(Last updated June 28, 2022)
Please note that all giveaways I do through Twitter RTs are organized and managed solely by me.
In addition to any other restrictions I post in my tweet offer:
Unless stated otherwise in my tweet, winner must reside in Canada or the U.S. Reason: I fund these giveaways from my own pocket. Sometimes sending a book will cost me more in postage/handling/materials than the book itself!
Winner must be following me on Twitter (@inkyelbows). This is not just an ego-driven requirement; it makes it easier for me to privately contact the winner. The Pickaw app automatically filters out potential winners who are not following my @inkyelbows account.
Winner must not be someone who spends most of their time participating in contests. Reason: I would rather the prize go to someone who is genuinely interested in me and my work. I have enabled Pickaw’s anti-contestant filter.
Winner must be an actual human being, not a bot (account that automates contest entries through programs that automatically interact with it). I have enabled Pickaw’s anti-bots filter.
For giveaways involving my original art, if you end up winning: You are welcome to post photos of the art you own on social media or a blog post (if you are including the mailing envelope, please make sure my home address is NOT showing – thanks!). Please also note that copyright for the art remains with me. Please do not use my art as a permanent part of your website or blog or business identity, for your user profile icon, or any commercial purpose. Feel free to inquire if you’d like to do this, and I will likely decline or may forward your request to my agent to discuss a licensing fee.
For those who accidentally stumbled across this page and don’t know what’s going on:
From time to time, I do giveaways on my Twitter @inkyelbows account by asking people to retweet a particular post, and then choosing one of the retweets. Be aware that most services only draw a winner from most recent 100 RTs. This is fine if you have 100 or less RTs, but I opted for Pickaw after MUCH searching for a legit/fair way to choose RT winners on Twitter; that way you know I am not just picking my friends or VIPs. I did try The Competition Agency’s Tweetdraw, which works and is free, but you can only pick ONE winner for each tweet, which no guideline filtering.
I am currently paying for Pickaw’s Starter plan. No, I am not getting any kind of referral bonus by talking about Pickaw, but am hoping to spread awareness about giveaways on Twitter than rely on retweets. Until I started investigating, I had no idea that the various free services were only picking from the first 100 retweets. There are some workarounds, but I wanted an easier way to pick winners plus wanted to be transparent about how I was picking them.
If you know of another reliable service that enables people to do a fair, verifiable Twitter RT pick, please let me know!