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A peer support group helping authors plan their blog book tours.
Statistics for Blog Book Tours
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Do any of us ever tire of getting a thank you? I don't. This one just landed in my e-mailbox for my participation in a blog book tour, and it's the final step in a successful one.
Hello all,
I just wanted to reach out one more time and thank you all so much for your wonderful posts for last week's blog book tour for Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food. The book is off to a great start, thanks in no small part to your efforts. Each one of you took the time to put together a thoughtful and interesting post, and all together this added up to seven days of unique insights, original approaches, and interesting comments.
Those of you who hosted a giveaway, remember to send me the name and email address of the winner, so we can give them a gift of the book.
Again, you were great to work with. I appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to making this tour a great success.
Thank you,
Khadijah
Doesn't reading a thoughtful note like that make you feel good? When was the last time you got a really great thank you note from someone? When was the last time you wrote one? Please 'fess up in the comments!
And it's too wicked cold to type much - it's the perfect day to read manuscript submissions and drink hot chocolate. So off I go. What are you doing today?
When I'm promoting a blog book tour for myself or another author, my social media procedure goes like this. It's basically what I teach to my blog book tours classes:
1. First thing in the AM, go to the host blog and leave a comment
2. Click G +1
3. Share on your FB and Twitter (usually there are share buttons right at the blog)
4. Pin to Pinterest (I have the pin bookmarklet on my dash)
5. Go to the host's Twitter account and retweet other relevant tweets
6. At mid-day go to the Twitter account and retweet more
7. Go to host's Facebook account and share the book promotion
8. Rinse and repeat in the evening (by then, you should have a shortened URL from somewhere which is handy
9. Share on any other social networks you use
A good blog will make this easy for you and you'll notice most of the share buttons I mention in the photo below:
I try to do this at least three times a day because as you know, with as many followers as some of us have, the scrolls roll pretty fast and posts can be easily missed.
This procedure works very well for anything you're promoting, not just books. The important consideration is frequency over a long period of time - don't post everywhere twelve times in ten minutes!
End your day by saying thank you to your host blogger! Everyone loves a little appreciation.
Turn off blog moderation and word verification, often known as
CAPTCHA code, during a daily blogging challenge or blog book tour. I don't find either to be very useful since I monitor my posts daily, and far more often during a busy project. Having these kinds of hurdles in place mostly just keeps people from commenting. Your goal is to
get comments! Make it easy for your readers.
Happy weekend, everyone!
It's a common misconception that people on Twitter will think you are spamming them if you tweet about your new book all day long. But let's look at how repeated messages play out.
I'm promoting my other blog, the Blood-Red Pencil, like crazy today because I'm hosting a blog book tour stop over there. I'm interviewing Jodi Carmichael about her first chapter book published by Little Pickle Press.
So to promote Spaghetti Is NOT a Finger Food, the book in question, makes my Twitter page look something like this:
But it's important to remember that my posts won't run sequentially like this on YOUR Twitter page. They'll be interspersed in your Twitter stream among all the other folks you're following and who are tweeting, and the more you have, the less likely you'll see my tweets sequentially. In fact, if you have thousands of tweeps you're following, you may never see my tweets. So don't worry about looking like a spammer when you promote anything. Does that make sense?
Of course, I also like to mix it up by re-tweeting other unrelated information, adding some thoughts and quotes, just being a normal, sharing person along with promoting. The more value I add to my Twitter stream, the more people will like me.
Having said all that, keep in mind that Twitter doesn't like you to re-tweet the exact same thing more than once, so you do have to mix up your words a bit. That can be as simple as posting the same promotion, but with a different hashtag reaching out to various groups. You'll noticed I've used #kidlit as well as #Aspergers.
Tomorrow I'll talk a bit about HootSuite, which I use to queue up a bunch of posts to release on Twitter when I'm busy doing something else and can't tweet live. It's a handy tool.
And, yes, this re-tweet is absolutely true today:
RT : Get "Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food" for today on !
http://amzn.to/10P6Okw
One of our pals at the BBT Cafe, Marian Allen, has just released her new Kindle book and we're please to help spread the news! You can buy and download a copy of the book for $3.99
here. I love the cover and font.
When you go to the page, you'll notice something very important. Scroll down a ways and you'll see a "tags" category. If you're an author, get those filled in right away. Not only does it give you control over how your book contents are labeled, you'll increase your searchability at Amazon. The author or her publisher has done this and it looks like this:
Anyone can add to these tags, but getting a dozen or more in place right away gives you a good deal of control over your own book. Don't miss the opportunity!
Do you like this photo? No, it's not a picture of me. But I'm using it for this lesson about permalinks and their importance during a blog book tour.
