It started as a contest. When I was in New York last September brainstorming a promotional plan for Not My Daughter, my publisher suggested running it on my website at the time of publication. The goal was to tell people about this book, and the original idea called for a mother-daughter contest, with the prize being an all-expense-paid mother-daughter getaway weekend. After all, Not My Daughter is about mothers and daughters, right?
Then I got to thinking. Granted, with my readership being 97% women give or take, 97% of my readers either are or were daughters, right? But moms? Not all have children, and of those who do, not all of those children are daughters. Hey, I have only sons. So what would I do if I won? My mom’s been dead for years; I couldn’t take her. I quickly realized that if we wanted people to actually enter this contest, we had to cast a larger net.
Let me inject something here. “Cast a larger net” sounds a little … mercenary. But publishing is that. The goal is to sell books, a big challenge in these rocky economic times. If a contest can help, a contest it is.
But right there was another problem A contest has people competing against one another, and we weren’t planning on that. Readers would only have to answer a couple of questions after reading a short summary of Not My Daughter, and their names would be entered in a random drawing. A random drawing is not a contest. It’s a sweepstakes. So a sweepstakes this became.
I didn’t hear anything more from New York. September became October, then November, and with the January pub of Not My Daughter suddenly drawing near, I began making noise. Were we or were we not doing this? Who whould be targeted? And for what prize? Because that was another thing that bothered me a little. An all-expense-paid getaway weekend sounds fabulous, dreamy, idyllic. But practical? In this economy, a cash prize sounds even better.
So. First prize is a $500 gift card, second prize a $250 one, third prize a $100 one, with five $30 ones to the next five names drawn.
And there you have it, the Not My Daughter Sweepstakes, launched yesterday and running through February 5. To enter, click here.
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Believe me I seldom enter contests-almost NEVER NEVER. The gift certificate did it for me. Thank you.
P.S. I can’t wait for the release of this book. I teach students who become pregnant while in high school…it is a subject of interest…
I can’t enter since I am Canadian, but I’m thrilled for the winners-to-be!
I am counting sleeps, Barbara… I’m even going to make a call to my fav bookstore at the end of this week to make sure they plan to have it on the shelves at 9am sharp on Jan 5th. I even found you a new fan! She does not like to read, and avoids it as much as possible, but she’s counting down the days with me, and can not wait to read this book. One Delinsky, and she’ll be hooked for life. I’m giggling with excitement for her!