Some of you might have wondered this after I posted the links to the First Wilcard Blog Tour for Yesterday's Tomorrow.
Basically, a Blog Tour entails recruiting a number of people who will read your book and review it, then post this on their blog all on the same day. It's a marketing tactic. A way to spread the word about your book, hopefully picking up new readers along the way. Usually what happens is that once you sign on for the service, information about your book is posted to all those who review for that particular Tour, the date of the blog tour is set, and people let you know if they're interested in reading and reviewing your book. At least that's how it worked for me.
Pros -
Using First Wild Card Blogs is free.
You can choose however many people you prefer - 10 or 30 or whatever. I had about 21 people on my tour.
If you get a lot of good reviews, this is good.
Most people will also post on Amazon, Goodreads etcetera.
Your book gets exposure on a bunch of different blogs and hopefully if all those people like it, they'll tell all their friends what a great book it is and then their friends will buy it, and the next thing you know, Oprah's calling.
Cons-
If your publisher doesn't supply you with free books, you're out of pocket. You have to decide if it's worth it for you to order and ship all those books to people.
If the readers don't like your book, well then... To be fair, I've heard most people say they usually won't write a review if they didn't enjoy the book.
Even though they receive a book, not everybody will post. You're sending them a book on good faith. To be honest, I was very picky about making my list. I know some people are just out for freebies.
There are many places that offer book tours, but I have seen some where the fee for being on the book tour is quite high. Because I knew I had to pay for my books myself, I chose the free one.
Was it worth it?
Yes. I got some great reviews and I think I picked up a few new readers.
Not everybody I sent a book to posted on the tour, and that was a little disappointing, especially considering the cost. However, all in all, I would do it again.
Blog tours are just one way of putting your book into the hands of readers. I'm desperately trying to come up with more...so stay tuned! And if you have any bright ideas, please share them!
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, May 09, 2011
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
It's My Profound Pleasure...
to introduce you to my lovely and talented critique partner and friend, Jenness Walker!
See, told ya she was lovely!
Jenness and I have been friends for oh, about four years now. We met in the strangest of places. If you know us, you'll guess pretty easily, but I'll go ahead and tell you - it was through an online forum. Yep, we were both going to be attending the American Christian Fiction Writers conference for the first time, we were on the boards talking about our writing and how to pitch (neither one of us knew how and we were terrified) and we started shooting pitches back and forth. Next thing we knew, we were meeting up in Dallas. We became critique partners shortly after the conference, and the rest, as they say, is history. She still can't get rid of me.
We both became agented authors in the same year. We used to dream about publication together. Now I'm happy to say, I'm the only one who's still dreaming. Jenness has realized her dream with her debut novel, Double Take, published through Love Inspired Suspense.
I had the pleasure of critiquing this novel in all its various stages, and I have to say the finished product is pretty darn good. I won't give a review here, because I'm biased, but here's the blurb, and when you're done reading my blog, go on Amazon and order Double Take! You won't regret it!
Cole Leighton can barely believe his eyes. A woman on his bus has just been abducted—in an exact reflection of a scene from the bestselling novel he's reading. Someone is bringing the book to life…and isn't above forcing an innocent woman to follow the story to its tragic end. Using the novel as his playbook, Cole catches up with the beautiful victim—but rescuing Kenzie Jacobs doesn't keep her safe for long. The killer is writing his own ending, and none of the twists and turns lead to happily ever after.
Jenness Walker fell in love with books before she could even read them. Growing up, she read while she walked in line, ate lunch, played the clarinet, showered and brushed her teeth. Unfortunately she still hasn’t figured out how to clean the house with a book in hand. Blessed with a vivid imagination—sometimes too vivid—Jenness loves to create her own stories as well. Her writing journey has spanned over twenty years so far, from the contest she lost in first grade to the creative writing correspondence course she took through high school and the first novel she penned in college. Now Jenness lives in Florida with her beloved Web site–designer husband and almost-equally-beloved laptop.
See, told ya she was lovely!
Jenness and I have been friends for oh, about four years now. We met in the strangest of places. If you know us, you'll guess pretty easily, but I'll go ahead and tell you - it was through an online forum. Yep, we were both going to be attending the American Christian Fiction Writers conference for the first time, we were on the boards talking about our writing and how to pitch (neither one of us knew how and we were terrified) and we started shooting pitches back and forth. Next thing we knew, we were meeting up in Dallas. We became critique partners shortly after the conference, and the rest, as they say, is history. She still can't get rid of me.
We both became agented authors in the same year. We used to dream about publication together. Now I'm happy to say, I'm the only one who's still dreaming. Jenness has realized her dream with her debut novel, Double Take, published through Love Inspired Suspense.
I had the pleasure of critiquing this novel in all its various stages, and I have to say the finished product is pretty darn good. I won't give a review here, because I'm biased, but here's the blurb, and when you're done reading my blog, go on Amazon and order Double Take! You won't regret it!
Cole Leighton can barely believe his eyes. A woman on his bus has just been abducted—in an exact reflection of a scene from the bestselling novel he's reading. Someone is bringing the book to life…and isn't above forcing an innocent woman to follow the story to its tragic end. Using the novel as his playbook, Cole catches up with the beautiful victim—but rescuing Kenzie Jacobs doesn't keep her safe for long. The killer is writing his own ending, and none of the twists and turns lead to happily ever after.
Jenness Walker fell in love with books before she could even read them. Growing up, she read while she walked in line, ate lunch, played the clarinet, showered and brushed her teeth. Unfortunately she still hasn’t figured out how to clean the house with a book in hand. Blessed with a vivid imagination—sometimes too vivid—Jenness loves to create her own stories as well. Her writing journey has spanned over twenty years so far, from the contest she lost in first grade to the creative writing correspondence course she took through high school and the first novel she penned in college. Now Jenness lives in Florida with her beloved Web site–designer husband and almost-equally-beloved laptop.
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