Goodreads paid giveaway affects also boughts?

[Tom Wood]

Has anyone tried the new paid Goodreads giveaway for ebooks? If so, did you notice an effect on the also boughts for the ebook you gave away? Since the reviews from the 100 random people who get the ebook are shown as a verified purchase, I'm wondering if their purchase history is being included in the free ebook's also boughts.

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm not sure how anyone could tell.

If it makes you feel any better, I doubt the people signing up for an ebook giveaway are entirely random. With the old paperback giveaways, a lot of people were entering to get the book and sell it. They can't resell the ebook, however, so my guess is the entrants might be more likely to actually want to read the book. I'm just speculating, of course, but if that is the case, the also boughts probably wouldn't suffer.

[Tom Wood]

Take a look at this video by Derek Murphy, starting at 3:25 where he discusses how also-boughts are being influenced. He references David Gaughran as a source. I don't think his theory that Amazon is using a single account to buy the ebooks makes sense. I think it's more likely that the 'verified purchase' links are pulling in those 100 winners' purchase histories and that is affecting the also-boughts of the ebook that is given away.