My lazy side is debating if I should just give you a list of Book Blog Tour Companies to go explore, but, I might first want to explain what a book blog tour is, does and does not do for you as an author. ATOMR explains best what a Book Blog Tour is..."a virtual tour to help an author promote their book without traveling." The Book Publicity Blog goes into depth as to how a BBT works, but I'll give you the elevator pitch: BBT's are a group of book enthusiasts that blog about your book. A good BBT will guide you as to what to expect, and half the time, you should expect to work, pay or both. So that's what a BBT is, let's read about what a BBT does: They - schedule hosts of blogs - distribute to those hosts - mediate between author and blog host Sounds easy, right! Well, scheduling your book tour is like herding cats. So many things can go wrong. Many BBT's do it for the love of books. If you don't believe me, search "book blogs" contact those people, get them to agree to host a guest post on a certain day and make sure you give them what they need and followup with them. What a BBT does not do for you: - Guarantee sales - Guarantee your book will become a NY best seller ACTION ITEM: There are some great companies out there that really do it for the love of books. Prices range wildly--like from $5 - $700 so make sure you read about everything they give you. Most are very thoughough and give you a check list and instructions as to what to do. Granted you have to know what a guest post is, what an excerpt is and it helps if you are prepared for interview questions to answer, but otherwise, they walk you through their system. The first one is overwhelming, but once you've done it once, it's just the time in writing the posts!
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One of my authors pointed this out to me and I have to agree with her: Interview with a Master author, Jason Luke, did the MOST brilliant thing I’ve seen in a long time. For several weeks, he appeared on Facebook pages (groups) and wrote live scenes based on the suggestions of readers -- scenes that used characters from his book. At the end of the Facebook tour, he had 30 brand new scenes that he then posted, one at a time, thanking each group. THEN, he put them together into an e-book for readers waiting for him to write his sequel. How brilliant was THAT? And before you think he had a following..."Interview with a Master" was his debut novel. Very interesting stuff! ACTION ITEM: What creative ideas does this give you? One of my writers asked me the following about the edits for her manuscript: I love the edits suggested for HS (working title). I think many/most of the suggestions for HW (working title) are good also, but there are some minor things that concern me. The editor has added a few 'that' s, 'to be's , and 'was's to the manuscript. Words I've been told to avoid unless necessary. I'm reading from various sources that writers and publishers are becoming especially disenchanted with 'that'. How do you feel about it? My answer to this specific author: I totally understand that your first novel you want it to be perfect! I would look at the edits closely and decide if the word "that" if taken out, would be confusing. Really what editors mean is if you have one of those words "that", "to be" and "was" are within the sentence you should rewrite the sentence so they are constructed without those words. Make sense? However, there are times when those words are necessary. This is the writing curve and you will get better when you do your second drafts. My first drafts are still crap and horrible. Do you know how many times I used "really" and "just" in Dr. Vampyre? I was embarrassed. 102 times in a 37,000 word novella -- enough to make a reader throw the book across the room. I'm now down to 4 "just" and 7 "really" -- I found them necessary. So...you do have to decide how many of "those" words you want. You are not going to be able to toss the important connectors: He green, doesn't sound the same as: He was green. Connectors convey important things. He green-- He was green? He will be green? What tense are we talking? Help me out! ACTION ITEM: Check out your latest and count how many times you use "was", "that", and "to be". WRITTEN by ULRIKE As Summer Approaches, Thoughts About The Cycle Of Life As the season changes once again and summer approaches, I can’t help but think of the cycle of Life. I’m cheerfully looking at my garden through my large office patio doors. Tomatoes, jalapenos, and zucchini planted firmly in the ground ready to sprout; small buds appearing with the promise of a delicious meal. Oh, how I enjoy seeing this growth, the unfoldment of nature - reflecting the workings of mind. Everything you see is a visible expression of your Consciousness; a mirror image of your innermost soul substance. ‘Thought in action’ you might say, acting out your own personal movie. However, in your life’s play you are the writer, director, and actor. You are in charge. Looking back at ‘winter’, the dormant or reflective time, has passed. A new awakening is in the air. Winter represents a resting period in the mental, a time-out in order to allow rejuvenation shown forth in nature. Renewal, revitalization, refueling of Spirit, and getting ready for the abundant explosion of more Life! Reminiscing about the gentle awakening of spring; representing the infancy state of Consciousness with its germs sprouting eagerly, unfolding tiny flora and curiously peeking out of mother earth’s fertile ground. Still small, yet powerful seeds of Life are always pushing upwards towards the light - just like our Soul wants to push upwards towards God’s glory. The gentle warmth of spring embalms our Spirit and gives renewed hope to a new day. And here we are approaching the full splendor of summer. We embrace the life sustaining light and warmth of the sun. We fully absorb this invigorating force and feel the growth our Spirits have achieved. Youth with its unlimited strength and fearlessness! The ‘summer of your mind’ is the time to reason and to make sound choices, the time to pave your path. Enjoyment of the moment so desperately yearned for; this is the season to define who you are and to choose the road you will travel. What does the fall season represent? Autumn reflects ‘maturity of the mind’, fruition, fruit at its best! At last we have come to an understanding of our true