My New E-Newsletter and an Autographed Book Giveaway

by | Jul 5, 2012 | Blog | 18 comments

The Daulton Books E-Newsletter Is Here!

I finally have a E-newsletter up and running. The sign up form is on the right, and there’s another one on the bottom. Since I’ve had a number of people email me asking to be notified when the second book in The Galactic Mage Series comes out, I figured I should make it easier for those who don’t wish to read through every blog post I’ve ever written to discover that sort of notification is possible. Plus, it’s an excuse to give away an autographed copy, which, outside of family and close friends, I haven’t done yet (I know, Slacker!).

For those who might want to sign up, I can tell you I won’t be sending out tons of emails. I know the standard deal is to have a monthly newsletter, but I just don’t see how I will have enough to share to make one every month—that’s what the blog is for anyway. Also, I’m a firm believer in the Golden Rule, and I know I wouldn’t want one every month unless it was just jammed full of amazing stuff. I don’t think I can come up with that much amazing, and I’m not going to try to fake it. Besides, I’d rather spend that time writing novels.

I think a quarterly newsletter makes more sense for me, at least for now, but that sounds so formal—the very term “quarterly” makes it seem corporate, which in turn sounds like actual work. Yikes! So I’m not calling it that either.

I’ve decided to call it a randomly occurring periodical with semi-occasional regularity.

The newsletter is meant to be a way that I can share book release dates and any events I might go to in the future, like comic cons or book signings and that sort of thing, and I might include the occasional short story. And I also want it to be a vehicle for running contests. Facebook has really sticky rules about how you can do giveaways. For example, you can run a contest through Facebook, but you can’t inform the winner of that contest that they have won THROUGH Facebook. How weird is that?

Now I know as soon as I say that, most people will say, “Hey, so-and-so does it all the time on their page. So does Company X and Company Y.” Yep, they do. But I am one of those people who has the kind of luck where I’ll be the one who gets caught and gets my page shut down, while the big corporations (and not so big, too, I admit) keep breaking the rules. It’s not a respect for the rules that drives it, just paranoia.

So, to get the contest itself, here it is:

Win an Autographed Copy of The Galactic Mage
Sign up for my newsletter and be entered into a drawing to win an autographed paperback copy of The Galactic Mage. As soon as I get 50 people, I’ll give the book away.

CONTEST RULES
The rules are pretty simple: sign up. If you have ever been to my house for dinner, you can’t win. I would say you have to live in the U.S., but I won’t. I will say that if it’s going to cost me more than fifty bucks to ship your prize to you, then you’re out of luck, and I’ll draw another winner. But I think that covers it. Just in case, as a legal ass-cover, I will add, the rules and prize are subject to change without notice and at my sole discretion and all that other legal mumbo jumbo, which probably doesn’t count if you call it “mumbo jumbo” in the actual disclaimer as I just have. But, well, I tried.

So, sign up if you want to be on the mailing list and want a shot at a free book with my beautifully illegible signature in it, plus get a heads-up the moment Rift in the Races comes out.

It’s such a great offer that, as you can see to the right, even cute little animals want a signed copy of their own! (And no, that is not my wife baiting him to do that, and no that silvery thing at the top of the frame is not the bottom of a bag of cat treats. What kind of person do you think I am?! If I was going to resort to that sort of trickery, I would certainly perpetrate it with greater subtlety than that.)

 

18 Comments

  1. Dave Peterson

    Good day Lord word monger!

    • John

      And good day to you, sir!

  2. David Friedman

    I would love to get a free book signed by you

    • John

      It did seem like it was time to do something like this, didn’t it? I know the writers who are more on top of their marketing give books away sooner than this (in advance? What? That’s crazy talk!). But, better late than never, as they say.

  3. Patrick Murray

    I just want to add, I have beer. Lots of tasty beer. Not that I’m bribing anyone, of course. 😉

    • John

      Mmm, I hadn’t thought about the prospects of bribery in this endeavor. What a delightful consideration. Were it not for an abiding fear of fate and karma, I would be all over that.

  4. Raymond

    I have tried to find a copy of your first book to read it so far no luck at all
    not even at my Library it looks like it would be a good book to read Hope I can find a copy to read 🙂

    • John

      Yeah, to make it available through libraries, Amazon wanted me to set the paperback price at over $18. There was no way I was going to do that. But, winning a free one would be cool, eh?

  5. Lori

    How about if someone hasn’t been to your house in the past 15 yrs. or so………….does that count?

    • John

      Someone is always trying to work the angles, ain’t they? lol

  6. jim

    Cool a chance at a free book and a “beautifully illegible signature” on top of it. *-)

    Sounds like a no brainer…lol

    Cant wait to get your second book.

    • John

      I agree, Jim. Free books are like free food in that regard! Good luck in the drawing. And book two, she’s a comin’!

  7. Robert Massaioli

    Free book! Cat picture?! Instant alerting of when RitR is released? Count me in!

    P.S. If it costs too much in shipping to send it to Australia (which is understandable; it’s annoying living so far from…well…everybody else) then I will cover the costs myself.

    • John

      Haha! Yes, the cat picture is the real clincher, ain’t it?

      And I looked before starting this up, and near as I can tell, I think shipping to Australia is only around $16, so, well within my $50 limit. I only capped it because, I mean, I don’t know all the rules for all countries, and I’m assuming there’s probably some strict country with import duties or dragon-book tariffs that cost a zillion bucks or something, so, was just CMA.

  8. Michele Benner

    So, yeah, I’ve signed up. Just send MY book out without telling anyone, then draw the actual ‘winner’s’ name. 😉 Did I mention I can get hold of some damned good tequila?

    • John

      It’s funny, I looked in the mail and didn’t see a box with really good tequila in it–addressed to me or to Shadesbreath–that included a self addressed stamped book box. Crazy, eh?

      😛

      • Michele Benner

        LOL

        Yeah, I’m really just more about smart ass comments than actual effort. 😛

        • John

          Wow do I know how that goes. Or I guess, my wife probably knows better than I do. Or whatever. lol.