I Have A Question About Contests

This has been bugging me, especially this week for a reason I won’t go into in detail on this blog, but I’m going to throw it out there for y’all to weigh in with your opinions.

When an author has a contest on a blog or a group or anywhere else, and they announce a winner, whose responsibility is it after that?

For example, if I run a contest here on my blog, and indicate that a week later I’ll announce the winner, to check back here in a week to see if you’ve won. So a week later I announce the winner, then I give my email addy for the winner to contact me to claim their prize, I expect the winner to contact me.

Why? Well, typically because that’s how I set the rule. I like to get a little traffic going at my blog. I like repeat visitors. I like knowing y’all are reading my blog. If I run a contest and you enter, shouldn’t you come back to see if you’ve won? Or is it my responsibility to notify you that you won?

Am I just being too picky?

Bear with me. It’s been a long and tiring week.

I run a lot of contests. I’m all over the place on blogs, groups and I run a contest every month for my website/newsletter group. I give a lot of crap away every month. So that requires me to post the contest, announce the winner, and then I mail the prizes out. Shouldn’t the winner bear some responsibility, like checking to see if they won?

I think what annoys me most about this is the people who see a contest, drop a post in to enter, then never come back again. I don’t like drive-by posters. I like regular visitors. So sue me, I’m trying to build a community of readers. :giggle:

So readers, tell me. Am I being too sensitive here? Should I notify winners if they won, or should they check back to see if they won?

Authors, how do you handle your contests?

Azteclady, I know contests are a hot topic for you, so I expect you to weigh in on this with your opinion. :doglick:

And really, if you think I’m full of shit, you can feel free to disagree with me. I’ll be fine with it. I just want to know if I’m totally off base in my thinking here.

And hey, everyone who comments between now and Sunday night will be entered to win an e-ARC of THE DARKEST TOUCH, the third book in my Demon Hunter series, which doesn’t release until Oct 28th. (See how sneaky I am putting that this far down in the post?) And yes, you’ll have to check back to see if you won. :neener:

EDITED TO ADD: The ARC winner has been chosen, but I’m leaving comments open on this thread in case anyone else has anything they want to add.