Thinking about a virtual book tour? Do you have what it takes? Here's some insights from Jean Henry Mead who's closing up her tour here today.
BLOG TOURING
Here I am on the last day of my two-week blog tour, exhausted yet happy to have received so many wonderful comments about my book, A Village Shattered, as well as my Wyoming historical novel, Escape, which Angela Wilson also excerpted for her Pop Syndicate site.
What have I learned from this tour? That I was unprepared for the amount of work involved, that I should have started preparing for it months in advance instead of six weeks ahead of time, and that I probably should have taken the time to cultivate more blog sites with huge followings. But I felt more comfortable asking writers whose names I knew well, and who might also benefit from added exposure. The figures are not in yet, so I don’t know if that’s actually happened.
My blog hosts have been great and their creative skills have exceeded my expectations. They really made me feel at home, and Marvin Wilson even took time from his own blog tour to host mine for a day. Holly Jahangiri offered technical advice as did Lillie Ammann and Ron Berry. Angela featured both me and my books for three days at her site, and Holly, Lillie, Vivian Zabel, Beth Groundwater, Marvin, Emma Larkins and Ron willingly (well, maybe just a little arm twisting), read my book and interviewed my novel characters. What fun that was!
I also got some very nice book reviews from Ron and Dana Fredsti as well as advanced publicity from Charlotte Phillips, Emma, Helen, Ron and L.J. Sellers, Beth, Dana and Lillie. And insightful interviews from L.J, Angela and Ron, so if someone out there is looking for blog hosts, I highly recommend all of them. (I hope it’s not them I hear groaning in the background.)
The Rule of Three blew me away. Three writers on the same blog site from England, Australia and the USA, all making me feel welcome and receptive to my Senior Women Sleuths article, as did Helen Ginger, who rushed back from her interview trip in time to host my tour.
Thank you, everyone!
I also learned that as your blog tour gains momentum, the amount of comments begin to drop off and there’s a feeling of panic that no one will be commenting before the tour is over. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. About the middle of the tour my computer crashed, taking with it my address book, articles and three chapters of a new book that I hadn’t taken time to backup. Fortunately, my husband was able to retrieve most of it. And I’m hoping Santa will bring me a new computer.
What better place than Morgan’s Double M Corral to end my tour. Morgan works hard at her many blog sites and puts out 110% in everything she does. She advertised my blog tour on her tour bus, as did Holly on her new blog touring site.
I’m blessed to have had so many writers working with me to make this tour a success. And a success it has been because A Village Shattered reached the #1 spot on Fictionwise-ePress’s bestseller list in multi format and isn’t doing too badly at Amazon in print.
A week ago I received an announcement stating that I could be on the Amazon bestseller list for just $497. A self-published nonfiction writer is offering novices the chance to work with her and a group of other writers who will cross promote each other. Included in her program is blog touring. I was very tempted to say that I could pay full price for 33 copies of my print book for $497, which would make me a bestseller on Amazon.com. And all of us on the tour, save one, have benefitted from the excellent advice of Dani Greer, who is generous with her knowledge and experience about blog touring and book promotions. Thank you, Dani, from all of us.
Happy holidays, everyone!
Jean Henry Mead
The links to the blogspots where Jean visited on her virtual book tour can be found at http://myblogtour.blogspot.com/.
Jean Henry Mead's fourth novel and eleventh book was released this month, a senior sleuth mystery/suspense novel called A Village Shattered, featuring two 60-year-old widows living in a California retirement village who discover their friends and club members are being murdered alphabetically.When the newly elected sheriff bungles the investigation, Logan & Cafferty decide to solve the murders themselves.
Jean is a former police reporter, photojournalist, magazine and small press editor, and currently writes the Logan & Cafferty series as well as western historical novels. The second novel in her series, Diary of Murder, will be released next spring.
I want to thank Jean for stopping in today and sharing her virtual book tour experiences. To finish off Jean's tour right, please leave a comment about what she said or about your own experiences hosting or guesting a tour.
Hi Jean,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Double M.
You've done it! You're now at the final stop of your whirlwind tour.
Relax and unwind and have a good time here. It's great to have you here.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
Hi Jean, thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteI now know to get started preparing for my blog tour for when my book is released six months from now. ;)
Great advice! Happy Holidays.
Good luck with your own tour, Nancy. It's a lot of work but, if well planned, can be very rewarding.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Morgan, for hosting my tour. I can't think of a better place to end it than the double M corral. :)
ReplyDeleteI give authors my utmost respect when they coordinate their own tour. Sounds like Jean did a great job and I wish her much success!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dorothy. The nicest thing anyone can do for a writer is to buy his or her books for Christmas. :)
ReplyDeleteGood advice, Jean! I'm glad your blog tour was fun and successful. I'll be picking your brain when I'm ready to go on one myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Heidi M. Thomas
author, Cowgirl Dreams
You did wonderfully, Jean!!! Now, take a day or two to breath:-)
ReplyDeleteThis tour never lost momentum - you did great. I THINK I made it to all the stops and was never bored, never felt the repetitiveness that often kills tours with the same old same old "interview the author" format.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to comparing notes with you later, Jean. Congrats on a job well done - and Morgan, nice job here today also. I still got 2-1/2 days left on my Owen Fiddler Tour so gotta go be chatty with guests.
Thanks, Heidi. I'm glad to help whenever I can.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joyce. I'm looking forward to my interview with you on Dec. 19.
And Marvin, thank you for your continuing support. I'm using you as an example in my next Write On! article.
You kids are all doing a super job - I'm really proud of you, especially what fine team players you are and that you share what you've learned with everyone else. It's just such a fine way to promote, and you don't have to spend hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars to arrange a blog book tour. Even if you can spend it, arrange your own first so you know what to request from a pro service. Just sayin'. ;)
ReplyDeleteDani
http://quickest.blogbooktourguide.ever.com
Jean,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tour. You are an example to me about perseverance in marketing. If I don't take the time to market, then the next book won't matter.
Thanks,
Dianne
Guess I'm a day late on this stop, but still enjoyed reading your evaluation of your tour, Jean. It sounds like more work than I can handle right at the moment. In addition to promoting our book, I spend 10 to 12 hours babysitting my grandson several days a week and 6 to 8 hours on the other days! But it also sounds like a blog tour is very worthwhile. I had hoped to make every stop, but only managed to make about 5 of them!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a successful tour, Jean! I'm glad that I was part of it and got to try something new when I interviewed your character Micki. That was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Jean,
ReplyDeleteThanks for ending your tour here at Double M. I hope you had a good time here. Also, I hope you have better luck with your computer than you've had lately. Crashes are horrible.
Morgan Mandel
http://www.morganmandel.com
I couldn't get online last night to answer comments, but better late than never.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Dani, for your help and guidance.
Than you, Diane, for the kind words. I agree that perserverance makes the difference between success and failute.
Thank you, Lillie, for being there at every tour visit and for offering me such good advice.
Thank you, Sharon. You're also a very busy lady. I'm glad you could make some of the tour visits.
And Morgan, thank you for hosting the last stop on my tour. My computer problems continue. Even our local broadband service froze up yesterday because we've had sub zero weather for four days, up to 20 below. Today it's supposed to get up to 20 above, a heat wave! :)