Advance Copy Giveaways- when?

[Ylfa]

How far in advance of publication is good for giving away copies to the general public (not just for review to industry people)?

What do you want to achieve? How will each giveaway yield more than one additional sale? Will it to be part of a competition that will lead to a mailing list?

It’s primarily to build up some engagement and interest - and if a condition of entry to the draw is to tag two people to whom the book might appeal it could generate some more preorders. I don’t know how important timing is, obviously an advance copy stops being special after publication date but too far ahead and people might lose interest. Maybe there’s no right answer.

Am pleased to hear you're thinking in terms of a deliberate marketing strategy. Have you sketched out a timeline with dependencies - providing giveaways, using the resulting contact list, approaching book blogs/media/subject-matter-relevant groups and so on to see how the timing works (critical path/project plan in effect)? As you say, there's probably no exact answer but you've identified the issues with too early and too late.

Good luck.

No no nothing that deep, it sounds fascinating though - is this what you do for a living?

And thanks again for your help 😊 I’m not responsible in the least for marketing the book, just trying to help out a little and hopefully boost sales of my other artwork 🤞