There were 150 entries after my July newsletter announced the drawing, and the July 5 blog post here.
That's about a 10% response rate, which is pretty darn good.
After assigning everyone a reference number (100-250) and responding with that reference number to the emails, I learned a couple things.
1. Some of you have glitches in your email settings that render your name as "Gmail" or "Inbox" or something that I HOPE is not actually your name.
Thanks to blog reader Dena Pawling when this happened to me (after setting up a new Mail account) she let me know and I figured out how to adjust it on my settings.
Dena is my secret weapon in my war on spam and typos. I'm thinking of buying her a super-hero cape for Christmas.
2. A very few of you thought that this was some sort of secret access to the agent time and asked me what I was looking for in terms of queries. It was not.
3. I felt bad that I couldn't respond to some of the nice conversational things you said, but I was drowning in the data base at that moment. Appreciated, but not acknowledged, sorry.
When everyone had a number, and the entry window closed, I called my the random number generator on The Google.
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It chose lucky number 136, and I had the great fun of emailing the winner!
That's my favorite part of drawings.
So, now your turn.
Was this fun?
Easy to enter?
Were the rules clear?
Any suggestions?
18 comments:
I'll compare it to the Goodreads giveaways that I play on occasion, where I've also never won!
Your game was super easy to enter, and I of course wonder how many people were unable to follow the directions like so many queries of story submissions. Rules were easy.
Two suggestions, neither earth shattering.
1) One thing on Goodreads that makes you feel like you have a chance is that there are multiple winners. So, if you want to declare a last-second mulitple winner and send me a copy of the book, I'll be happy to report back if that was fun or not.
2) It would be fun (some might say frustrating, tomayto / tomahto) when announcing the winner to do a reveal to stretch the suspense.
Day 1: Reveal the first number
Day 2: Reveal the second number
Day 3: Forget you were going to reveal the winner and announce a new drawing
Day 4: Beg forgiveness and announce the third number to reveal the winner
That's all I got, which wasn't much. Thanks for the entertainment.
JF
That John Frain's wife (also named Janet, tries to kill him in various #VSS now makes a great deal of sense.
I wonder if her luck will improve when John is on Carkoon?
My biggest problem with the contest was, of course, that the random number generator did not pick my number. I think something happened with my entry on its digital journey from Carkoon. Probably the kale interfering with the binary chain and frazzling the encryption matrix or something like that.
Anyway, congrats to the winner! And John, I'll have them get your room ready here... 😁
Yes, this was fun.
Yes, it was easy to enter (kale notwithstanding).
Yes, the rules were clear.
Thanks, Janet! I look forward to the next one.
Congrats to # 136 (sadly, not me). Still adding 7 Drafts to my TBR.
This contest was easy to enter and the rules were clear for me.
I can't figure out how to subscribe to this blog (I am subscribed to the newsletter), so I didn't find out about the contest until late in the day Wed. A few more days notice might have made it more fun. Kind of like the old flash contests: announced on Fri, posted on Sun, judged on Mon.
Congrats to #136!
I didn't enter. I don't have a US address. :(
I understand that international postal fees are astronomical - especially for something the size of a book. I was about to order something from an American site, only to find that I'd be paying as much in postal fees as I was paying for the product.
But that would be my only criticism.
Congrats to 136 also.
Thank you, my Queen, for giving us a chance, and for me, a mulligan.
Maybe, someday, I will have chance to talk about the serendipity of the number I got. For thirteen years is was my favorite number of all time, then it was the worst. It wasn't the worst because of your contest.
In a bar with a couple of Scotches in front of us would be good.
Was this fun?
YES
Easy to enter?
YES
Were the rules clear?
YES
Any suggestions?
PICK ME NEXT TIME
Yes, yes, OMG yes!
Hmmm. Hope that doesn't give the wrong impression.
No real suggestions, other than a surprise response where you give every entrant a copy!
I also liked my number (243) for number geek reasons (factors out to powers of 3, among other reasons). Do you mind if I keep it?
I guess I'll have to buy a copy of the book to see what the seven drafts are (unless this is actually closer to Seven Samurai, or Seven Brides, or something). I already have more than 7 drafts for reasons that make sense to how my brain works, but what's another draft or two between lobes?
(109 words not counting this parenthetical (123 with), but I haven't posted much lately)
Thank you for the contest. It was easy and fun and the rules were perfectly clear from here.
Craig, would that I could do more than send you a virtual scotch.
I liked it. It was easy to participate. Please do more. Thank you.
I couldn't enter - didn't see the post until it was too late, plus I don't have a US address. (And even Book Depository have stopped delivering to where I live. Might as well be on Mars. The scenery would be better too.) But that book does look good.
Any suggestions, you ask?
...
...
...
*whispers*
Bring back flash fiction contests!
*Runs away before the Karkoon summons can appear*
Oh yes, it was simple and fun. I was sad I did not win. So I ordered myself a couple of the books. One for me and one for one of the lucky youngsters in my writing workshop. And somehow my alternate email is now getting used here. Gmail is sneaky.
It was nice having NLiu back for a while.
I hope she and John Frain like kale.
Was this fun?
I've been in trial the past two days and didn't see it until too late on Wednesday. Life does have a way of interfering with fun. Especially nowadays.
Easy to enter?
I bought this book several months ago so I would not have entered even if I'd seen the post on time. I've started reading it but haven't yet finished. So far it's great tho.
Were the rules clear?
From what I remember, I absolutely could have followed them, even with my mental mushiness for anything unrelated to my then-current trial.
Any suggestions?
Thank you for your kind words. Interestingly, I already have a super-hero cape. &^(#%$^ years ago when my kids were MUCH younger [and actually KIDS], my husband bought all of us capes. Mine's Super Girl. I wear it every Halloween when I take my #2 son [he's 26 now but developmentally about 5] to our church Halloween/Harvest party. He's Batman, I'm Super Girl. He has a great time and I swear I don't know how so much of his candy ends up in MY mouth.
Anyway ... I'm surprised you still remember our exchange about your email name. That was a while ago. But I'm glad you were able to fix it. I did think it really strange that the last time I emailed you, you replied as Janet Reid, but that time you replied as Gmail. Odd choice of name change. Since the pandemic, courts have entered the 21st century and allow us to make non-trial appearances by video. I've thankfully never appeared as a cat avatar, but occasionally my name shows as "guest" or "unknown" and I have to fix it.
I'll stop rambling now. It appears I could really use the beer that Craig still owes me.
silently thanks NLiu for saying it so the rest of us don't have to be exiled
It was super fun, the rules were clear... no suggestions.
Congratulations to 136!
Alas, I was also geographically disadvantaged. Otherwise, easy-as.
(Long ago I learned the best way to get into Janet's good books was to follow her instructions exactly. She remembers that sort of thing.)
Didn't win. Bought the book - thank you for the recommendation!
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