Borders has fallen. The e-book has placed a pox-filled blanket in the arms of librarians and Chinese printing presses and would-be assassins who like to underline passages and dog-ear their paperbacks. Marketing budgets are dwindling to nothing. Lakes are turning blood red. And authors are left wondering “what in the sam-heck is a wordsmith supposed to do to get the kids to read his tale about misfits building a giant machine in the wake of apocalypse?”
Simple. BLOG TOUR!
To those out of the loop, a blog tour (or web-log junket, if you must) consists of an author posting interviews and musings on the blogs of like-minded writers and critics in an effort to reach a larger audience for his/her book. Blog tours have been proven to increase sales by 2,037%!
Now, if I’m going to do a blog tour in support The Only Ones, I’m not going to half-ass it or go the typical route. I want this thing to have pyrotechnics, inflatable pigs, upside down drumming–everything except Hell’s Angels getting all stabby. But for that, I need your help. So I’m calling on bloggers near and far to join me or, more specifically, to invite me over to their blog, where I will do any of the following things:
- Participate in an Eating Contest! You name the food item (anything is game, so long as it’s chicken wings). Then we set up a Skype video chat. We stare each other down as we scarf large quantities of chow. Ten minutes. Dirty looks allowed. Marc Bittman and Michael Pollan will be the referees, and they will be contractually obligated to say things like “gentleman, start your small intestines” and “plop plop fizz fizz, o what a battle this is!” If you insist on eating fried worms, then Thomas Rockwell will be the judge. But he must be dressed in a neon green bookworm costume, and refer to me as “The Golden Pancreas.” When all is said and done and the champion is crowned, I will write about the experience in a ten-part series on your blog. The series will be titled: We Were Hungry Once…And Young.
- Write a Love Letter to Your Crush! If you spend most of your day blogging, then chances are you’re a little unlucky in love. Rest easy Miss/Mr. Lonelyhearts, because I am ready, willing and able to pen a missive that will win hearts and minds. We will address it to that someone special and I fill it with mixed metaphors and fiery loins (STD-free, of course). Try this sample out for size: “From your bushes, I have been watching you sleep. From behind this computer screen, I have been frantically Googling, memorizing the addresses of your exes and printing out turn-by-turn directions and streetview pics so that escape routes are clear. From the corner of my soul, where I keep the scalped plastic dolls and the memories of that one crazy summer and the riverside and Boxcar Joe and the pinky swear that was a held a little longer than I was comfortable with and the hand-dug grave that was supposed to be “deep enough,” I reach out to you, and ask you to be my love, and I pledge my ever lasting devotion to you, in this life and in the lives that follow, including the one where we are reincarnated as frolicking ferrets. Did I tell you I have ferrets?”
- Time Travel! This is gonna require some physics. But hey, I believe in you. Think about it. People blog about food, movies, dati
0 Comments on A Blog Tour to End All Blog Tours as of 1/1/1900Add a Comment
I had a similar problem last year...before I decided that www.ryanhipp.com would be he most efficient, least-confusing domain for myself (albeit not the most fun or clever) I had a few monikers out there, and the subsequent domains.
I'll actually spare you the stories, but actually had a few battles for the rights to the words I had registered as domains. In the end, some of them it was easier to give up the word because it wasn't worth the confusion it would cause worrying about people misassociating me with oher inarnations of those monikers on the web.
You story sucks because its your NAME for one, and secondly you have a history of owning the domain.
I would maybe put up a banner for the next few months on your site (or make a "sticky" blog post that stays at the top for a while) with a note saying "Note: I am not the same Kathy Weller as KathyWellerDesigns.com".
That sucks, girl.
Ryan
This is truly horrifying, Kathy. Thanks for the heads up.
Ryan-THANKS for that idea!! I put a note at the top of my blog right nav bar. Great idea.
What a terrible thing Kathy! You could find out who hosts that domain and who it belongs to and send them a 'nice' letter since it is clearly a scam and not used to promote anything legitimate. You could also work with the hosting company if they are in the U.S. Sometimes these things are automated. The hosting company holds on to the domain and puts up dummy text with what used to be the most searched words to get to that site. It is used to generate traffic and promote their services and other ads.
As someone mentioned before, you have a history of having that name and if they are in the US, you could have legal recourse.
Good luck!
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