By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Wow. A total of 685 people clicked “Enter” during this week’s Goodreads Giveaway. I was giving away three copies of “Wrestling with God,” and people had four days or so to enter the giveaway — no strings attached, just click on the “Enter” box and let the Goodreads algorithms decide who wins the three free copies.

Bottom line, the Goodreads Giveaway looks like a very easy, inexpensive way to publicize a book. Snagging some attention from traditional media — radio, magazines, newspapers — is expensive, time-consuming and chancy. The giveaway cost only the price of the book plus shipping and now 685 people know about my book.

I have the names of the three winners and I’ll be sending them their autographed copies asap. A nice touch — one of the winners is back east, one in the Midwest and one on the West Coast — a nice geographical spread. I like that.