Honestly, is there anyone out there who doesn't know I have a new book out? I've hit it hard over the last month or so on the promotional front. It takes time to write all those pieces. Then I have to organize my volunteer hosts, and participate in any comments we might get.
This is harder than it sounds, because I don't assign specific dates to the tour posts. I give the hosts some loose parameters, and live with what I get. I asked my hosts not to post on Thursdays, because Lisa Burton Radio is that day. My own guests deserve their day in the spotlight.
There were a couple of review posts that I didn't calculate into the mix, but I tried to support them too. I know there has been a lot of reblogging on my site through this phase. If I can benefit from my hosts' traffic, maybe they can benefit from some of mine too. It isn't much, but it feels polite to me.
Then there is the fact that all of the posts were unique. It wasn't like reading the same thing over and over. I also liked the Lisa Burton posters for this book. If you missed any of them, I included them as back of the book material. For 99¢ you can have all three of them.
The tour worked out well for mid summer. I moved about a dozen copies per day at first, and it's now trickled down to one per day. That may not sound like much, but that's all the promo I've done too. I was going to advertise on Facebook, but they've pissed me off lately. They push me to boost or advertise every single post I make. Let's face it, not every post is worth spending $20 on.
You authors out there would have met some wonderful supportive hosts if you went on the tour. Don't underestimate the value of knowing a few people like that. Someday you'll want to make a blog tour too, and there's no time like the present to make a few friends. I owe these hosts a lot, and you may see some of them over here from time to time.
I'm pretty happy as it stands now. Reviews are trickling in, and every book needs more. The point is that I have some. I got within three notches of one of the Amazon charts, but never did hit the top 100. It would have been great, but it could still happen. The Amazon machine is strange. Sell three or four in an hour and land a review on the same day and poof – top 100.
I'm checking for reviews a few times every day, but I'll calm down soon. I always have. The reviews have been positive, and that makes me very happy. This book was a risk in my mind, and those who took a chance seem to have enjoyed it.
Tomorrow I need to work on more Lisa Burton Radio posts. I have next week's post ready, I only need to assemble and schedule it. This isn't enough though. I also need to finalize the week after, and work up a couple more shticks.
I have some editing on my horizon too. Depending on how things go, I may even tackle some micro-fiction for October.
Hope you guys enjoyed the tour. Thanks for sticking with me through it, and thanks for reading and reviewing my newest book. There are more on the way.
Did you notice my restraint? No book title, no purchase link. If you're dying to know, scroll through my recent posts.
Congrats on the successful tour. I’m with you on the Facebook thing.
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It’s every single post lately. I’ll bet I could type a string of gibberish and Facebook would tell me it’s wonderful and worthy of promotion.
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I’ll noticed that too. Even reblogs, which is weird. You read the post going around about scammers conquering the Top 100 lists?
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I’ve seen those, and it’s terrible. I’ll be content with the happy readers I am getting. The lists aren’t completely trustworthy now anyway.
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Yeah. I’d always enjoyed getting on there. Now it’s not as much of a badge of honor. This post makes me wonder what I should do in December for my final Legends book.
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Write about two dozen individual posts, put the touch on all your friends and let’s send it off with a bang. Push the bundles, Ichabod, and everything else Windemere.
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Geez. Not sure I can gather 2 dozen volunteers. Even the topics would be hard to come up with. That’s the downside to a long series. You run out of ideas for unique posts. Probably have to start getting prepped right after 14 comes out.
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Oh, I don’t know. You can snipe from all of the material. Maybe recycle some stuff from years ago too.
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Maybe. I’d have to look at my archives to see if anything would work. I’d like to do that big a spread without carbon copy posts. Only question is if I can get the topics and manpower. At least I have 5 months to go? Doesn’t seem like much time.
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Sometimes those old posts can be updated and they seem fresh. We can engage in one of our email threads if you’d like to take the whole thing offline.
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Sure, but I’m passing out. Still getting used to this sleep apnea thing, so it takes longer.
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Good night. I’ll build a new email and send it your way.
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Sent a quick email too.