Let's use Pat Bean's terrific travel blog as our example. Pat's blog URL is
http://patbean.wordpress.com/ which gets you to the main blog page. But if I wanted to have a record of the specific blog post titled,
Life Lessons, I'd click on the title and get this expanded URL:
http://patbean.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/life-lessons/That unique post "address" is what we call a
permalink. When you're on a blog book tour, having these unique links to your guest post after the blog goes live, is a good way to promote your book in the future. But only if you can find that post again, and on a very popular and busy blog, that can be a challenge.
Copy and save your permalinks the day the host blog goes live with your blog book tour stop. You'll be glad you did! If you like the picture of this old broad, go to Pat's blog and read about her. And don't believe everything you see.
Blog popularity, or
PageRank, is an important part of choosing blog book tour hosts. You want publicity on sites that are noticed by search engines and real people alike. But how do you check a blog's ranking?
I use
PR Checker which works for all search engines. It's easy. Just type in the URL for the blog you are vetting, complete the word verification, and you get a rating between 0 and 10.
Most good blogs are rated between 3 - 5, but rarely higher. They will probably be good hosts for your blog book tour stop. Even a 2 ranked blog might be a good choice if it matches the niche market of your book. As you discover blogs you like, and when you think they will be good matches for your book, vet them at PR Checker and then add them to a running list you'll use later. A little work each day makes planning a blog book tour much easier when the time comes!
The best way to learn how to build your own blog book tour, is to follow one in action. Here's one that is kicking off today at Little Pickle Press. See the entire schedule here. Why not stop at each guest blog over the next week and see how it works? You can practice leaving comments and sharing the blog post on your social networking groups. Here's more information from today's host:
If you haven't yet dipped into the Twitter pool (and you must to promote your books!), here's a guide from Kathi Flynn that's available for free on Kindle today (1/6/2012) and tomorrow. Download it now by clicking
here and start tweeting!
You can join my Yahoo!Group, the
BBT Cafe, which is all about blog book tours.
Join me on
Facebook, too.
Here I am on
Twitter.
And don't forget
Pinterest.
What about you? Leave me a comment with your links so we can stay in touch!
Have a relaxing weekend, everyone!
Yesterday I warned you about blog posts that are too long for your hurried readers. How do you avoid posts that are time-consuming to read quickly?
First, just write without regard to length. Say what you have to say. But then really look at your writing with a critical editor's eye and notice where you can split the writing into two or more sequential blog posts. This critical eye will get you a week's worth of posts and return visitors in one writing session! With a little practice, you'll see how the mind naturally links related chunks of information that can easily be broken into segments and published over the course of a week.
I know many bloggers who write their blog posts over the weekend using exactly this approach and you can, too.
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| Photo credit: shopwasteland.com |
One of the most important tips about blogging is to keep your posts relatively short - no more than 500 words. Blog readers are always in a hurry, and they just won't stick around to read a long post.
Writing short is easier said than done, especially if you tend to procrastinate about blogging. Sounds contrary to logic, I know, but when you don't blog often, you tend to cram in as much information as you can. Who knows when you'll be back, right? Better say it all now, which usually results in a long and rambling blog post.
Don't do this.
Tomorrow I'll explain how you can use this problem to good effect!
What better time to spark up a blog than the first day of the year? I've joined the
Ultimate Blog Challenge because I know from past experience how important daily blogging is to heating up the popularity of a blog. I often include a blog-a-day challenge in my blog book tour classes.
So what will I blog about for 31 days? How about my journey completing the Blog Book Tours Kindle book? I'll start by offering short daily tips to help you organize your own blog book tour.
Are you planning to have a blog book tour this year? Leave me a message and let me know what book you'll be promoting! I plan to host a few more blog book tour stops at this blog this year, so if you have a book related to these topics, keep me in mind as a host for your tour:
- Children's picture books
- Cozy mysteries
- History mysteries
- Organic and environmental non-fiction
May we all enjoy the best year ever in 2013!
One of my favorite peeps of all-time,
Alex J. Cavanaugh, is an instigator of yet another blogfest. This one I can handle!
Here are the bloggers I've missed lately:
Ann Parker who writes the marvelous historical mystery series set in Leadville, Colorado. The
Silver Rush Mysteries blog is so... dead. Ann, where are you?
My own fault I don't visit S
usan Wittig Albert's blog more. She always has interesting updates about her life in the Texas Hill Country, and what's new with her latest novels. Yes, she usually is cranking out at least three books, and the latest is a novel exploring the life of Rose Wilder Lane and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Another fave blog I miss is
Crunchy Chicken. I do stay caught up with this author on Facebook, but still... you know that good posts like the most recent one are worth it to fans, right?
