway, that's what I'm banking on. And a range of reviews are a good way to help readers decide, anyway.
So grab a free copy (and, by the way, if you don't have a Kindle, you can download free Kindle software for your computer), and if you post an Amazon review, please come back to this blog and leave a comment telling me so, with your email entered into the comment form. (Don't put it in the body of your comment unless you want the whole world to have it.) Otherwise I'll be able to read the review on Amazon but not contact you if you win.
And that's it! I'll announce a winner on April 15th. Good luck!
*To my wonderful readers in the UK, I'm sorry to say I only have these marketing controls (such as a brief promotional giveaway) on the US edition. If you read the comments below, you'll see that one of my lovely UK readers decided to buy and review the book anyway, even though she felt she could not qualify for the gift card, either. If you're in the UK, you might want to read my response to her. If you're willing to purchase and review the book, you should be able to get in on the gift card giveaway. So I'll just wait to buy the card until I know whether the winner is US or UK. Sound fair to all?
I am absolutely delighted to announce that the (briefly) free ebook edition of When I Found You is #1 in the Amazon Kindle store. It's #1 in free, #1 in Literary fiction and #1 in Contemporary fiction. No idea how long it will hold, but I'm barely breathing. Thanks to all of you who downloaded it (so far) for making this promo such a smashing success. And to those who haven't yet, there's plenty of time, and the link is above!
AND THE WINNER IS...Lisa C! Thanks so much to those who took the time to get involced. And Lisa...you've got mail.