I’ve been waiting to write this post for about a year now. . .
I’m excited to finally announce the winners of the 2017 Reading Challenge!
For those who don’t know, the reading challenge was actually a suggestion from a Twitter follower and friend, who joked that he was going to be doing a “Real Book Spy challenge” in 2017 by reading as many books as he could.
Well, that sparked an idea, and I quickly assembled an actual reading challenge, which ended up being much bigger than I ever anticipated. We had a great turnout, which is awesome.
This is so important to me because it’s my opportunity to give back to Book Spy followers and show my appreciation to fellow readers. I’m thankful to everyone who visits the site or interacts with me on Twitter. Especially those who tell publishers and authors that they got their books because of my reviews and recommendations. Believe it or not, that helps me a ton. It gives me more leverage when talking to publishers about getting stuff for giveaways, just like this, so please, by all means, keep doing what you’re doing, everyone.
Originally, the plan was to announce a winner in December of last year but, to make this giveaway happen, I partnered with multiple publishers. That meant waiting for everyone to get on the same page so that we can get books out to the winners as quickly as possible. It took longer than I anticipated to get all the stars aligned and the green light from everyone, but finally, I’m ready to announce winners.
Next week, we’ll be announcing the grand prize winner of our #RealBookSpyReadingChallenge, and somebody is going to get all the books pictured here! (Plus tons more for secondary winners.) pic.twitter.com/1lXTe2HEnq
— The Real Book Spy (@TheRealBookSpy) February 5, 2018
As stated in the original Reading Challenge announcement, there is one grand prize winner who will receive more than a dozen books (including signed copies from Ben Coes, Matthew Betley, and others) and multiple other winners who will get a book or two each. I’ll be contacting winners shortly, so if you see your name here, please check for an email or notification from me.
Selections were made at random from the several hundred people who participated throughout the year. Using a website designed to pick contest winners at random, we clicked twelve times, and then took those twelve names — all of whom will win something — and entered just those names for the grand prize drawing. See the results below!
Winners:
Neil Schoolnik
Rebecca Fuller
Ashima Jain
Michael Weiss
Alan Jaffe
Derek Luedtke
David Fair
Dave Collins
Chad Pagel
Mike Smith
Stuart Ashenbrenner
If you’re one of the 11 names listed above, you’ll receive a smaller package with one or two books, and a note from me. (You may also have the option of picking which books you receive, so be on the lookout for an email or DM from me!)
And the Grand Prize winner is. . . .
Steve Netter
Thanks again to everyone who took part in last year’s challenge, and congratulations to Steve Netter, a voracious reader who crushed this year’s challenge. There will be a big box of stuff coming your way soon, Steve!
2018 Reading Challenge
Next week, we’ll be announcing the 2018 reading challenge, which will have a few changes as things are being tweaked to include more winners and prizes along the way. So be on the lookout for that announcement and, in the meantime, if you’re on social media, let me know what you’ve been reading this year already using the hashtag #BookSpyChallenge2018 on Twitter and Facebook!