Dear O'Abby: What's the best giveaway?

 Dear O'Abby,

I have a book coming out soon, and have a fairly substantial blog tour scheduled to promote it.  Some of the hosts have asked if they can do a giveaway as part of the promotion and I was wondering if you had any advice about what might be best to give away in this scenario.

Best,

Prize Challenged

Dear Prize Challenged,

What a great question!  And something that is very top-of-mind for me right now because I have a book releasing this week.

My first piece of advice would be not to offer the book you're promoting as a prize.  At least not in too many places.  You want to sell that book, and if you give it away, you're potentially losing a sale you might have had.

But don't despair!  There are lots of other things you can give away that won't break the bank.

If you have other books, you could offer one or more of these back catalogue titles as a prize. A winner may love the book you send so much they rush out to buy the new one.  And hopefully the rest of your back catalogue too! 

If you don't have back catalogue books, deleted scenes or stories set in the same world as your book can also be a great prize.  Especially if they aren't available anywhere else.  People like to feel that they are getting something unique or special and will value something exclusive far more that something a lot of people have access to.

They say someone has to see your cover seven or more times to remember it, so getting branded swag made with your book cover, website address and purchasing information is a valuable tool for getting the word out.  You can get bookmarks, badges and other swag printed fairly cheaply.  I'm always a big fan of magnets too.  People go to their fridges a lot, and if your magnet is attached, they see your book cover several times a day, even if they're not conscious they're looking at it. Be imaginative about the kind of swag you create.  Tote bags are always handy, and if your readers are out and about, your book cover on a bag could be catching a lot of eyes.

Your book may have a very specific image or symbol that could be made into a brooch or earrings or other piece of jewellery or ornament.  If these are limited in number, they are even more valuable.

Another thing you can offer is the opportunity for your winners to be in your next book - promise to name a character after them.  This is doubly effective, because if they're promised a character, you've probably already sold them your next book.

If you're not shy or phone-phobic, you can offer your winners an opportunity to speak to you on the phone or via Zoom or Skype.  You may want to make it clear ahead of time how long you are willing to talk, and if there are subjects you don't want to discuss, put that up front too.  

With so much modern communication happening online these days, getting a hand-written letter in the mail is really special.  Offer to hand-write a letter or postcard to a contest winner.

And anything you can autograph, do.  You may not believe your signature is worth anything, but to your readers is might be.  Especially if you can personalize the autograph to the person who will be receiving it.  Obviously this isn't always possible, especially if, like me, you're living in a remote location where shipping signed books can cost a small fortune, and it's easier to get prizes sent to the recipient directly from a retailer.  But you can create book plates that can be emailed to the prize winner so when their copy arrives, they can print it on a sticker or glue the bookplate into the front of the book.

That's a few ideas.  At the end of the day, your imagination is the limit.  Just don't go overboard when it comes to spending money. A lot of promotion can be done very cheaply, and the most valuable giveaways are often the things that only cost you your time.

Good luck with your release!

X O'Abby

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour, Part 5: Wrapping Up the Tour

Previous post - Part 4: Kicking Off the Tour

Today is the final day of my week-long series on how to book your own blog tour. Here's what we're talking about:

1. Planning Your Tour
2. Recruiting Bloggers
3. Keeping Yourself Organized
4. Kicking Off the Tour
5. Wrapping Up the Tour (This post!)

This is your host, Samantha, and I'm using the following examples as we talk through how to book your own tour:

My July 2015 blog tour ran for two weeks and had eight stops. 

My October 14, 2015 cover reveal ran for one day and had fourteen participants.
So far, we've talked about planning your tour, how and where to find potential bloggers, how to keep organized as you recruit, and how to successfully kick off the tour. And now your tour is underway. What do you do?

Share on Social Media

This should go without saying, but I mean, so should the fact that no one wants to listen to the Beatles, but they still play them on Oldies stations. (No? I'm the only one that doesn't like them? OK, fine.)

Share your bloggers' posts throughout the week and beyond. They're sharing their social media sphere of influence, and you're sharing yours. Re-tweet them, say thank you on Twitter (or FaceBook or whatever--sorry, my Twitter bias is showing), and generally give the impression that, golly gee, you're grateful for their time and energy. Which you should be, by the way, but if you're not, that's between you and your deity of choice.

