Friday, March 16, 2012

How about YOU design the contest?

UPDATE: 
I've extended the deadline on this contest a few more days since I'm off in Portland attending a conference for the day job. Read on to win!

Seems like it's time to give away another free book, doesn't it?

I've been trying to come up with a clever idea for a contest, but between my ongoing "virtual book tour" and the migraine that knocked me on my butt earlier this week, my cleverness well is looking a little parched.

So let's try this: why don't you suggest ideas for a book giveaway contest?

Leave your best suggestions in the comments. Make it silly, make it serious . . . whatever rolls your socks up. I'm sure my agent and publicist would be most fond of ideas that help spread the word about Believe it or Not and urge others to buy the book, so I'll give double bonus points for contest proposals that keep that in mind.

I'll review the suggestions at noon PST on Sunday, March 18 noon PST on Tuesday, March 20 (note the new deadline), and will announce both the winner and contest early next week.

The person who suggests the winning contest idea will get a signed copy of Believe it or Not.

Since it seems like I oughta give something even cooler for the actual contest, let's up the stakes there and give a twin-pack of signed copies of Making Waves and Believe it or Not, plus a dozen bookmarks just so you you have something special to line your hamster cage share with friends and family.

Whaddya think? Hit me with your best contest ideas!

Just don't hit too hard. My butt's still a little sore.

10 comments :

Pamela said...

There's a coworker of mine who loves his iphone and loved this one app called "Fact or crap". The app gave two different statements similarly worded and you had to figure out which one was fact and which one was crap.

It got annoying sometimes, but sometimes the obscure stuff found out was kinda interesting, such as explorers Lewis and Clark when they were traveling through the territories, they carried numerous gallons of alcohol (for bartering purposes of course).

Surely there are factoids in or about the book you can tease- err, I mean test us with? ;)

Nicole Basaraba said...

A fun contest could be commenters telling stories of current or past relationships when something unbelievable happened.

The only stipulation is to start the story with: "Believe it or Not...."

Example:
Believe it or Not, the craziest place we did it was in a....

Linda G. said...

Pssst...March 17 is Saturday.

(You just put that in there to see if we were paying attention, right?)

Sarah W said...

Okay . . .

How about a contest where we pair a Believe It Or Not Fact (double points for innuendo) with the cover of Believe It Or Not and a tagline along the lines of "You won't believe how good Tawna Fenske is, either, until you read this:"

We'll post 'em on a blog, on telephone poles, Twitter, storefront windows, libraries, crystal balls, Facebook, stripper poles, car windows, sandwich boards, whatever, and send you a link or an image or some kind of proof.

Any good?

Laina said...

How about a trivia hunt?? Something about you or your... erm, no, that could lead to stalking and several arrests... on second thought, I never said that.

Non-clever (but convenient for me!) could be blogging about it...

Man, I'm bad at this. Normally I just give bonus points in my contests for linkage...

Judy,Judy,Judy. said...

You could have contest entrants tell about a funny encounter with a psychic or an accountant in ?so many words or less. And if they didn't have a funny story they could make one up. And if they wanted to enter twice they could come up with one of each. And if they wanted that bonus third entry they could come up with a funny encounter with a psychic accountant.

Lynn's Romance Enthusiasm said...

I actually love getting the bookmarks and postcards. I even like getting the magnets. I love to have my refrig covered in them. I'm of the old school and love receiving the physical books. I'm always losing my bookmarks and what better place to put them than in a physical book. It does seem a little pointless to try to put one on your e-reader. Sleeves are always nice to put the e-reader but it's still not the same as the physical book. I like having the chance to look at the book cover whenever I want to.

Lynn
lareynolds0316@gmail.com

jeanette8042 said...

You could take a funny or regular pic of your pets and the books and ask readers to make funny caption.

Patty Blount said...

What if you asked readers to read an excerpt and PREDICT what happens next?

(This only works for those who have NOT yet read the book.)

It could be multiple choice to make it even funnier.

NotJana said...

How about something creative. You've got quite a few international blog commenters, so why not put them to good use and have them come up with a title for 'Believe it or Not' for all those international editions?

Something along the line of coming up with a title in another language that, even without knowing the language, makes kinda sense? Feels right, in a way? Be it French, Swedish, Dutch, Elvish, Klingon... whatever language comes to mind. Or even make something up. It just has to be convincing?

And one can always tweet/blog/whatever ... 'Believe it or Not' or, for our [whatever] friends, 'Blah, blah, huh? Whoa!' ... (not the best example but I'm practically sleeping already).