First, the amazing Jeri Smith-Ready’s fabulous Shane McAllister, the 1990s vampire DJ from BAD TO THE BONE and WICKED GAME, is in the hot seat with Jezzie over at Cat and Muse. Come check it out!
Second, a public-service announcement: I’m happy to do contests. Love doing them and giving stuff away. Really. But the thing is, if people don’t email me with their postal addresses, I can’t send them their prizes. I have bunches of BLACK AND WHITE, as well as a few other things, that have winners, but no one has claimed them. This makes me a very, very sad author. I’m thinking that I’m going to need a redraw disclaimer or something like that — if a winner doesn’t contact me (via my really spiffy CONTACT tab on my website) in, say, a month, the winner forfeits the prize and I pick another winner.
What do you think? Is that just bitchy? Or is that acceptable? Really — I want your feedback. What Should Jackie Do?
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A month? That’s crazy generous. 
Many contests I’ve seen have a week or less for the winner to contact them. However, I am having a flashback to all the trouble you and I had connecting via one of my email addresses that your email provider must not have liked… 
by Chris
on June 17th, 2009 at 9:53 am
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I agree with Chris. Some ask you to email within three days or you’re SOL.
by Jackie U
on June 17th, 2009 at 10:35 am
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I’ve seen contests where the giver emails the winners and contests where the giver just posts to the blog. There are ranges from 24 hrs to a month to claim the prize. I think setting a time limit would be good. It gives people a deadline and puts the next move into their hands and reduces your stress.
by Lisa N.
on June 17th, 2009 at 11:00 am
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Instituting a time frame for prize claiming is something you should definitely do. And I think a week is more than generous.
by Jody F.
on June 17th, 2009 at 11:46 am
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I agree with everyone else… a week is a generous time frame.
by Colleen
on June 17th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
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I think it’s only sensible to put a time limit on it. But a month is too lenient for these slackers. There’s such a thing as a feed reader. It’s not that hard to keep up when you enter a contest. I saw redraw clause FTW! (Give ‘em a week, I say.)
by Melissa
on June 17th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
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Jackie should give it all to me because I am a zealous fan who keeps up with the blog posts etc and would have no trouble checking in.
A time frame of a week or 10 days should be enough. Even in the busiest of times I get through all of my feeds in that time frame.
Sometimes you just have to tell them no…except me of course!
By the by I loved Black & White. Knocked it out of the park with that one. Way to go. I am looking forward to more!
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Suzette F. 129 Bent Tree Dr, lancaster, PA 17603….LOL It cant hurt, can it? I’ve been wanting to win a copy of Black and White.
by Suzette
on June 18th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
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I agree with everyone. If they don’t claim they’re prize, then you should try giving it to someone else. A week is more than enough time.
by Sam
on June 21st, 2009 at 7:48 am