In addition, as I linked to above, make a page on your website that showcases all your posts. People might someday stumble onto your website with a burning curiosity about you and what you have to say, and voila! There's a place where they can read some of the stuff you spent blood, sweat, and tears on!

Don't Forget Your Giveaways

Did you do a giveaway? Don't forget to send off the loot when the window closes. Rafflecopter reminds you and does the pick automatically, so it's super easy.

I also suggest poking holes in the boxes if you want the pet lemurs to survive the trip.

And One Final Request

When your tour draws to a close, I suggest a thank you email to everyone who participated. Yes, in addition to the social media thanks. People like to know they're appreciated. I mean, don't send a crazy, "YOU HAVE MY UNDYING LOVE AND DEVOTION" email every day for the next year, but a final wrap-up won't go amiss.

And now's the time to spring that request I sprung on you at the beginning of my blog series: the newsletter.

I have three newsletters. One for fans, one for bloggers, and one for book reviewers. Since the second and third are many times one and the same type of person, I debated whether or not to merge them into one list. However, I've found that while there is cross-over in the subscribers, it's not 100%. So I keep them separate.

When I send out my tour wrap-up email, I say something like:

Thanks for being a part of my blog tour! 

If you enjoyed working with me and want to be notified in the future when I'm booking another tour, cover reveal, or blitz, please sign up for my book blogger list (on the left side of the page). If you're a reviewer and want to be notified of when new ARCs are available, please sign up for my book reviewer list (on the right side of the same page).

And people do it. And they've participate in more than one of my events. It also takes the pressure off the spreadsheet I had you create a couple days ago as being the landing zone for future participants. It takes the awkwardness out of it, too. If they don't want to participate, they can hit the "unsubscribe" button without having to email you and demand to know why you're sending them emails.

(Yes, if you're a blogger or reviewer, you can sign up for my list, even if it's just to spy on me and see how I really do my upcoming blitz.)

Final Wrap-Up

Thank you so much for sticking with me to the end of this series. I certainly hope that you learned something you can apply. If you have questions, post 'em below or find me and the rest of the Operation Awesome gang on Twitter.

If you liked this series and want more tidbits from us on reading and writing, you can sign up to get future blog posts delivered to your inbox. It's in the sidebar over there --->

I hope to see you around again!

***

S. L. Saboviec grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction ("I Am NOT Little Red Riding Hood") has appeared in the webzine Grievous Angel. Her debut novel, Guarding Angel, received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: "... A fascinating story of a particularly loving guardian angel. Overall, the writing is emotionally grounded, character-focused, and technically superior..." The sequel, Reaping Angel, is available now.

You can call her Samantha.

website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour, Part 4: Kicking Off the Tour

Previous post - Part 3: Keeping Yourself Organized

Today is Day 4 of my week-long series on how to book your own blog tour. Our agenda, once again, is:

1. Planning Your Tour
2. Recruiting Bloggers
3. Keeping Yourself Organized
4. Kicking Off the Tour (This post!)
5. Wrapping Up the Tour

This is Samantha, and I'm going to be using the following examples as we talk through how to book your own tour:

My July 2015 blog tour ran for two weeks and had eight stops. 

My October 14, 2015 cover reveal ran for one day and had fourteen participants.
So far, we've talked about planning your tour, how and where to find potential bloggers, and how to keep organized as you recruit. And now the time is approaching for the tour to commence.

Step #1: PANIC!

No, just kidding.

Send Out Your Guest Posts Well in Advance

"Well in advance" means something different to everyone. I can't say that I'm the Patron Saint of Never Sending a Last Minute Blog Post, but my advice is to try sending everything at least a week ahead of when your posts are going live. If you wait too long, people start wondering, "Is she going to send it to me? Is she flaking out? What's going on? Do I need to email her? Did she forget? Did I get the date wrong?" And then they're at the aforementioned Step #1 themselves, and that you don't want.

What's the latest you can go? I would say the Saturday before the blog post is scheduled to go live, and that's pushing it really hard. Give people one weekend day, please. When I get guest posts going live the night before, especially in the middle of the week, I get irritated. I personally do my blog-related activity on my weekends while Morrigan is napping. If you're sending it to me in the middle of the week, I had planned an evening of Netflix and pj's, thanks very much. Now I have to trundle my butt downstairs to my computer and get a post formatted. Even if it takes five minutes, I just don't like doing it. *cries all the tears*

Everyone is different. Maybe one of your bloggers always schedules their posts every Tuesday night. Getting it to them a week ahead of time lets them fit it into their life as they prefer.

