Writer's of the Future Honorable Mention

A short one today to share that my short story, “Directions to Paradise,” was awarded an honorable mention in the Writer’s of the Future Contest. I received the certificate in the mail this month, and I opened it this week—yes, if you notice the date on the photo, I’m a little behind on mail.

I was going to file this away without mentioning it, but I’m also someone who encourages others to share their accomplishments, big or small. So I’m taking my own advice, hopefully inspiring others and maybe even teaching some of you about a contest you can enter.

Fingers crossed I can get this short story published. It’s one of my favorites.

Learnings from the Writing App Giveaway

This post is for anyone interested in hosting a social media giveaway. Learn from the doings, and not doings, of my first attempt.

What I Did

I ran a Writing App Giveaway in June.

The prize was a one-year subscription for my favorite writing program, Ulysses. I had won the subscription when my short story, Sparks, was selected as a winner in Ulysses’s contest for Disney’s Flora & Ulysses. Since I’m already subscribed to the program, I decided to host a drawing for the subscription voucher with a few goals in mind.

The barrier to enter the drawing was easy. Follow me on Twitter and retweet the giveaway tweet.

My Goals

I wanted to

• build my social media presence.

• meet a few people whom I could have continued writing and tech conversations with.

• improve the impressions of my non-contest tweets.

• get at least one email sign up on my website.

The Outcome

I wanted to

• build my social media presence, and I gained about 30 followers, most of them entrants but not all.

• meet a few people whom I could have continued writing and tech conversations with, and I have tweeted with some of the new followers, but the conversations are sporadic.

• improve the impressions of my non-contest tweets, and impressions rose by about 50% afterward, improving from 50–100 impressions for a typical tweet to 100–200 or higher.

• get at least one email sign up on my website, but I got zilch.

It’s also good to note that a few weeks after announcing the winner, some followers dropped, but many stuck around.

What I Learned

The good.

• The giveaway was a quick way to gain nearly three dozen followers.

• The literal cost of the new, engaged followers feels low, maybe even priceless, as I continue to search for communities and find my voice on Twitter.

  • If you’re curious about actual numbers, an annual Ulysses subscription is $50—with 30 new followers, that means each one cost around $1.33.

  • Also, since I had a free voucher for a subscription, this really only cost me time.

• I was able to give someone a wonderful writing program subscription.

• Because the giveaway promoted Ulysses’s contest and app, the company engaged with some of my tweets, and they were easy to work with when the winner ran into a snag redeeming the voucher.

Where there’s room for improvement.

• A handful of entrants seemed to be bots. When I looked at their timelines, I saw that all of them had pinned a tweet resembling an authentic, personal post. The rest of their posts, however, were retweets of giveaways that they were entering. Hundreds of retweets. Oddly, inspecting their profiles further revealed that a number of them listed Michigan as their location—what’s going on in the Wolverine state? I doubt these followers will be engaging with me and supporting much of my work.

  • One way to avoid most bots would be to make entry harder. Consider running a caption contest or having people write a story in a tweet, and then choose your favorite. You might get fewer entrants, but the quality of engagement and followers will likely be better.

• The winner experienced an issue with the voucher. The redemption failed. I was confident my Ulysses contact would get me a working code, but they were out of office, so it took about two weeks to get the issue resolved. Additionally, I made this problem more difficult for myself by telling the winner that I would wait until they had the prize, before I announced them. This not only required me to stay in regular contact with the winner—whom I, a stranger to them, understandably had to reassure would receive their prize—but also with followers to update when I would announce the winner.

  • Tell the winner that you will announce them, as soon as they acknowledge being the winner. Then you will only have to give them regular updates, rather than all of your followers too.

• If you want email sign ups, make that the entry requirement.

Would I Host Another Giveaway?

I think so, but I’d probably experiment with another format. I like the idea of making entry a creative writing prompt. I imagine more people would interact with each other, and we might build more meaningful connections. Plus, trying something different just sounds fun.

Short Story Win and Writing App Giveaway

You can now read my children’s superhero short story, Sparks, and some kind words written about it. The story was chosen as one of the winners in Ulysses’s writing contest celebrating Disney's Flora & Ulysses.

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Continuing the celebration, I’m giving one Twitter follower a voucher for a one-year subscription to Ulysses, my favorite Mac and iOS writing software. To enter the drawing, all you have to do is

1. follow me on Twitter, and

2. retweet this tweet

by the end of Thursday, July 1. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced afterward.

Ulysses writing app shown across iPhone, iPad, and Mac screens.