Who would I miss if they disappeared? So many to choose from, but here are three:
The
Little Pickle Press blog, because I helped bring it to this state of wonderfulness over the past two years. It's a blog any company can be proud of. I certainly am! If you have children who are readers, do bookmark it and visit often because they have great specials on their new releases.
I'd also miss
Pat Bean's blog. Pat travels the country in her little SUV with her pal, Pepper and shares stories of her adventures. She's writing a travel memoir that I'm sure will be a bestseller some day.
Finally, a group blog because I love them. One of my faves is
Jungle Red Writers because these are authors I read, they post regularly, they write really well. Oh, I'd miss them if they were gone. Please don't go away!
Okay - onward to discover more great blogs. What are your favorites - leave me a comment!
The first day of a blog book tour is always a bit stressful for everyone involved, because it sets the tone for the rest of the tour. Also important is getting the word out about the blogs hosting you and this is a process that you "work" all through the day, each day of your tour. Here's the basic procedure:
1. Go to host blog and make sure the post is up
2. Get the permalink (by clicking on the blog post title to expand the URL which is
the unique URL for just that post), then make a shortened link if you are set up
to do that (I use bit.ly)
3. Leave a comment on the blog
4. Post the permalink or bit.ly to your Facebook page and post a status update explaining a little about the tour stop
5. Share the link with your online groups and mailing lists (no reason your
friends and family can't help, right?)
6. Use the bit.ly on Twitter throughout the day
7. Share on Pinterest if you are set up over there
8. Promote all through the day and be certain to drop in on your host blog for the day and check the comments - then join in the conversation. You should be addressing the questions and comments throughout the day as any good host would
Today,
Little Pickle Press kicks off a blog book tour for their new picture book,
Ripple's Effect. Here's a link to the first host:
http://bit.ly/U49qE9You can follow the tour for the next two weeks. The entire schedule is
here.
If you have questions or comments, please share them here!
Today we kick off a blog book tour for Little Pickle Press. Their newest title,
BIG, by Coleen Paratore is a colorful children's book that encourages children to think big in ways that go beyond size and stuff. It's a pretty powerful message for adults, too! Go
here to read an interview with the woman who creates the free lesson plans to go along with the picture books.
If you're wondering what a blog book tour is all about, the best way to learn is to follow along on one.
Here's the entire schedule for the BIG tour.Hot blog book tour tip of the day: Be sure to change your daily blog URL to that post's permalink so you always have the exact link to the blog book tour stop.
We are #52 on the big Kindle Top 100 List at this very moment, and have 4,600 downloads so far during this promotion. Please help us reach #1 by sharing this link with your friends today. http://amzn.to/Cornercafe and do leave us a review on our Amazon page if you have a minute! You can also link to all our authors over there and see what other books they've written.
No need to buy Shape Magazine when you eat at the Corner Cafe - it's all calorie-free! Haha!
By:
Dani,
on 6/11/2012
Blog:
Blog Book Tours
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Dani Greer,
trekkies,
Mr. Spock,
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Top 100m,
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Amazon,
winners,
Super Bowl,
Add a tag
Today, we're visiting Marian Allen's
blog and chatting with
Red Tash about Star Trek. If you're a Trekkie, do join the conversation over at our virtual Corner Cafe.
We had an active weekend of free downloads of
The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories, so thanks to all who now are happily reading on their Kindles. We'd love a short review of your favorite story at our Amazon page! It's kind of thrilling to reading good reviews of the book!
http://www.amzn.to/CornercafeIt was also very cool to hit #2 on the Top 100 Free Kindle Books list. It's darn-near close to the very top. When you think about it, being the Super Bowl loser isn't such a bad thing either, is it? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think!
It was an exciting week, with our Amazon statistics topping off at #375 and reaching #2 in the Top 100 Short Stories. The book is still
free to download today (Sunday 6/10) so load up your Kindle!
We have two nice blog posts about the book today from contributing authors:
Maryann Miller highlights strong women in several of the stories. Click
here to read.
Red Tash blogs about the book
here. We're right across the hall from The King (see screenshot above)!
Check us out at our
Amazon book page, and while you're there, poke around and get to know the authors who submitted stories to this short story collection! Happy Sunday!
Today on day # 4 of the blog book tour, author Mary Montague Sikes visits with Sherry Wachter of Magic Dog Press and they talk about how our personal experiences can evolve into a fictional short story. It's an interesting interview! Have you ever used the "what if" writing prompt in your writing? What if you hadn't found your child after she disappeared around the corner at the art museum? Every parent's nightmare!
Drop in on our pals as they discuss this at the Corner Cafe:
http://bit.ly/CCMagicDon't just eavesdrop - join the conversation!