Side note: It's perfectly acceptable to email people to tell them you're running behind. Better is giving them the date ("I'll have this to you by Sunday, April 3, in time for you to schedule it for the Tuesday, April 12 book blitz") and then sticking to it. But things happen.

Make It Easy

This little tidbit was pointed out by one of the bloggers that participated in my July 2015 tour, Brian Basham. He said that one of the reasons he enjoyed working with me was because I made it super easy to participate.

In the weeks leading up to the tour, you've been writing and revising your posts. Once that's done, you package everything up to makes it the simplest possible experience for bloggers to get your posts on their blog. You've already created a lovely format and hyperlinked your links. You hit the "send" button, and out goes your posts.

This is what you you want to happen:

1. Blogger opens your email.
2. Blogger copies your content.
3. Blogger pastes your content a new post.
4. Blogger schedules your post and presses "publish."

That's it. That is our end goal. That's what's going to win you friends and influence people.

To accomplish this, I write my posts and plan everything in my own blog, and then I copy and paste into two Word documents. The first is the copy/paste from the WYSIWYG editor. The second is the copy/paste from the HTML editor. (Yes, the HTML tab, the one that you're scared to go into on your own blog. It won't bite. I promise.)

I provide both because sometimes the first goes wonky and/or because some people really do like to tweak the HTML themselves (myself included). If you're an HTML tweaker yourself, so much the better, because then you really have ultimate control over what everything looks like. MWAHAHAHA, ULTIMATE CONTROL.

Ahem.

So make everything self-contained. Open -> Copy -> Paste -> Publish.

Bonus: Make Sharing Easy and Your Posts Pretty

You can add all sorts of bonuses to your email. Pre-written 140-character tweets, several different graphic sizes, whatever else you can think of.

And speaking of graphics, yes. People like looking at aesthetically pleasing things. So use Pixabay. Unsplash, morguefile, or whatever other free graphic sites you like to find images, and then use Canva to create something attractive.

Send those with the post.

Tweet them out on social media.

Admire your awesome blog tour organizational skills.

Ah, But Don't Forget The Most Important Part

Pop quiz: Why are you scheduling a blog tour?

1. Because I love writing blog posts. I can't get enough of writing blog posts. OMG, MOAR BLOG POST WRITING, PLEEZ.
2. Because some jerkface told me I had to do a stupid tour if I'm gonna be an author, or some crap like that.
3. Because I want to sell books.

The answer is, obviously, d) None of the above; Cthluhu thinks bloggers taste terrible, so I'm hoping to be spared when he rises from the deep.

OK, but on a serious note, take a gander at the end of these posts. You want something like that. A quick little bio and all your links jam-packed in a tiny, little space. Think I went overboard? Fine, then only include your Twitter handle or your webpage or your blog. Whatever. I'm not telling you how to do it. I mean, what do you think this is? A how-to guide or something?

Addendum: Don't Forget To Make Yourself Presentable

This is beyond the scope of this blog series, but I also want to mention one of the most important things about peddling your wares (whether to potential book buyers or potential book blog tour participants): make yourself presentable. Have a professional quality cover image, an author head shot that looks like it was taken by a real photographer and not your cell phone, a book that's been edited, an author webpage that someone with an eye for graphic design helped you create, a purposefully crafted bio that makes you sound like an interesting person, and an awesome book blurb.

Even if you're trade published, you need to put some work into your online persona, so don't think you can scoot around this just because your book package is taken care of by others. You are responsible for presenting you. (Though, of course, your agent & publishing team are there to help.)

If you're not sure how to start polishing your image, spend a lazy Sunday afternoon reading the blog posts over at Rachel Thompson's blog. She knows a thing or two or fourteen about branding.

Got any questions? Post them below, and then come back tomorrow to hear about flawlessly executing and wrapping up your tour!

Next post - Part 5: Wrapping Up the Tour

***

S. L. Saboviec grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction ("I Am NOT Little Red Riding Hood") has appeared in the webzine Grievous Angel. Her debut novel, Guarding Angel, received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: "... A fascinating story of a particularly loving guardian angel. Overall, the writing is emotionally grounded, character-focused, and technically superior..." The sequel, Reaping Angel, is available now.

