Books are my passion and connecting Readers with Authors and Books is my delight. I want it to continue being a joy and not become a pain, which is how certain events over the course of last year had begun to make me feel. That’s the reason for these major policy changes. I’ve explained both the reasons for the changes and changes themselves in detail below.
Please continue reading as it concerns Giveaways, Winners and Prizes.
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The way I run my giveaways is – I pick a random winner after a giveaway is over and email them for their details. I specifically mention that they should respond before a particular date or a new winner will be chosen. Some winners respond promptly, some never do or do so after the deadline by which time I’d have emailed a new winner.
But doing all this means I have to keep notes to keep track of all the people who’ve responded, to choose new winners where required, keep track of if they reply, etc etc. And seeing how I have giveaways on practically every post, this takes up a huge chunk of my time and energy. Just recently I spent an entire month trying to nail down a winner to a single giveaway, which is simply ridiculous!
That’s why I’ve decided to do things in a different way from now on (here I take inspiration from a fellow blogger).
CHANGES REGARDING WINNER NOTIFICATION
I will no longer email individual winners.
I’ll post the chosen winner’s email or online handle (by which I mean the name that shows up just above your comment) in a post on my blog. So unless you have a very unique online handle, please make sure you include your email address with your comment.
Anonymous comments will only be taken into account if there’s an email address included with the comment.
It’s up to the participants to check to see if they’ve won. Subscribing to this blog’s feed is the best way to keep track of this.
Winners have two weeks from the day of the announcement to email me (abookblogger at gmail dot com) with their full name and address. Please remember to include the name of the giveaway that you’ve won in the subject line. For example, your subject line can read : I won the Jane Austen giveaway on your blog. Substitute Jane Austen for whichever author or book title you think you’ve won. Without the proper subject line, your email may sit in my spam folder forever.
If more than one participant has the same online handle, then whose email I read first will get the prize.
I will no longer choose substitute winners.
If winners fail to respond in time, the prize is forfeit.
And if you’re concerned about having your email address published in a winner announcement post, then please don’t enter my giveaways. What I do is keep an email address separate from my main one to use when I enter giveaways. I suggest you do something similar.
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The other major change is regarding prize delivery.
Most of the time, the winners of my giveaways get their prize directly from the sponsor, be it an author, publicist, publisher etc. If your prize does not reach you in a timely manner, then by all means do email me about it. As my giveaway winners know, I always reply to such emails of theirs. I also promptly email the person who arranged this giveaway with me, explain and arrange for another copy of the book to be sent. And I keep the winner updated at each step.
But many a time, I’ve had contacts disappear on me. They either change jobs or whatever. I don’t know. They just don’t respond. I’m left with an irate winner and nobody to contact. (I simply don’t have the financial resources to mail the prizes myself or pay for a substitute copy each time a book goes missing) Other times the prize doesn’t make it to the winner’s door the second time as well. Sucky stuff like this happens. Last year one winner whose book kept disappearing no matter how many times it was sent, got extremely pissed off and continued to email me even after six months had elapsed, getting ruder with subsequent emails. Another winner, who’s won here many times before, was shockingly terse the first time a prize went missing. I’m always unfailingly polite, but more and more I’m not seeing a similar response. Hence these changes.
But first I’d like to send a BIG THANK YOU to all the gracious winners who emailed me about receiving their prize and how much they’re enjoying it!
CHANGES REGARDING MISSING PRIZES
Please email me when you don’t receive your prize the first time.
I’ll do my best to ensure you get a second one.
If you still don’t get the second copy 6-8 weeks after it’s been sent, then there’s nothing more I can or will do. Please don’t email me about it after that. I will not respond.
These policies are effective for all giveaways from here on.
Thank you.
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