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What? You released a book? I had no idea… 😉
I’m so excited to hear how well your tour went. The Enhanced League is great—one of my favorites, if not my very favorite, of your works. You deserve much success with it.
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It was a productive tour, and I got lots of comments. I’m glad you enjoyed the story too.
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That was a huge tour. You whipped out a ton of posts for it. I don’t know how you do it, honestly!
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I start early. I was writing blog posts in late May. I have a list of topics and that helps.
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Come out! we are always happy to see you and your book(s) and Lisa of course!
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You’ve got it.
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Hi Craig! Well I genuinely didn’t know you had a new book out, but then as you may have noticed, I haven’t been blogging lately (I’ve been saying that a lot over the last year or more!) Anyway, congrats on that, I just had a little look at it, sounds really intriguing. You work so hard in getting your writing out there and engaging with everyone, and deserve every success.
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Hi, Vanessa. You have been quiet over on WordPress. I see your face on Facebook occasionally. I have a lot of friends in GB and Europe, so baseball was a risk. Maybe it will help me crack the South American and Asian markets a bit. Hope you’re doing well.
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Craig, I’m so glad your tour went well and will continue to do so…
Charles, have a go…you don’t know what you can achieve if you don’t!
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Thanks for sharing the post. It was a long one, but it was fun too.
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LOL!!!!! 😀 A little goes a long way! 😉
Another week should see me over my domestic productions schedule so my zombie elf is fixing to come and see Lisa very soon now! 😎
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Sounds great, and it’s a reminder that I need to work on more of those posts today.
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Congrats! Now take a minute to breathe! 🙂
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There’s no time for that. I have a critique to do, a radio post to work on, and a Yak Guy to edit. There are also dogs who insist on playing.
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Glad the tour went well for you, Craig!
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Thank you, Teri. You and the others were so helpful.
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Glad it all worked.
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You and my other hosts were a big part of it. Thank you so much.
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Glad the blog tour went so well. I read all your posts, and shared many of them.
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Thanks for coming along, and I really appreciate the sharing.
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It’s safe to peek out! Congrats! From what I’ve seen, your posts drive traffic! Now, go spend some time with the doggies! And your family!
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Thanks for everything. I am spending what family time I can. We are working opposing days this summer, so date night is usually an evening at home.
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Being together is what counts!
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Well done Craig. Put your feet p for a while. You’ve earned a break!
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Sounds logical, but I probably won’t. We may get to go camping next weekend though.
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Funny how camping is a treat for some people. If you were to tell me I had to go camping next weekend it’d be a punishment!!
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It’s a treat for me. Something about the forest attracts my Muse and makes me come up with all kinds of things.
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I love the forest… I just prefer to retreat to a five star hotel after wandering through it 😉
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Fair enough. I actually wrote a blog post about the use of solitude this weekend. I’m stockpiling it, and will probably post it on Story Empire in September.
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Thought for a moment there you were stockpiling your solitude! There’s something that I could do with having stockpiled!
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That’s a great idea.
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Fabulous tour, Craig! Congrats and best wishes for continued success. 🙂
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Thank you for coming along. It means a lot to me.
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Glad the tour went well, and that the reviews are coming in! The market is getting more and more saturated, so success like that is nice to have 🙂
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It certainly is, thank you.
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Some of the reviews were massively entertaining on their own, and may have elicited some new readers. I almost wrote that once, on one, but then thought of other reviewers reading.
I’m glad you had so much support 🙂
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Thanks, it was a good time, but it’s also time to shift into the next phase.
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I think you had a great tour. I really enjoyed seeing all the different posts on the host blogs. Honestly, I don’t know how you managed to pull that off. I wrote three unique posts for my latest release, but have so many friends who have offered to host me. Finding the time to write those posts is non-extant. All that work (which you pulled off with apparent ease) is equivalent to major word count on a WIP. I don’t know how you do it. You really hit it out of the ballpark 🙂
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Having a list of topics really helped. I also started a long time ago. You aren’t kidding about that word count either. I haven’t gotten a lot of new writing done this year, but my book got a nice launch.
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