If you’ve been a regular reader, you should know that my latest book Roll the Bones came out last month. It’s a comprehensive history for the general reader (in other words, not a “dry” (boring) academic monograph). It’s been getting some nice press–check out the Reviews page to see thumbs-up reviews from everyone from the Wall Street Journal to Card Player.
Good reviews are only part of the equation, though, and as a relatively unknown author I really need to get good word-of-mouth for this book. That’s why I’m opening up the first-ever Die Is Cast Book Contest. To win, follow three simple steps:
1. Buy a copy of Roll the Bones , or, if you really need the thirty bucks for something more important like medicine, food, or rent, borrow a copy.
2. Read the book, then post a review to amazon.com, bn.com, or any other online bookseller that posts customer reviews
3. Once the review is posted, send me an email with your name, where you bought the book, and where you heard about the contest, and I’ll enter you into the drawing to win a free autographed copy of my previous book, Cutting the Wire: Gambling Prohibition and the Internet.
On midnight, December 17, I will close the first stage of the contest and on Monday, December 19, I will announce the first winner(s) right here. I will determine the winner, appropriately enough, by assigning each contestant a number, then rolling the dice. When your number comes up, you win!
I will give away one book for every 50 entrants, so you’ve got at worst a 1/50 chance of coming out of this with a free, author-autographed copy of Cutting the Wire.
If you’ve already got a copy of Cutting the Wire, we’ll have to negotiate on an alternate prize, probably a signed Roll the Bones poster.
Small print: Only one review per person (no multiple sock puppet reviews). Please use your real name or an existing screen name when reviewing, so I can verify that the emailer is also the reviewer.
If you’ve already read Roll the Bones, go ahead and post your review today. If not, I strongly suggest getting your copy now–at 576 pages, it’s a long (but fun) read, and you want to get your review up before the 10th.
Finally, I’ve got a special deal for all the webmasters and bloggers out there: if the winning reader heard about the contest from your site or blog, you’ll get a special mention in a short essay in which I take a virtual walk through your site and draw on 7,000 years of gambling history to demonstrate that, for the moment, it is the culmination of our gambling heritage. It’ll be like the book’s last chapter, but instead of Wynn Las Vegas, your site or blog will be the star.