Saturday, January 1, 2000

OFFICIAL BOOK GIVEAWAY RULES AND INFO

GENERAL INFORMATION

Books I give away are called ARCs (Advance Reading Copies). Publishers send these books to Barnes & Noble as well as book reviewers and other locations in order to help promote publicity for the book. ARCs are uncorrected proofs of the book which means they may have typos or in the cases of some children's books, art.

ARCs are not for resale; authors receive no money from these copies. This is why we mark every ARC on the outside of the book on the page edges (sometimes the store number, other times just "ARC"). This is to prevent anyone from attempting to resell the book. 9 times out of 10, the ARC is paperback, but on occasion we do get hardcovers. If you like your books clean and ideal, this is not the contest for you. Likewise if you collect ARCs and like them unmarked, this is not the contest for you.

Any time I give away a book, I'm doing so at my own expense. Though the book costs nothing, shipping and packaging does. Even though I have ads all over this site, I haven't made a single penny from them. Still, I like to pass along books and reading to people, which is why I do these giveaways. :)

OFFICIAL RULES (not like they're looked over by a lawyer or anything, but you get the idea)

1.) Entering book giveaways must be done in the time allotted (usually a few weeks).

2.) The contest is open to U.S. residents only. I never thought I'd have this issue, but after a few people mentioned they were outside the U.S., I realized it would be a good idea to add this in because overseas mail is expensive. (unless you're willing to help out with shipping)

3.) To enter, leave a comment ANYWHERE on this blog. I receive email alerts for comments so it doesn't matter where the comment is left. However, you must include some way for me to contact you. You may leave your email address, a website with a "contact" link, or whatever, but there MUST be some way for me to get in touch with you in the event that you win. (I recommend leaving emails in the yaybooks(at)hotmail(dot)com format to keep spammers away.)

4.) If you fail to include a method of contact, you will not be included in the giveaway.

5.) If you are uncomfortable just dropping your email in the comments section, you can email me at icewolf_9(at)hotmail(dot)com. Make sure you put "BOOK GIVEAWAY" in the subject line so I know it's not spam. But feel free to comment on the blog anyway. :)

6.) Just FYI, no, I don't do anything with the emails. I don't know how to do that sort of thing anyway.

7.) Okay, so this isn't really a rule, but even if you're not interested in the book(s) offered, then why not do me a favor and suggest the contest to others who might be? Getting just a handful of entries each time almost doesn't make it seem worth it (the I Am Number Four contest not included because let's face it, movies always increase sales and interest).

8.) If you've won a book before, you may still enter in a new contest. It's all done and chosen at random like any other raffle-type thing. If you win twice...well then dang, you're just lucky.

9.) Posts about the winner(s) will go up the next day (sometimes that night). I will also email the winner(s) at the same time. If there is nothing in your inbox, check your junkmail as well in case your filter has chucked my email there instead. Subject lines will always include "[Month] Book Giveaway." If you see that you've won in the winner post but haven't received an email, leave a comment or email me yourself at icewolf_9(at)hotmail.com.

10.) As creator of this contest, I reserve the right to choose another winner should the original winner never respond. I'm pretty lenient though. I know stuff happens, life gets in the way, and emails end up in the junk bin. So I'll wait for a while (4 weeks is my limit) before deciding you either don't want the book that bad, or you're just in a position that doesn't allow you to respond (in which case you probably have more important things to deal with anyway).

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Whoops! I completely forgot to mention this. Last month I reviewed Stephanie Garber's amazing book Caraval for the web blog I curre...