purpose in Life. We have reached yet another stage in our unfolding process. This season is the culminating mental state that defines who we are at this moment in time. And so we can rest once again! Namaste** ULRIKE is an inspirational writer/author and metaphysics teacher. She teaches the art of right thinking in a scientific, step by step program, that benefits all areas of your life; health, wealth and most of all happiness... you can contact her at: Website Goodreads Books on Amazon YouTube Thunderclap is a crowdsource for social media. When you create a Thunderclap and reach your goal of 100, 250 or 500 people, Thunderclap sends out the same tweet from all those participants at the same time. Same tweet, all at the same time. It's like a huge wave of social media tsunami going everywhere--an explosion of your message across the internetwebs! I honestly think the website tells it better than me so I'm going to share it... If a tweet falls in the forest... Social media is an easy way to say something, but it’s a difficult way to be heard. Thunderclap is the first-ever crowdspeaking platform that helps people be heard by saying something together. It allows a single message to be mass-shared, flash mob-style, so it rises above the noise of your social networks. By boosting the signal at the same time, Thunderclap helps a single person create action and change like never before. You don't need a huge following for a successful Thunderclap. A user with 200 Facebook friends could amplify her message better than someone with 3,000 friends. It all depends on your cause's voice and shareability—and how much your friends are engaged. Thunderclap has already reached millions of people. Check out some of the successful projects on our homepage! The tipping point The beauty of Thunderclap is that it sets the goalposts: one message, one number, one date. It's a common threshold you and your supporters work toward together. It's a tangible way to measure awareness. So, it's something like this for social media... Actually, I think this is a better explanation... ACTION ITEM: Go to Thunderclap and support a message or create your own!
Okay I realize this is another post about the SPP (Self Publishing Podcast), but Johnny, Sean and Dave are innovative guys that you should really be paying attention to. Take their kickstarter project - it's not about getting money to write another book, it's about getting as many people involved in the process of writing their book, thus involving the readers. They know that involving the reader in the process creates true fans. Sometimes it's the way you present your book that gets attention. They've inspired me to do something I wanted to do but was never able to have the time to do (but I'll make time now). Which is integrate my readers into my writing. Yes, I'm literally going to take readers off the street and make them into paper...eww...or maybe I'll just re-enact scenes of books with them (yay!)...bow-chick-a-bow-bow. No! I'm going to email them. (Hey! I heard that disappointed awwww....) reminds me of that Morrisey song ♫This will be the last time I sing...(YAY!) ♪No wait, I've changed my mind again...(awwww)♫ Moving on. Yes on to emailing them, but I've got ideas. My readers are my accountable police. I report to them. And soon, they will be getting weekly progress reports or monthly--I have to decide. But back to innovation. The main point is to surround yourself with people who like your stories and love what you do. You create a community and through that community you have an obligation to them. To make their lives better. I think that is one of the goals of writers--to make lives better. What better way than to use innovative concepts such the likes of what these guys are doing! ACTION ITEM: Watch the video below to see what kind of inspiration the SPP guys give you! If you'd like to help fund their project (starting at $1) and would like your name in a book, here's the link: http://kck.st/PqgOOZ One of my author's sent me this and I had to share... She said, "I remembered to follow somebody on twitter today!" So if someone says to me "You are, without a doubt, the worst writer I've heard of."
I reply as Captain Sparrow :) I get an "A" for effort and and a "D" for execution. Even when I do all my homework, research the editor, have the manuscript edited several times--like five to seven times (and I mean by different people)--I still have epic failures. What I mean by failures is something not life threatening. Even after the book was gone through me, checked by the author, professionally edited, sent to beta-readers and reviewers, and then published my poor author called me in a panic saying a friend of hers caught TONS of errors while reading her book for review. Now, the thing to remember is: 1. Nobody died because your book has errors. 2. An error free book is so rare, there can't be more than 10 perfect books in the world in every language combined. Some of them probably burned along with Alexandria. 3. All of the other people did not care or say or think it necessary to report the errors because they enjoyed the book that much. Now breath. Does this mean I pitch copy editors and line editors to the side and say "Oh well!"--not going to happen. I will fix it. If the errors are more than 10% I will have a different editor go through the book again and republish it. If the errors are less than 10% then I will fix what we know, re-upload the book and move on. There comes a point where perfection vs. time investment is unbalanced and not worth your thought. I have uploaded a book several times over the course of readers complaining about this "one thing" and am happy to do it, especially when a fan writes and points out a typo; even when it's only a missing period. I don't mind and that's the beauty of ebooks. It's worth the fix, but not the heart attack. ACTION ITEM: Writers, please know that to err is human, but to not freak about errors in the manuscript, even big ones after publication, is Divine! |
Dear Reader,
My efforts are to make this a learning blog where writers can see the flip side of publishing. If you have comments that will improve your experience or have a certain topic you'd like discussed, please contact me through email - HERE. ~ Sincerley, Your Editor Stephanie McKibben Head Troll Troll River Publications Books on Kindle
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