Competitions for bookworms
Do you love reading? Books are one of the easiest prizes to win in competitions – and if you’re going through a dry spell, a new book in the post can really cheer you up! For this post I’ve listed the best ways to find book giveaways in the UK.
Toppsta – www.toppsta.com
Toppsta is a fabulous website with tons of reviews of kids books, arranged by age – if you watch our regular prize unboxing videos on YouTube you’ll know that my son regularly wins from the giveaways featured on Toppsta!
Toppsta encourages its members to review books – either a book you’ve read to your child, or one that your child has read on their own (you can choose to review as a grown up reading to a child, or the child can submit their own review). The reviews are super handy in deciding which books your child might enjoy!
To start with, register on the site then sit with your child and help them to review a few of their favourite books. Once you’ve got a few reviews live on Toppsta.com, you have a better chance of winning one of their giveaways – they want to send out prizes to people who will leave a review. I’ve found that my son only wins a giveaway if he’s posted a review of the previous book he won!
Find current giveaways at toppsta.com/giveaways and filter according to your child’s age. You have to say why you/your child would like to win the book – I’m not sure this has much effect on your chance of winning, but if it’s on a subject your child is passionate about then that’s definitely worth a mention!
Caboodle – caboodle.nationalbooktokens.com
Caboodle is the National Book Tokens website, and you can register for free – members go into a monthly draw to win £100 of books. You earn Caboodle reward points for completing activities on the site, and as you collect more points you get access to special competitions and offers. Check out current Caboodle competitions here – there are regularly fun challenges where you need to identify book titles from illustrations! You can also register for Caboodle Firsts – each month, 100 applicants will receive an early copy of a book.
Readers First – www.readersfirst.co.uk
Readers First share previews of books every Monday. Leave your first impression as a 200 character review and you could win the book! You can also earn points on the site by adding reviews, and exchange your points for a free book. Sign up using my referral code f71ae39733e589e76 for bonus points!
Books ETC Book Club
Sign up to join the Book Club, then submit a review of any book and you’ll be entered into the monthly prize draw to win a bundle of books! To review a book, simply search for it and click ‘submit a review’ at the bottom of the page – give it a rating, summary and review.
Waterstones
Waterstones offer some fantastic ‘money can’t buy’ prizes when you pre-order certain books on their site – sometimes you can win the chance to meet the author! To check the current comps, go to www.waterstones.com/win.
HQ Stories
Harper Collins HQ Stories website has regular prize draws you can enter when you pre-order books! Check them out at www.hqstories.co.uk/category/competitions
Other websites
Other UK websites that usually have a bunch of comps running to win books are:
Blogs
You’ll find book giveaways on blogs too – Trip Fiction have some good ones! And why not try a Google search? a search for ‘leave comment win book giveaway’ from the UK in the last week should give you plenty of relevant results from blogs!
Twitter has a huge amount of book giveaways – I’ve set up a couple of Twitter lists to help you find them, one for Books and one specifically for Kids Books. Both lists include publishers, authors, websites, blogs and more resources. If you’re not sure how to use lists, see my blog post How to use Twitter lists.
If you use the amazing Tweetdeck on your computer then add my lists as new columns then use the filters box at the top of the column to search the list for win, giveaway or competition!
You can also search Twitter for win book, win a signed copy, win ebook and so many more phrases – download my free Comper’s Guide to Twitter PDF for tips on searching and Tweetdeck!
Do you have any other great resources for book giveaways? Leave a comment to let me know!
This is just what Im looking for, Thank you for sharing these great tips. I learned a lot.
Thank you Di, fingers crossed!!
Hi Di, just like to report that I have won a book from readers first from nearly 400 entries but I think they give more than one book away each time.
Thank you again for the information.
I won a bundle of 12 fantastic books with Books etc. Just had to write a short book review. Won on my first attempt. Also won a book bundles on Twitter with Wordery and Orion Books. Caboodle and Penguin also do lots of really good book giveaways on their websites. Love book prizes.
Thanks Di – I won a book from Readers First on my first attempt. I actually got right into the book after reading the preview so I’m so glad I won otherwise I’d have to buy it! It’s a definitely a great site for bookworms and winning was a bonus.
Hi, I’ve found it impossible to register with Readers First, they ask for a Referral code, do you know what this is? Thank you.
Yes! Here’s mine – sorry, I should edit that into the post text!
f71ae39733e589e76
I saw joined Toppsta last month after watching a few of your unboxing videos, my daughter has already won two books. Thanks for another great tip.
Shame about Goodreads, I have been lucky in the giveaways over past few years.
I’ve signed up to National Book Tokens Caboodle site as they frequently run competitions to win book bundles, tokens and related items. Yet to win though….☺
Thanks for the tip Priscilla – I’d not heard of this. Just checked the website – for those interested, Boundless costs £26/year, you get a £10 Amazon voucher when you join and it’s open to civil service & public sector workers. https://www.boundless.co.uk
You have to be a member of Boundless, formerly CSMA, but every month a book is chosen by members and if you win it they ask for a review at the end of the month. I’ve had several lovely books from them