You can call her Samantha.

website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour, Part 3: Keeping Yourself Organized

Previous post - Part 2: Recruiting Bloggers

Today is Day 3 of my week-long series on how to book your own blog tour. Here's what you're going to get out of this week:

1. Planning Your Tour
2. Recruiting Bloggers
3. Keeping Yourself Organized (This post!)
4. Kicking Off the Tour
5. Wrapping Up the Tour

This is Samantha, and I'll be using the following examples as we talk through how to book your own tour:

My July 2015 blog tour ran for two weeks and had eight stops. 

My October 14, 2015 cover reveal ran for one day and had fourteen participants.
So far, we've talked about planning your tour, plus how and where to find potential bloggers. Now that you're all ready to go, it's time to prepare.

I'm an organization freak. I'm a planner, a rearranger, a planner of rearranging. When I was ten years old, I made my bookshelves into a "library," complete with Dewey Decimal System note cards and card holders at the front of all my books. I never got the date stamp I wanted, but that was ok since my brother didn't really give a rip about playing library.

(Now you know what to get me for Christmas next year.)

So let me help you help yourself, by organizing your life... at least in regards to your book tour.

Inviting Bloggers to Your Tour

You've got your pre-written email and the book blogger lists. Now's the time for combing through the lists.

Open up your first potential blog. Now's the time to decide if it's worth emailing your shiny, new introduction email to its owner. Here's the checklist I use to decide.

• Has this person posted in the past month? Sometimes I'll find a blog that looks like a perfect fit, but rats, May 2013 is the last time they posted! Don't spend your precious time on that. You have better things to do.
• Does this person accept my genre? The "About Me" pages are nebulous things. If a blogger doesn't specify what genres they accept, look through some of their posts. You'll see immediately what they like to read. If they aren't interested in your genre, move along.
• Is this person accepting guest bloggers or review requests (if that's something you're looking for)? Again, this may take some sleuthing. Do you see book blitz posts? Are they doing reviews of non-best-sellers?
• Have they provided contact information? This is more annoying to find than you might imagine. Despite the oft-repeated advice, "PUT YOUR CONTACT INFO ON YOUR WEBSITE" (you've done it, right?), people don't.

I'm going to be honest here: You'll feel like you're wasting a lot of time as you sort through blogs, especially if you're as fanatical about me as the details. Like, what are these people thinking? Where is the simple information a poor author like me needs? Don't any of you want books to read or content creators for your blog? COME. ON.

The most frustrating thing is knowing what to do first. If I spend time hunting around for someone's email address, but then I discover they're closed for requests, I've wasted time. If I make sure they're a great fit for my genre and style of book, but then discover their email address is missing, I've wasted time.

But it's still time well spent. I refer you back to the statistics I posted on Monday. If you're emailing a dead blog, it's guaranteed you're not getting a response. Or a no six months after you've released your fifteenth book. Or if, miracle of miracles, they say yes, but then they forget and don't post your guest post or do a review of your book because, after all, they let their blog go dead for a year without bothering to tell anyone about it.

However, don't get discouraged. Their "About Me" page might simply say, "I love books and cats!" and that's all. But they might still end up responding to you. Don't rule people out just because they aren't exactly clear on what they want or how you can get in contact with them. But do rule them out if they say, "Please don't email me about [whatever genre/thing you're peddling]." That's just common sense, right?

Keeping Yourself Organized

And here is where I extol the virtues of spreadsheets.

O spreadsheets, how oft I have praised thy beauty!

Your spreadsheet does not have to be complicated. Your spreadsheet does need to be a way to keep track of stuff. On mine, I have two tabs:

• Bloggers I have emailed
• Bloggers who have responded

And on each tab, I keep basic information about the bloggers, stuff I might need later that I don't want to go hunting for:

• Person's name (if I can find it)
• Email address (and if they have a contact form I used but not email address, I mark "form" here)
• Blog's name
• Link to the blog
• What list I found them on
• When I emailed them

For bloggers who have responded, I keep track of:

• A yes/maybe/no column for each thing -- cover reveal, book review, blog tour, etc.
• Date they responded

And that's it. That's all you really need. If you're contacting 25 blogs a week like I do, it'll fill up fast. You can search and sort and do all sorts of nifty spreadsheet things, but the most important thing--keeping track--is taken care of.

