I’ve seen several articles recently on the potential for people to profit on sales of promotional materials, bypassing the Publisher and Author. These may come from promotional materials from big publishers and from various giveaways. The “buy box” program on Amazon has set off some of these articles. People who sell well at lower prices can get a “buy box” and thus become the first source of a buyer’s selection on Amazon. I do giveaways and think it’s a good promotional practice when launching a book. I cannot see a giveaway of ten books as making much of a “buy box” opportunity. Just to be on the safe side, I made a change in my giveaway practice with my latest giveaway. I simply put on the title page inside, “to name of giveaway recipient” and then sign the page. Normally I send unsigned books to giveaway recipients. I assume that giveaway recipients want to read the books not use them for sales. By putting their name on the book, it personalizes the books and makes them less sale-able, for those books cannot be sold as new.
