FAQ

1. What is FridayReads?

FridayReads started when Bethanne Patrick, who tweets as @JustBethanne,  was home with a broken leg and wanted to know what her Twitter followers were reading. So she decided to ask and, since it happened to be a Friday, asked “What are you reading today?” followed by the hashtag  #fridayreads . Over the course of Fall 2010, FridayReads grew until it reached 5,000 participants in December. Since then, FridayReads has grown into an international phenomenon with up to 10,000 readers participating weekly. FridayReads started simply as something to pass the time, but it has become a community that promotes literacy and a passion for reading. Every week, we feature giveaways, bookish news and links, and information about FridayReads.

In March 2011, as FridayReads continued to grow, Patrick and her agent, Erin Cox, decided to approach publishers about sponsoring paid, promoted giveaways each week for the community.* They have worked with many different publishers, imprints, and presses in the past nine months, on giveaways and also on “Twitter Book Tours,” which are live, hosted chats with authors for which publishers also pay. If you would like more information about the rates for these services and/or how hey are conducted, please email sales@fridayreads.com.

*all Tweets about paid promotions are labelled with the hashtag #promo

2. How can I participate in FridayReads?

There are several ways to participate across the web. Originally FridayReads was just an event on Twitter, but we have since expanded to Facebook, Tumblr and this website. To be counted for the giveaway, you can either a) Tweet what you’re reading with the hashtag #fridayreads on Friday b) Write on our Facebook wall on Friday with the title of the book you’re reading c) Reblog and answer the question on our Tumblr or d) Leave a comment somewhere on our website.

Please note: We do archive tweets so that we can make lists of the most frequently read titles, but unless you “win” one of our giveaways, your information is not used at all. If you do win a giveaway book copy, your name and mailing address is forwarded to the publisher who sponsored that week’s giveaway so that they can mail a book to you. We do not include your Twitter handle when we forward that information.

3. When does FridayReads start and end?

FridayReads begins at 12:00 AM on Friday UTC +14 and ends at 12:00 AM  UTC -12. If you participate during this time period, you will be counted in for our giveaway.

4. How do the giveaways work?

We promote a book the week before FridayReads begins. Then the next Friday, we randomly select the winners from the list of participants and announce them via the website you participated with. So if you participated on Twitter, we will send you an @reply with your Twitter handle. If you participated on Facebook, we will send you a Facebook message. On Tumblr, we use the “Ask” function to inform you that you have won. If you have this function disabled, we will reblog a recent post of yours to inform you that you have won. With participants on our website, we use the email you provide when you leave a comment. We choose winners from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and our website. You have 48 hours to respond with your mailing information to claim your prize. If you have any questions about this process, please email Rebecca at bookladyblog@gmail.com.

5. Will you feature my book for a giveaway?

Our giveaways are paid promotions. If you are interested in participating, please email Amanda Nelson at sales@fridayreads.com.

6. What’s the difference between the giveaway promotions and “Our FridayReads”?

Our FridayReads are simply what the people on Team FridayReads are reading this week! They’re not promotions in anyway.

7. What’s the highest number of participants you have reached?

We recently passed 10,000 participants and we are steadily growing in numbers almost every week.

8.  There’s something wrong on your website!

For any questions about FridayReads.com and the content here, please email bethanne@fridayreads.com.

9. I see you have guest posts. Can I write a guest post?

Probably! Email Bethanne (bethanne@fridayreads.com) with your name, who you are, and your guest post topic (related to reading or writing, please!) and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible about when we’d like you to have your post ready.

10. Does FridayReads do anything else?

We also do Twitter book tours. A Twitter book tour is essentially a discussion with the author that is led by Bethanne, but in which anyone can participate. We’ll create an original hashtag, specifically for your tour/chat, and we will eventually be offering transcriptions of the conversation. In the past we have offered chats over one, two or three days. During the conversation, we’ll give away copies of the book to random participants.  Like our giveaways, these are paid promotions, so if you are interested, please email Amanda Nelson (sales@fridayreads.com) for information about pricing and scheduling.

11. Okay, I get the idea, but what’s the point? Why bother?

FridayReads is about a lot more than just free books. It’s a community of readers and, beyond that, it gets people excited about reading. When people get excited about reading, all sorts of incredible things happen: we get smarter, we think more, we’re entertained, we’re constantly learning. The list goes on and on.

1 in 5 people in the United States is functionally illiterate, that’s 20%. In the UK, it’s not much better at 18%, promoting reading through social media encourages people to read more. We all want to make the world a better place and promoting reading and all the great things it can do is one small way to do that.

12. Can I only share if I’m reading a book? What if I’m reading something else?

FridayReads isn’t necessarily just about reading novels; we want to hear what you’re reading, no matter what it is. We have people tweet about manuscripts, newspapers, blogs, magazines, poetry and everything in between.  We also want you to tell us when you’re listening to audiobooks, using the hashtag #fridaylistens.

13. Can I only tweet once?

You can tweet as many times as you want, but when we count participants, we only count you once. That keeps our numbers much more accurate. But it’s not just about the numbers, it’s also about what you’re reading, so keep those tweets coming in!

14. I’m still reading the same book as last week. Can I still participate this week?

Absolutely!

15. Can I only tweet in English?

Please tweet in whatever language you like! We love to see FridayReads coming in from around the world and in many different languages.