If you recall, last Thursday I linked to a giveaway contest. Given the extended nature of the challenge (we combined with Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge), I let the contest run through yesterday. The contest is closed, the four winners have been notified so I thought I’d share a little bit about the contest, the process and what I learned.
Mechanically, I used the Crowdsignal survey widget that is available from WordPress (at least with paid plans). It’s not the easiest thing to adapt to a contest, so I ended up transferring the results into Excel. Excel is not my happy place, but it’s familiar territory and it has a random number function that makes choosing a winner from a group of correct answers easy.
Between one question with multiple correct answers, one with no correct answers and question four, which was just an opinion, Excel chose three out of four winners. The other question only had one correct answer.
The three slideshows below illustrate the first three questions from the survey. I expanded the captions to give a bit more information about the answers:
1) Which location does NOT appear in all three books?
Allegheny Essence, as played by the Empress II. Billy worked on this boat in high school, and the FBI visits in the other two books. 
Cathedral of Learning – University of Pittsburgh. Zach visited the computer center here when he was in high school. It was also featured in When Evil Chooses You 
Patsey’s Back Entrance. Zach, Mike and Billy have been going here since they were kids. 
Door to the Sacristy. This is featured in the second and third book, with Cynthia Leman and Pastor Richie,
2) Which location was NEVER visited by an FBI agent in any book?
Cathedral of Learning – University of Pittsburgh. Zach visited the computer center here when he was in high school. It was also featured in When Evil Chooses You 
Amber’s Bar. Agent Slocum met Zach here in The Evil You Choose Allegheny Essence, as played by the Empress II. Billy worked on this boat in high school, and the FBI visits in the other two books. 
Italian Corner Restaurant – Buffalo, New York Agent Slocum had a meeting here in The Evil You Choose 
Inside the Pittsburgh Baseball Club. The FBI had Zach shadow a suspect here but never visited themselves.
3) Zach NEVER stepped into a dream at which location?
Allegheny Essence, as played by the Empress II. Billy worked on this boat in high school, and the FBI visits in the other two books. Door to the Sacristy. This is featured in the second and third book, with Cynthia Leman and Pastor Richie, 
Easy Pieces. Zach visited this bar in person (not in a dream) and observed here several times. 
Sextant Club. Zach visited this library in When Evil Chooses You 
Library in Sextant Club. Zach visited this library in When Evil Chooses You Cathedral of Learning – University of Pittsburgh. Zach visited the computer center here when he was in high school. It was also featured in When Evil Chooses You
While there was no correct answer for the fourth question, the majority chose the
No Facilities 
I don’t know how this passed me by but it did. Well done Dan very cleverly done. Well done winners too 😊😊
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Willow. Now that I think I figured out most of the tricky bits, I’ll probably have another at some point. As you know, Amazon does not make gifts easy to give internationally.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations to you for setting this up … it’s lost me! But no worries and I’m so pleased you had successful entries, congratulations to those winners – cheers Hilary
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Hilary. I’ve been wanting to try this. Amazon could do a better job of supporting this kind of thing, but I think I learned how to work around them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was fun and kudos to you for organizing everything. I would have pulled names out of a hat, but then it wouldn’t have been this much fun!
Congratulations to all!
LikeLiked by 2 people
The hat might have been easier, Patricia. This was fun, I have the spreadsheet set up, in case I ever do another contest, and I learned a little more about Amazon.
LikeLike
What a clever idea for a book promotion!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Liz. It was more work than I imagined, but it was fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome, Dan. I know all about “more work than I expected”!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol no they certainly don’t do they!!. I just was sorry I had not seen that you were running an event 😃😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I admire your zeal for learning new tortures combined with technology Dan. You win a round on me at the virtual bar. The next meeting is later today ( I hope ) after my suddenly non virtual plumber gets done installing my suddenly new hot water heater. Perhaps the only item more fun than a car or a suddenly new refrigerator.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my. Good luck with that, John.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve wanted to do a give-away for years but am intimidated by the process. I think I would just let He-Man pull the name(s) out of a hat and compile the list of right answers manually.
Congratulations to the winners!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha – that would have been easier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dan! What a great contest and fun way to allow some nice chat about book details !
Great idea and congrats to the four winners
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Yvette! It was fun, and I learned a lot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
☀️😊☀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fun contest, Dan. Congratulations to the winners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks John.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well done! And congratulations to the winners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Dan, fabulous, I enjoyed seeing these pictures of all the places featured in your books. Congratulations to the winners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Robbie
LikeLike