Multi-Author Giveaways: A Fast Way to Grow Your Email List
This post was adapted from Writing Off Social: The Podcast, Episode 57. You can listen in here!
Most of the email list growth strategies we talk about at Writing Off Social are slow by design. They’re meant to be life-giving, sustainable, and aligned with the long game of writing. Building trust with readers takes time, and that’s not something we want to rush.
But every now and then, a strategy comes along that accelerates growth without requiring you to sacrifice your values or your sanity. Multi-author giveaways are one of those rare exceptions.
This approach doesn’t replace slow growth. Instead, it can complement it—especially when you’re clear on your goals, aligned with the right collaborators, and prepared for both the benefits and the tradeoffs.
That’s why this conversation with author, speaker, and podcast host Teresa Whiting is such a helpful case study.
Why Multi-Author Giveaways Are Different
Email list growth often feels like a drip. One new subscriber here, another there. Giveaways change the pace.
When writers collaborate on a shared giveaway, they’re essentially borrowing one another’s audiences for a short, concentrated period of time. The result can be exponential growth in a matter of days rather than months.
That doesn’t mean it’s effortless—or risk-free—but it does mean it’s powerful when done thoughtfully.
Meet Teresa Whiting
Teresa Whiting is an author, speaker, podcast host, and trauma-informed biblical life coach. She hosts the Beauty in the Brokenness
podcast and writes for readers seeking faith-based encouragement, healing, and spiritual growth. She is the author of the Bible study DisGraced: How God Redeems and Restores the Broken, and also shares thoughtful, encouraging insights through her email newsletters. Teresa and her husband are recent empty nesters and now live in St. Petersburg, Florida.
She’s also someone who has intentionally stepped back from social media. Teresa doesn’t use Instagram at all and keeps Facebook only for practical purposes like Marketplace.
To avoid getting pulled into the endless scroll, she uses a newsfeed-blocking tool that removes the feed entirely while still allowing intentional access. During our interview, she mentions tools like BeTimeful’s Newsfeed Eradicator, along with similar browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, as a way to stay connected without letting social media consume her attention.
That intentional boundary makes her experience growing an email list—outside of social media—especially relevant.
What a Multi-Author Giveaway Actually Looks Like
At its simplest, a multi-author giveaway is a collaboration between writers who agree to promote a shared giveaway in exchange for email subscribers.
In the giveaway Teresa joined, about thirty authors participated. Contributors chose from two levels of involvement. Those who joined at the higher level paid a fee and contributed a prize, such as a book or product. In return, they received access to the full list of email subscribers generated by the giveaway.
The giveaway ran for about a week and included multiple prize tiers, along with a larger incentive like a gift card. Readers earned additional entries by taking actions such as subscribing to podcasts, joining email lists, or following creators elsewhere online.
While social media promotion was encouraged, it wasn’t required. Teresa participated entirely through email, which aligned with both her values and her audience.
Why Teresa Decided to Participate
There were three key reasons Teresa felt confident saying yes.
First, she had just published a new Bible study and wanted to expand her reach quickly. Second, she personally knew many of the authors involved, which gave her confidence in the quality and integrity of the giveaway. Third—and most importantly—all of the participating authors wrote in the same genre.
That alignment mattered. Readers who love devotionals and Christian living books are far more likely to stay engaged than readers who signed up just to win something generic.
The Results: Rapid Growth in Real Numbers
The results were dramatic.
At the end of the giveaway, Teresa received a CSV file containing roughly 3,400 new email addresses. Before the giveaway, her list had fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
In a matter of days, her list more than tripled.
The Reality Check: Unsubscribes and Open Rates
That kind of growth doesn’t come without consequences.
Immediately after uploading the list, Teresa saw a sharp increase in unsubscribes and a noticeable drop in open rates. Over the course of the year, about 1,500 of those new subscribers opted out.
But the long-term picture tells a different story.
More than 1,700 of those subscribers were still active a year later. Among that group, Teresa now sees an open rate of around 42 percent—well above industry benchmarks. While her overall open rate is lower than when her list was smaller, far more people are engaging with her emails than before.
Growth changed the scale, not the connection.
What Teresa Wishes She Had Known Ahead of Time
Looking back, Teresa identified two lessons that would have made the experience easier.
Emotional preparation matters
Watching large numbers of people unsubscribe all at once can feel personal, even when it isn’t. Knowing ahead of time that many people joined solely for the giveaway would have helped her approach those unsubscribes with more peace.
A giveaway-specific welcome sequence helps
Teresa wishes she had created a short nurture sequence specifically for giveaway subscribers. A few intentional emails explaining who she is, what she offers, and what kind of content readers can expect may have retained more aligned subscribers—and helped others exit without confusion or guilt.
Teresa’s Checklist
Those lessons eventually became the foundation for Teresa’s Author Giveaway Checklist, a practical resource designed to help writers prepare before, during, and after a multi-author giveaway. The checklist walks through key considerations like choosing the right giveaway partners, aligning prizes with your genre, preparing a tailored welcome sequence, and mentally preparing for unsubscribes—so writers can maximize growth without unnecessary discouragement.
What Fiction Writers Should Know
This strategy isn’t limited to nonfiction.
For fiction writers, giveaways work best when prizes and participating authors are tightly aligned by genre. Cozy readers respond to different incentives than fantasy readers, and specificity matters far more than scale.
One important takeaway is to be cautious with generic prizes. Gift cards attract large numbers of people, but many of them won’t be interested in your books. Genre-specific prizes may yield fewer subscribers—but better ones.
How to Discern Whether a Giveaway Is Worth It
Teresa emphasized the importance of discernment before joining any giveaway.
Who is running it? Do they have a proven track record? Are the participating authors writing in your genre? Do the prizes attract the kind of readers you want to serve?
Not every opportunity is worth the investment. Alignment matters more than speed.
A Simple First Step If You’re Curious
If this strategy interests you, start with relationships.
Ask writer friends if they’ve participated in giveaways. Find out who runs them well. Pay attention to the writers whose values and audiences overlap with yours.
Many giveaways cap participation, so early networking and thoughtful conversations can open doors before opportunities fill up.
A Final Word of Encouragement
You don’t have to give in to the system.
You don’t need social media to build a platform, grow an audience, or sell books. Multi-author giveaways aren’t the right fit for everyone—but when they’re aligned, prepared for, and approached with wisdom, they can be a powerful addition to a sustainable strategy.
This post was reformatted from our original transcript by ChatGPT and edited for accuracy by Sandy.
