Tag Archives: giveaway

by | March 6, 2018 · 1:33 pm

Bygone Badass Broads Giveaway!

If you were not aware, the greater Boston area is lucky enough to be home to a whole gaggle of awesome independent bookstores. While we try not to play favorites, it’s hard to deny that Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Newbury Street in Boston holds a special place in our hearts–it was the location of our first live show, after all!

Renata, Margaret Willison, and Kait at our Trident live show last March

Last week, a small fire broke out at Trident on Wednesday night. While, luckily, no one was hurt, the store and its inventory suffered a lot of property and water damage. They’re closed until further notice.

Yikes 🙁 (courtesy of the Trident newsletter)

It’s no secret that independent bookstores like Trident are an endangered species in the Amazon Prime economy, so being out of commission like this could be disastrous. Luckily, they’re still taking online orders and selling giftcards (which can be used online!) while their brick and mortar store is temporarily closed. SO, as an incentive for you to spend some $$$ there, we’re holding a giveaway!

Friend of the show Mackenzi Lee (as heard on Episode 86 – The Amorous Intrigues and Adventures of Aaron Burr), who works at Trident, is hitting the road to promote her new book, Bygone Badass Broads, and she’s taking some great swag with her, like enamel pins showcasing some of the awesome ladies of the past. We’ve gotten our hands on one of them and we’re raffling it off in support of Trident!

Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse in WWII who used her position to help save thousands of children from the Warsaw Ghetto (photo by Mackenzi Lee)

All you have to do is buy something from Trident’s online store, including giftcards, and forward us a proof of purchase to worstbestsellers(at)gmail.com. Everyone who does will be entered into a drawing (powered by RandomPicker.com) for this awesome pin AND even if you don’t get chosen for the pin, we’ll send you a Worst Bestsellers-themed postcard! It doesn’t have to be a specific price or item, BUT if you would like to double dip, Mackenzi is also offering an incentive for shopping at Trident right now–if you buy a giftcard for $18 to pre-order The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, she’ll send you an exclusive short story from the world of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue! (Instructions here.)

In short:

  1. Order a book or a giftcard from Trident Books.
  2. Send us proof of your order by Sunday, March 25, including your mailing address. (International addresses are fine!)
  3. We will send you a cool Worst Bestsellers postcard and you’ll be entered to win the Irena Sendler pin!

If you’re one of our Patreon patrons (at any level), be sure to let us know in your email, and we’ll give you double raffle entries!

We’ll announce the winner here on the website on Monday, March 26 when we put up that Monday’s podcast episode.

Not sure what to buy? Here are some of Kait and Renata’s favorite books they read in 2017 (as discussed here and here) for some inspiration:

Continue reading →

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by | October 2, 2017 · 12:00 pm

Worst Disaster Relief

As you’re no doubt aware, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and the need for aid is dire. Every little bit we can give helps. Team Worst Bestsellers (Renata, Kait, and Becca) gave all of October’s Patreon earnings ($266.22) to the Hispanic Foundation’s Unidos Hurricane Relief Fund. Thanks to our Patreon patrons for making this possible!

Hurricane Relief donationof $266.22

We know many of our listeners have already donated too, or are planning to when they can. So, inspired by works like the Pub for PR auction, we’d like to give back to you all as well.

If you’ve donated any amount to any kind of hurricane relief effort (if you’re not sure where to donate, we recommend Celeste Pewter’s list of organizations), email proof (screencap, forwarded receipt, or whatever) to worstbestsellers at gmail dot com with the subject line “Hurricane Relief”, and we’ll enter you in a raffle (powered by Random Picker) to win a Worst Bestsellers prize package inspired by our upcoming episode about Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom including:

Assorted Lizzie Borden postcards and magnets"I slept at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast" magnet

  • an “I Slept at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast” magnet
  • a Lizzie Borden postcard of your choice from Kait & Renata
  • a candy pairing of your choice
  • a $20 Amazon gift certificate (so you can buy yourself a copy of Lizzie Borden…or any other book of your choice)

We’ll also send Lizzie Borden postcards to 5 runners up. This offer is open to international listeners. American listeners can get 2 entries if they also call an elected official to request federal aid for Puerto Rico (we recommend Celeste Pewter’s scripts) and mention that in their email to us.

We’ll accept entries from Monday October 2nd-Monday October 9th, 2017, and will announce our winners on Tuesday, October 10th. (Donations may have been made prior to October 2nd to be eligible for our raffle, but should be after September 20th.)

Our thoughts are with Puerto Rico, as well as everyone else affected by the recent natural disasters. We’re proud to be part of a community that gives back.