You'll start hearing back, and that's when the magic happens.

Keeping Track of Responses

Short section here because there's really only two things you need to do.

The first is keep your spreadsheet updated, so you have it to refer back to whenever you forget what the heck's going on.

The second is to keep your emails organized. Me? I have a folder for each and every blogger that responds. Then when Invested Ivana of One Book Two (who's awesome, by the way; go check her blog out) emails me, I can go refer to our previous correspondence. No need to sort through my inbox or panic because I can't remember what we talked about. No wondering if I've already offered her my link to my newsletter and worrying if I sound like I'm badgering her.

Organization. It's your friend.

The Work's Not Over

K, so off to the races you go. You're emailing your bloggers, you're starting to hear back, you're filling in spots in your blog tour.

The time is approaching.

Dun dun dun.

Next up: Getting ready for The Big Week.

As always, let me know any burning questions in the comments section!

Next post - Part 4: Kicking Off the Tour

***

S. L. Saboviec grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction ("I Am NOT Little Red Riding Hood") has appeared in the webzine Grievous Angel. Her debut novel, Guarding Angel, received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: "... A fascinating story of a particularly loving guardian angel. Overall, the writing is emotionally grounded, character-focused, and technically superior..." The sequel, Reaping Angel, is available now.

You can call her Samantha.

website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour, Part 2: Recruiting Bloggers

Previous post - Part 1: Planning Your Tour

Today is Day 2 of my week-long series on how to book your own blog tour. Here's what you're going to get out of this crash course:

1. Planning Your Tour
2. Recruiting Bloggers (This post!)
3. Keeping Yourself Organized
4. Kicking Off the Tour
5. Wrapping Up the Tour

This is Samantha, and I'm using the following examples as we talk through how to book your own tour:

My July 2015 blog tour ran for two weeks and had eight stops.

My October 14, 2015 cover reveal ran for one day and had fourteen participants.

To add to my copious list of qualifications (as well as, apparently, to further inflate my already bloated ego), I'd like to turn your attention to the fact that for a year, I ran a book review blog accepting self-published novels. (I should probably mention here that many book bloggers do not accept self-published novels for reasons we are all aware of and which are beyond the scope of this particular series.) So when I talk to you like I know what the inside of a book blogger's inbox looks like, well, it's because I do.

Believe me. It's not pretty.

More Planning. Yes, I Said More!

Let's talk for a minute about how busy you are.

You're busy, right?

And what do you hate more than anything in the world?

Overcooked asparagus, spiders that menace you from dark corners when you're stumbling into the bathroom in the middle of the night, and spam.

Spam can come in many forms, and since we're not actually talking about you in this blog series, we're talking about how to recruit bloggers to your book tour, let's get back to talking about bloggers.

Bloggers, bloggers, dear, sweet bloggers, who have opened their inboxes to all manner and sundry of micreants. People sending them requests for reviews even when they don't do reviews. People adding them to email lists unrequested. People demanding things, being rude about things, being downright confusing about things.

Rule #1 of emailing anyone: Don't be that guy.

"So what's your point, Samantha?" you're asking. "I get that I shouldn't be that guy. I won't be that guy. But what does that have to do with planning?"

My point is this. The next thing you need to do before sending out emails to poor, unsuspecting bloggers is to write a short, polite, and to-the-point introductory email.

Using an extremely few number of words, you need to explain these key things in your first email:

• Who you are,
• What you want from them, 
• What they're going to get out of participating, and
• What you're offering specifically. Those dates we talked about yesterday? This is where you communicate them.

The third item (what they're going to get out of participating) will be part of what you're conveying with the second and fourth, but you need to keep it in mind. When you get something in your inbox, what do you think? "I certainly hope this is more spam that is asking me to do something that will waste my time"? No, you don't. You think--subconsciously--"What's in this for me?"

In this instance, what you're offering to the bloggers is 1) to bring content to their subscribers that they don't have to expend energy creating themselves and 2) a chance to advertise their blog outside their own sphere of social media influence.

Aha! Yes! That little tidbit we'll bring back in a couple days when we talk about what to do when the tour is going on, but it's super key. If you have an impressive number of **REAL!!** Twitter or blog followers, you can point it out as something they'll get out of it. If not, that's ok. If you're pitching HuffPo, well, good luck, but most bloggers aren't going to care. Most of us are just trying to scrape out a meager little corner of the interwebs, so we're all in the same boat.

