I'm very pleased to announce the winners of the grand prizes are:
Sue B with a comment on Pauline Baird Jones's blog for her choice of a Kindle Touch/Nook Touch
Cheryl Corbin with a comment on Cathy Pegau's blog for the collection of sfr titles and the Anabanana Gift Card
Huge congrats to them both and we hope you enjoy them.
Some of the individual blog winners were:
Jessica Subject - BookAttict
Hywela Lyn - Diane
Mixed Book Bag - Anna M
Sue Ann Bowling - Maryellen Brady
Kitty Roads - Shadow
Pippa Jay - Krista
Imogene Nix - BookAttict
AR Norris - Pam - VanillaOrchids
Cathy Pegau - Diana
Findings:
First, a huge thank you to everyone who took part. For those who donated to the prizes, an extra thank you. Special thanks go to Heather Massey, Laurie Green, Janet Miller, Jaleta Clegg and PI Barrington who all contributed despite not taking part. You are AWESOME!
However, I must also say a huge apology to Natalie Wright, who's link somehow got cut from the inlinkz during the event. I'm still no clearer on how this happened, and I'm mortified. In the future I'll remember to copy the master list right at the start and use it to double check links during the hop. Also I think it might be wise to draft a volunteer to independently check the links.
Overall, everyone seems to have had a positive experience. I'm very happy to be sent any thoughts, suggestions and criticisms for ways to improve future events (yes, I am considering doing this again). The general conscensus appears to be that:
1. The event should take place over more than one day. Not only would this give visitors more time to hear about the event and stop by to comment, but also solve some of the complications due to participants being in different time zones. Two upcoming hops I know about are running over 3 or 4 days, which would probably work better.
2. There were technical issues with the inlinkz code, and I had to ask a few people to link back to the central list on the Brigade site. For future hops, I'd draft two basic hop posts with the inlinkz and required information for Blogger and Wordpress sites. It might also be an idea for participants to post before the official start of the hop so we can catch any problems early.
3. I need to appoint a second to double check all the links so that any mistakes I make/miss are caught.
4. Maybe try to find more venues to promote the event. I don't really want to spend any of the donations on paid advertising, or ask anyone to donate for that reason. So, if anyone has any suggestions on how and where we might be able to promote (and is willing to volunteer to do so) please let me know.
5. A lot of comments didn't qualify for the draw because they DID NOT LEAVE CONTACT DETAILS! I know most of you did state in your posts that we needed that information, but perhaps next time we need to make it clear that no email address = no entry in the draw. I think we all had enough to do with getting organized and posted etc without playing hunt the email.
6. There seemed to be some interest in producting a solstice-themed sfr anthology. Would anyone be interested in that idea? Maybe we could each write a themed short story to give away as part of the event? I know Liana Brooks did just that.
So how did you find the hop? Anything you'd like to add? Suggestions as to when to hold the next one? Prizes? Themes? Don't be afraid to shout out in the comments. Or if you'd rather do it in private, my email is pippajaygreen(at)gmail(dot)com.
What a brilliant idea! Yes, I would be interested in a themed anthology :)
ReplyDeleteThanks again to Pippa Jay for all her very hard work which made this possible.
Congratulations to the winners!!
ReplyDeleteI loved the hop and visited every blog. I would be willing to help check out links if we do this again. I do hope we make this an annual event. I do think that it needs to be more than one day. I found it hop when the link was posted on a blog I follow.
ReplyDeleteI like the thought of a solstice anthology too. Maybe even a winter solstice one as well.
ReplyDeleteWell, the anthology idea seems popular. I think it should be open to either solstice, or maybe any related astronomical event. Thanks all.
ReplyDelete@JC - thanks for the offer of help. Yes, definitely more than one day next time. I don't think it'll be a winter solstice one as that's a bit too close to Christmas.
If it's going to be winter solstice it could be an "End of the World As We Know it" event. (2012 and all that.)
ReplyDeleteOoh, a Mayan Calendar Hop! That would be fun. Laurie nailed that one. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats to the winners!
ReplyDeletePippa, thanks again so much for organizing this fab event. Enthusiasm like yours is what will help keep SFR alive and kicking.
On the issue of contact details - I didn't make a thing about it because Wordpress asks for an email address when posting a comment. It's compulsory. So even if the contact info was not in the post , it was available.
ReplyDeletePerhaps one thing participants could do is produce a list of commenters for their blog and send it to Pippa Jay rather than have her trawl. And BTW, my winner was Susan W., who selected a copy of 'Starheart'.