Scavenger Hunt 2.0 will be better than ever.
By tweeting this post, you can earn promotional tweets from me as part of the Amazon Tweet Exchange.
Details here.
Details here.
But even if it has to wait until December, I think it will be worth the wait. Why?
Because we aren't just giving away books with the new Scavenger Hunt. We'll be giving away a Kindle Fire with each one. If it's popular enough, we'll do it every month. But even if it isn't popular enough to have a new Kindle Fire giveaway every month, there should still be several giveaways each year.
Other sites give away high priced items like this all the time. In fact, a very popular blog does it every month. It's a great opportunity for authors and a relatively cheap way to promote a book. However, our Scavenger Hunt Kindle Fire Giveaway will put more focus on the books.
People won't be able to just enter and win without paying attention to the books and the authors. I think that is a major failing of other giveaways. Sure, a high priced item gets lots of people to enter, but if someone enters only to win and not to find new books or at least has the ability to ignore the sponsoring books, isn't the author's money wasted somewhat?
Our Scavenger Hunt giveaway will discourage giveaway junkies. It will be designed for those who like to discover new books. This may lower our participation somewhat—especially at the beginning, but the participation will be more targeted.
But I wouldn't worry about participation
Despite possible low participation as compared to other site, I think the number of people entering will be comparable or even higher than our previous Scavenger Hunt format.
Why?
The only thing we were giving away before was books. Books are easy to get, so straight book giveaways aren't as effective in my experience. A group giveaway was better than any single giveaway, but a high priced item gets people in the door—more people enter our gift card giveaways than our straight ebook variety, after all.
Not as many people may enter the Kindle Fire Scavenger Hunt Giveaway since there won't be any easy entry options, but promoting the giveaway in general will get more people on the site than previously. The Scavenger Hunt will be just as fun as it was before—hopefully more so—so the right people will stick around.
Though our Scavenger Hunts have always been a neat feature of the site, they were only scavenger hunts in a limited sense. Sure, participants looked for answers in book synopses and blog posts, but the fun stopped there.
The new Scavenger Hunts will be more challenging but more fun. The answers found will give the participants a clue, a clue for the ultimate entry option. In order to turn in the ultimate entry option, every book will need to be noticed.
Other entry options will be available so that a person doesn't have to necessarily look at every book, but even these will be about the books, meaning some of the books will be noticed at least. However, these secondary entry options will not count nearly as much as the big one.
The Big Entry Option
Each Scavenger Hunt question will be answered with one word. One letter from each word will be the clue letter. All the clue letters will be put together to form a riddle or a complex clue of some kind. The answer to the riddle or final clue will be the big entry option.
The Only Giveaway Option
This new, upgraded Scavenger Hunt will be the only way to give away a copy of a book or a gift card through us. (Except for what DeeJay may do through Masquerade Book Tours) The standard promo can advertise a third-party giveaway (just like it has always been able to), but if an author wants my full support—and my guarantee that I will promote their giveaway until I feel satisfied that enough people have seen it—this Scavenger Hunt will be it.
What the Scavenger Hunt comes with
Because I will need the Scavenger Hunt answers to form a pattern, I won't expect the authors to come up with questions. However, depending on which package they buy, they will have other work to do that they haven't had to do in the past.
Package #1 - $25
- $15 - Scavenger Hunt Fee
- $10 toward the purchase of a Kindle Fire
They will get one scavenger hunt question. The answer will be found on their book's Amazon page. $10 of their fee will go toward the purchase of a Kindle Fire.
Package #2 - $50
- $15 - Scavenger Hunt Fee
- $10 toward the purchase of a Kindle Fire
- $25 - Giveaway Promo Post
They will get one scavenger hunt question. The answer will be found in a promo post on this site. It could come from their synopsis or review quotes. It will not come from the excerpt. A giveaway is recommended. For example, copies of their book or a gift card they sponsor.
Package #3 - $65
- $20 - Scavenger Hunt Fee (2 questions)
- $10 toward the purchase of a Kindle Fire
- $25 - Giveaway Promo Post
- $10 - Author Interview Post
The interview will not be boring like so many author interviews tend to be. The author will get to choose from a bushel of questions: some quick lightening round questions, a serious question or two, and a wacky question. The chances of any two interviews being exactly alike will be astronomically rare.
Each scavenger hunt post (giveaway post and/or interview post) will be heavily promoted on Twitter, of course. Also, emails sent out to our book club will promote the hunt even more.
Timing of the Hunt
Because all of the Scavenger Hunt questions have to work in tandem, the hunt will not start until I line up so many authors. The more authors we have the bigger the prize will be. We'll need a minimum of 10 to purchase the lowest cost Kindle Fire. But there's other models we can give away. We just need the numbers.
Because of that, the Scavenger Hunts will not take place monthly as they did before, another reason I separated them from Cover Wars, which is still a monthly feature.
Secret Word
The Paypal form as well as any Google form you fill out will ask for a secret word. We use this to match up your payment with forms you fill out. Choose a word or short phrase that other authors are not likely to choose—perhaps something unique to either you or one of your books.
Multiple Forms
Because of the complexity of these promotion options, there are different forms to fill out based upon which package you buy. If you purchase the $25 option, there's only 1 form to fill out. If you purchase the $50 package, there's 2 forms to fill out, and there are 3 forms to fill out if you buy the third option.
Everyone must fill out THIS FORM.
If you bought the $50 or $65 options, fill out THIS FORM for the promo post.
If you bought the $65 option, also fill out THIS FORM for the author interview.
