The Best Books about Contests and Sweepstakes

FTC disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links.

I love to read, and for the past twenty years I have enjoyed entering contests and sweepstakes.  Here is a list of some of my favorite books about contests and sweepstakes and why I have enjoyed them.


Some of these aren't exactly about contests and sweepstakes but also cover luck, positive thinking, and books written by winners themselves.



The Expert Guide to Winning Sweepstakes: Sweepstakes, Contest, Games & Prize Promotion Handbook Written by John Minges and Jeffrey Feinman . This is a good practical how to enter and win book.  Feinman has worked for some of the largest judging agencies in the sweepstakes world, and he bring to this book a wealth of knowledge about the hobby from an insider's perspective.





How To Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More!: 2nd Edition | You Can't Win If You Don't Enter by Carolyn Wilman.  Carolyn is a personal friend of mine.  She and I met at a sweepstakes convention once and each time we see each other we take a "hug" photo together as a fun and silly thing to do.  While she is Canadian, she is known as The Contest Queen and is in marketing so she knows the laws in the United Staes as well.  This is her American edition of her book.  This is also a great practical how to win book.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan . This is a memoir from a childhood where the father was an alcoholic and drank away the family's money.  In the 1950s it wasn't "proper" for a wife to have a job, so Evelyn Ryan did what she could -- enter skill contests.  This is an enjoyable book for anyone to read, but especially those interested in contests and sweepstakes.  I recommend the print version because there are so many examples of winning entries and it 's helpful to see how they are written.  I have credited this book to helping me be creative enough to win a few skill contests.  There is also a movie with Julian Moore of the same name.  If you love the book or aren't much for reading, I recommend it, but to me the focus is sweepstakes, and for that reason I do prefer the book.

While out of print  Back in print!   Helen Hadsell's The Name It and Claim It Game :  WINeuvers for Wishcraft is an earlier sweepstakes book (from the 1970s) that has been recently updated in 2020.  It's all about positive thinking.  She claims to have won every sweepstakes she has ever entered.  While that isn't exactly true, she won nearly everything she set out to win.  Being positive is a huge plus for someone who wants to enter contests and sweepstakes and this book is all about that!  I try to read this book every 2 to 3 years!

If you enjoy books about positive thinking and Law of Attraction, another great one is Make a Killing with the Laws of Attraction, Awareness and Reciprocation: A Million Dollar Lottery Winner's Guide on How to Attract Money . I'm not a lottery player because I'm too cheap to spend the money.  This book also talks about contests and sweepstakes and leaves you with a "Oh yeah!  I can win and I'm going to win!" attitude.

Living The Winner's Mindset: Proven Strategies to Win Cars and Cash Through Contests and Sweepstakes is a short book about how one college student became a winner.  It was a quick and fun read.

As Luck Would Have It: Incredible Stories, from Lottery Wins to Lightning Strikes isn't a book about contests or sweepstakes, really, but it is a fun book about luck, how luck happens, and how to become lucky -- and stories of people who were incredibly lucky!

Luck of the Draw: True-Life Tales of Lottery Winners and Losers is another book about luck and the lottery.  Be careful what you wish for -- you might just get it and a huge prize might bring with it more problems than you would want.  On the flip side, it tells stories of people who managed their winning well.  A fun read.

Overcoming the Odds: How I won £50,000 of prizes in three years . Although this book is set in Europe, it's a short but fun read about how a lady won a lot of prizes.  It's fun and inspiring.  

I recommend listing all your wins because it's inevitable you will forget some, so the Sweepstakes Wins Record Book is an excellent book to do that.  At under $10 it would make a great stocking stuffer for yourself or someone who loves to enter.  It has 100 pages filled with lines where you can put the date, your prize, the sponsor, and the value so you don't forget about any of your wins.

You can check out this whole list here on my Jenn's Favorite things Page on Amazon.

Also be sure and check out my other similar blog posts:
How to Win Sweepstakes and Contests

How to Win a Skill Contest
How to Win a Voting Contest
How to Win in Twitter Parties
How to Win Amazon Giveaways
How to Win Blog Giveaways
Where to Find Sweepstakes to Enter
What to do when you win a prize.
Should You Keep the News of Winning a Contest Prize a Secret or Tell Everyone?
Are People who Win Prizes Just Lucky Ducks?
Entering Sweepstakes and Public Assistance Like SSI and and Disability
WIN your Christmas
Are you Pressing the Lever on McDonalds Monopoly?

Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio Book Read Along.  Start here (Chapter 1)