On Winning Giveaways You Don't Remember Entering!

For the second time in a row, I've won a book giveaway contest I don't remember entering.   The first time, it was an informal one on The History Girls website. That one I definitely didn't enter, because I checked. I simply put a comment on a post which they must later have decided was their September Giveaway. They give the prize to the comment they like best, in this case a historical novel from HarperCollins. In that case, I didn't actually get the book, because the publisher had specified  UK only, another reason I wouldn't have entered if I had known, but  they offered to send a copy to a British friend, so I put them in touch with my friend Jackie Marshall, who lives in Norfolk and loves historical fiction as much as I do.

This time, I won a $25 Amazon gift voucher from a website I don't recall visiting, but must have, because when I followed the website link, there was my name among the winners. I still don't recall the website, but I have a vague memory of entering one of those centralised giveaways which have a long list of sites giving away books. I don't do it, usually, preferring the more informal ones on English Historical Fiction Writers or, now and then, at the History Girls(rarely the latter, who offer only print books and so don't usually send books outside the UK).

But there are so many of these online giveaways and I must have thought, I have done this myself with very little to show for it, what the heck! And added my name to the Rafflecopter list.

So now, how do I choose? I have discovered that the book being promoted by this author is available for $1.99 on iBooks, so I will leave it for now and buy it later with my iTunes account. I prefer iBooks anyway; I don't have a Kindle and rarely use my Kindle app, which is clumsy, IMO, and doesn't make me feel like I'm reading a book, just a professionally laid out manuscript.

But I must be practical in my choice. A print book would waste several dollars of my precious voucher in postage. And this lady had to work to earn it in order to be able to give it to me, so I will buy as many good ebooks as I can find and get the best value out of it.

And thank you very much, Stephanie Carroll, author of Victorian Gothic novel A White Room!