Writing and Publishing News from

Yesterday, I shared my upcoming blog tour schedule. I hope you’ll stop in and enjoy the fun and frivolity. If you’re a published author, who is trying to drum up readers, you might want to plan your own blog tour. I’ve written about how I set up a blog tour. Refer to the blog posted February 15, 2014. Today, I’ll share some successful blog tour strategies from other authors.

Are you aware that there are blog tour services? That’s right. You can get professional help scheduling, promoting, and managing your blog tour. One author I know uses CLP Blog Tours because they specialize in her genre.

She tells me that, while the service made all of the arrangements, the author was required to write some guest blogs, send the cover image to those who requested it, etc. But the blog tour service did the promotion. This company offers several packages from $20 to over $200. Check them out here: http://www.clpblogtours.com.

This author said that she thinks people often overestimate the affect of blog tours on sales. She says, “If you go in thinking it’s going to drive a gazillion sales of your book, you’ll be disappointed. It’s just one way of raising awareness about you and your novels online.”

However, I shared with you after my first blog tour in February, that the week of my tour, sales for my Klepto Cat Mystery series doubled!

I spoke with another colleague who does blog tours to bring attention to her two novels. She said she does ongoing, informal blog tours. She doesn’t use a service and she doesn’t necessarily book a regimented tour.

She says, “I line up blogs and get permission to post.” She told me, “I don’t pay attention to the order of things. I don’t do tours over a certain day or week. I just do them as often as my schedule allows, sometimes I binge with them, aka, a tour.”

Here are links to a few blog tour services. If you use them, report back to me and, not only will I share your experience with my readers, I’ll give your book a plug.

http://bewitchingbooktours.blogspot.com/

http://worldwindvirtualbooktours.weebly.com/services.html

http://sizzlingpr.com/services/

Many people today are writing books with a message. That is, they write to share a perspective, information, an opinion, or knowledge with the reading public (or a selected portion of readers). The message might be in the form of a story, a memoir, a how-to or self-help book, or even an informational or inspirational book. Poetry and children’s books are sometimes vehicles for messages.

Perhaps you have produced a message book. You want to show people new ways of being/living or thinking/believing, for example. If you’re like most such authors, you aren’t selling very many books. And for some of you, that’s because you didn’t know it was up to you to promote it.

How does one promote a message book? Here are some ideas:

• Locate websites of organizations related to the theme of your book. Study the sites to discover how your book might fit in. Do they have a newsletter where you could announce your book? Do they review books like yours? Do they feature books at their website?
• Locate blogs related to the theme of your book. Do they interview authors, review books, seek guest bloggers, etc.? Contact the bloggers and set up appropriate methods of getting exposure for your book.
• Study magazines and newsletters that your proposed audience would read. Remember, your audience is made up of people who are interested in the topic of your book, not people you think you can change.
• If you want to reach the general public, as well as your primary audience, contact the program chairs for local clubs and organizations. Ask to be put on their speaker roster. If you are not a public speaker, join a Toastmasters Club and gain the tools you need. Also read “Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signing, Festivals, Conferences and More.” (By Patricia Fry, publisher, Allworth Press.) http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html
• Check into conferences related to the theme of your book—health, mental illness, writing, behavior, psychology, cooking and so forth. Choose the conferences that your audience will attend. Apply to be a presenter or workshop leader. Note: The point of speaking to your readers is not to sell your book, it is to demonstrate your expertise on this topic. Once potential readers feel confident in your credibility, they will be more open to purchasing your book. Here are some directories of conferences:

http://www.allconferences.com

http://www.bventes.com

http://shawguides.com

• Write articles for appropriate publications. Mention your book in your bio at the end of the article.
• Build your own website and begin blogging. Advertise your sites at every opportunity—through social media, during interviews, in your bio following articles you’ve written for publications, etc.
• Solicit reviews for your book’s Amazon page. If you know people who have read it, ask them to post a review. Contact reviewers of books on this topic. Here are a few directories of book reviewers:

http://acqweb.org/bookrev.html

http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/reviews

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/free-book-reviews.html

The point is to go where your readers are. Become visible. Get exposure for yourself and your book.

For more about book promotion, be sure to order your copy of “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven. Low-cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author.” http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html

Today, we’re continuing our discussion about getting book reviews for your book. Yesterday, I explained how important it is to make your book the best that it can be in order to attract more of the right kind of reviewers. We talked about finding the hooks in your fiction or nonfiction book that could attract reviewers. I also touched on reviews in magazines and other periodicals.

The most revered reviews of all, however, are those posted at amazon.com. How do you get those reviews? Here are a few ideas:

1: Beg and plead for them. Well, at least ask politely. Put out an all points bulletin at your website or blogsite asking for reviews. If a friend or colleague mentions having read your book, say, “Cool. I’d love it if you’d review it at Amazon.com.” Send out emails or post a note in your monthly newsletter reminding people to post a review.

2: Contact book reviewers who review books like yours. You can check to see who has reviewed other books similar to yours. However, most reviewers are either readers whom you’ll never be able to find or they’re reviewers who have hidden their identity. Occasionally, a reviewer will use their real name or the name of their website and you can trace them down. The best method of finding reviewers, though, is through book reviewer directories. Here are a few:

http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net. They also have a book that comes out every other year—The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. It contains over 775 pages of reviewers in every category, and the majority of them review self-published books.

Here’s a list of book review sites: http://writersresourcedirectory.com/Book_Reviewers.html

Here’s a list of 352 book reviewers http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers

Most (or all) of these do not charge for reviews, but they will give honest reviews.