Click
here to buy a copy of
The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories - It's a Kindle book for 99 cents.
A most eventful Top 100 List day on Tuesday - we managed to get to #13 on the hot new releases in short stories,and then dropped off that list. This morning we're back at #97. We're still listed in genre fiction urban life, and have moved up to #49. Maybe we need more people to click " like" on our Amazon page? http://www.amzn.to/Cornercafe
As to Amazon ranking, we moved up to #19,118 by this morning. Our benchmark on Monday morning was #100,654, so we've had some nice improvement in the first three days of the blog book tour.
While you're at the Amazon page, take the opportunity to read the first two stories with the Look Inside feature. You'll also notice that all our authors have pictures and links at the bottom of the page, and you can click over to see what else they've written.
Today, I visit
Red Tash for day #3 of the blog book tour with a lengthy interview about this project and what I see coming in the publishing world. Come join the conversation and ask me some questions! Of course, you can leave comments and questions here, too.
It's day 2 of our blog book tour and we're visiting one of the Corner Cafe contributors,
Bob Sanchez at his blog. Do run over and leave him a comment or question about the book. Thanks to Stephen Tremp for giving us some ideas for getting out of the comfort zone when writing. We're going to get him into the Corner Cafe project next time so we can promote his stories a bit!
Now here's some interesting information about this project. I told you part of our goal was to track statistics in this somewhat controlled group of writers. Of course, we all want to see sales, but I'm trying to ignore that for right now, except to the extent that sales relate to Amazon ranking and other statistics that indicate discovery and popularity.
We started the blog book tour on Monday morning with an Amazon ranking of 100,654 in Kindle books. This morning, our ranking is 20,344. Quite an improvement!
We got one five-star rating with a glowing review. Love these. Want more!
Most importantly, we've already hit a Kindle Bestseller List! We are #68 in
Paid Genre Fiction Urban Life. Not bad for one day of social marketing.
If the book is starting to sound interesting to you, you can find it
here and it's only 99 cents. Download it and see what you think. We'd love a few more good reviews from indie readers. Who knew a well-written review would bring such pleasure?
Have questions about this project - please leave them in the comments and we'll be glad to answer.
By:
Dani,
on 6/4/2012
Blog:
Blog Book Tours
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JacketFlap tags:
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The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories,
BBT Cafe Authors,
BBT Cafe,
books,
Add a tag
Join us for the latest wild and crazy experiment at the
BBT Café, the online social group for all the writers who have taken my blog book tours classes over the past few years! This community of about 100 authors supports each other’s writing efforts through daily social media interaction,
blog book tours, and by sharing information and conversation as the publishing world changes. And, boy, is it ever changing fast!
In the past few years, the opportunities for self-publishing have burgeoned, and the stigma attached is virtually non-existent. Only an Old Publishing School dinosaur would think of self-publishing as an inferior option. Programs like
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing have leveled the playing field, and more authors are jumping into the game every day.
This fertile publishing ground is what inspired The Corner Café short story collection. We noticed that authors were starting to give away samples and old titles in e-book format, and that it resulted in increased sales on their other titles. Even a free day or two tended to increase sales when the regular price of a title came back.
Without too much forethought about what we were stumbling into, we decided to put together a collection of our very own around a common theme: The Corner Café. The object was for readers to sample various writing styles, and tempt them to link to other works by the contributing authors. We’d promote the new project via a month-long blog book tour (what else?), and track sales each day, as well as measure download bumps the five free days allowed by the KDP Select program. (Seth Godin suggests free is a good marketing strategy in publishing.
Here’s his post about it.) So we’re putting it to the test. That’s the short version of how it all came about over the past four months. You can get more gory details at the various blogs listed below throughout June.
Let me tell you a little bit about the book’s content. Here’s the description on Amazon:
Sweet, dreamy, steamy, and sometimes slightly seamy, this multi-genre collection of short stories includes something for every taste. Prepared by the BBT Café authors: Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, Christine Verstraete.
These are just a few of the teasers each author submitted for their respective stories:
- In The Catfish Enchantment by Marian Allen: Cosmo’s father deserted the family and died unforgiven, his mother is sinking into depression, he’s started cutting himself to relieve the pain, and his boss suggests…a tattoo?
- In The Eyes Have It by W.S. Gager: Crimebeat reporter Mitch Malone hates going to church, but when he gets rooked into speaking to the Bible-toting ladies, he may be facing the devil himself as he investigates the prayer group's m
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Excellent post!
I think "thank you's" are so important, especially as we move ever faster in our lives. It lets people know that they are important and what they've done matters and is appreciated.
It feels great to get a "thank you" and even better to give one!