 

Update 10/10/17: We’ve drawn our winners! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed, and congratulations to:

Prize Winner
1: Lizzie Borden prize pack Alan Y.
2: Lizzie Borden postcard Ben S.
2: Lizzie Borden postcard Devin M.
2: Lizzie Borden postcard Melinda B.
2: Lizzie Borden postcard Trina M.
2: Lizzie Borden postcard Danielle W.

 

 

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by | December 7, 2015 · 12:02 pm

The Mistletoe Contest

The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans

Update, 12/21/15:

We’ve drawn our winners via RandomPicker.com! Congratulations to:

@lizwise05 First prize: A copy of The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans. This copy is signed by the author and personalized “to Duarte.” We will also send you a candy pairing.
@lisaeckstein Second prize: A used copy of Black Hills by Nora Roberts and a candy pairing.
@narigonia Third prize: A (very) used copy of Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike and a candy pairing.

 

And thanks so much to everyone who entered! We loved reading all your entries. They helped patch the hole in our soul that was eroded by reading The Christmas Sweater. We hope you all have a happy holiday season and receive only enjoyable books as gifts!

 

 

 

Happy holiday season, Best Listeners!

Having read The Mistletoe Promise, we’re so overcome with glad tidings of the season that we wanted to follow in the footsteps of Richard Paul Evans’s character Nicholas and shower everyone with expensive gifts and important cultural experiences. But we don’t have fictional lawyer money here, so instead we’re doing this contest.

We want you to give someone you know the best gift of all: knowledge of our podcast. Just tell someone (or multiple someones, such as all of your Twitter followers!) about Worst Bestsellers. Maybe suggest your favorite episode, or link to your favorite readers advisory page. Maybe just a simple, factual statement: The Worst Bestsellers is a podcast that exists. Whatever you’d like to share about us is fine. Then let us know about it. If you’ve publicly tweeted about us, just include our Twitter handle @worstbestseller in your tweet and we’ll see it and count it as an entry. If you have a locked Twitter account, or if you’ve mentioned us on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or any other social media platform, please take a screencap and email it to us at worstbestsellers at gmail.com with the subject line “Mistletoe Contest.” If you told someone about us in person, please email us your best emoticon representation of what that person’s face looked like when you told them.

Here are some example entries:

Mistletoe Tweet

Mistletoe Facebook

Mistletoe Email

These entries are all invalid because they are all from Renata, but would otherwise be acceptable.

 

Each method of telling people about us will count as one entry in our contest. (So, for example, you could tweet about us, post about us on Facebook, and tell someone in person for 3 total entries, but if you tweeted about us 3 times, that would just be 1 entry).

You can submit entries any time between Monday, December 7, 2015 through Sunday, December 20th, 2015 at midnight (EST).

Then we’ll put all your names in RandomPicker.com and choose three winners! Winners will be notified Monday, December 21st.

Signed Copy of The Mistletoe Promise

We can’t believe Duarte is willing to part with this.

Renata and Richard Paul Evans

That time Renata met Richard Paul Evans.

 

First prize: A copy of The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans. This copy is signed by the author and personalized “to Duarte.”* We will also send you a candy pairing.

Second prize: A used copy of Black Hills by Nora Roberts and a candy pairing.

Third prize: A (very) used copy of Whisper of Death by Christopher Pike and a candy pairing.

 

* FAQ on this: Renata met Richard Paul Evans at a librarian conference. No, she did not tell him it was for a podcast, or that Duarte is a cat. It was a very cordial exchange.

** A note on the candy pairings: before sending out the prizes, we will contact the winners to check about allergies and candy preferences, but we’ll try to find something you would like that is thematically appropriate to the book.

 

Fine print: We’ll contact the winners to get their shipping addresses, so you don’t need to include that with your entries–we’ll get ahold of you at either the Twitter handle or email address you contacted us with to enter. If we don’t hear back from you after a reasonable amount of time (say a few weeks-ish), we’ll draw a replacement winner.

We’ll mail things internationally, so you don’t need to live in the US to win. You do need to live in this dimension, so most Christopher Pike characters are ineligible.

These copies were purchased by us as individuals and were not provided by the publishers. THANKS FOR NOTHING, PUBLISHERS.

The only limit on entries is, we guess, the number of social media accounts you have at your disposal? We’ve never done this before so hopefully this all works out! We reserve the right to change the rules if something starts to seem shady.

If you have any questions, email us at worstbestsellers at gmail.com or tweet us @worstbestseller. (Please don’t send us a Facebook message because Facebook messaging for a Page is weird and unreliable.)

May the odds be ever in your favor!

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