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Here's the thing, 'Hidden New Jersey', which I illustrated and is published this month is a book about another state. I live in Maine. It's a fair way to New Jersey. I don't have a lot of money available for big launches and travel.

I wanted to help with promotion ... but to be frank, I live in a very rural area of Maine, there are limited resources and limited opportunities to promote. And it's a hard sell ... a book about Maine will draw some people to book store signings - but a book about a state outside New England? NOT so easy.

This is not a huge book and the publisher had limited resources for it.

The answer for me FIRST was a BLOG TOUR. Like a book tour, but in virtual space. There are all sorts of sites out there to help you set one up, but here's what I did:

UTILIZE YOUR ONLINE CONTACTS
I have, over the last couple of years, built up contacts with a good network of writers and illustrators who blog. So where better to start? I put a post on Facebook /Twitter/Google/SCBWI listserv asking for anyone who would be interested in taking part in my virtual book tour.  To my surprise I got quite a few takers.

SET UP THE SPECIFICS
Next I drafted an email to all of them with details about my book, a press release from the publisher, a PDF copy of the book, links to my website, the book trailer I created and email for the author so that they could ask her questions to. (I let her know first!)

I also sent high res jpegs of the book cover, me and a couple of images from the book if required.

I asked bloggers to schedule a date during the month of promotion (so they wouldn't all get clumped together). I also asked if they would be interested in doing a giveaway on their blog, which most took advantage of. It's a great way for them to get people to their blogs too ... a good deal for both of us.

Most of the bloggers sent me questions to answer as part of the review.  I didn't send back standard answers - it was more fun and more interesting to answer individually and if people read the different interviews, they would find out something new each time. Anyway, it seemed like courtesy to me.

APPROACH THE BIGGER BLOGGERS
I did approach some of the bigger blogs, and was happy that a few of them took me up on reviewing the book. Although I didn't do a giveaway on these blogs, the exposure was invaluable. With the bigger review blogs you have to dig some times to find the info to submit your book ... and some require you to send a physical copy. Some big blogs only review books that they are personally interested in and specifically do not want submissions, and some only from the publisher themselves.

KEEP YOUR PUBLISHER INFORMED
I kept my publisher's marketing contact at Charlesbridge informed of activities and that they complimented what they were doing. They were happy to send review copies to many of the bloggers, which then were used as the giveaways on the blog. A couple of the bloggers were

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