An Extremely Few Number of Words

We're all busy. I think I've said that before. I'd check back above, but I don't have time.

Don't ramble on in much the same way this blog post, to an extent, is doing. Don't copy and paste the blurb from all fifteen of your books into the body of the email. Don't make them hunt and search for what you're asking buried in fifteen paragraphs.

I recently received an email from a book-related mailing list that I signed up for at some point. It went on a bit about their organization and then it said, “Would you like to help with an awareness campaign on Amazon?” OK, I have no idea what that means. Not only that, but I don’t care to figure out. I'm busy. I've got things to do: this blog series to write, a book to edit, a critique partner's novel waiting for my feedback, a short story languishing in my head, and another book outline to work on.

Do not be vague.

Instead, tell them exactly what you want in a manner that they can say "yes" or "no" to. Don't be shy. You're going to get a ton of no's by way of non-responders. That's life as a writer. If you don't want to get rejected, you need find a new profession. In fact, telling your "cold calls" exactly what you want is going to work in your favor. You're not their crotchety old aunt Betty who will complain about them at the Thanksgiving dinner table if they don't reply to your email. They have no obligation to wade through your head-scratching prose to get to the point.

Get to your point. Get them to the "yes" or "no." You do that, and you'll see yesses.

An Example: Hello, Good Blogger, My Name Is Samantha

Here's the email that I used to round up participants in my blog tour last spring. This is a format I shamelessly plagiarized borrowed from Kate Tilton, a fabulous author assistant for whom I reviewed books many times during my book blog days:

Subject: SFF author seeking guest post, interview, or review on your blog

Dear [Blogger],

I found you on [Name of List]. I’m an SFF author, and I was wondering if you would you be interested in any of the following:

• Author interview or guest post (unique to your blog) during my tour in July
• Cover reveal in the fall of my upcoming release
• Free review copy of my book, Guarding Angel (available now), and, if you enjoy it and want more, the upcoming sequel, Reaping Angel (available early 2016)

If any of these opportunities sound like something you'd like on your blog, please let me know.

About Guarding Angel
Genre: Adult Paranormal (Contains adult content—further details can be provided)
On Amazon – 4.3 stars
On Goodreads – 4.0 stars

[Book blurb]

Thank you for your time,
Samantha Saboviec

I'm not going to go on about all the bits and pieces of this email because you can read it for yourself, but see what I'm saying? Short and to the point. You know what I'm asking. You can say "yes" or "no" to this. There's no hunting or wondering or head scratching.

A note on bulleted lists: Use them to your advantage. They draw the eye. But since you're a writer, you know all about white space and paragraphing, eh? *wink wink*

Oh, and use their name. It will take a bit longer to find it, and in some cases you won't find it, but if you actually send out an email that says, "Dear Blogger," so help me, Flying Spaghetti Monster, I will hunt you down and make you eat your entire spam folder. In the cases where you really can't find it, just leave off the "Dear" part.

Where Are Those Secret Lists You Promised Me?

I didn't forget the lists I promised yesterday. Lo and behold, here they are! Because I'm a self-published author, they're skewed in that direction. You're welcome.

• Kate Tilton's Book Bloggers
• Book Blogger List
• The Indie View
• Book Blogger Directory -> Lots of dead links, but lots of blogs to explore
• Book Blogger Spreadsheet
• Rachel K. Burke's List of Book Bloggers
• Published To Death's List of Lists

After booking my tours, etc., I've gotten through #1 and started on #2. The further into the archives you go, the more likely you are to find dead links. So it's a short list of lists, but it will take you a long time to get through them.

Please note: If you don't take a long time to get through them, you're not getting a refund on this course. Don't even ask.

Uh. Now What?

Glad you asked. Now you start sending out emails and getting ready for the tour. Nothing to it, right?

See ya later, alliga--

Oh, you want some more info? Well, let's get into that tomorrow. You've already got some homework to do. When we reconvene, I'll talk a bit about organizing your campaign and responses.

Questions, comments, concerns? Post 'em below.

Next post - Part 3: Keeping Yourself Organized

***

S. L. Saboviec grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction ("I Am NOT Little Red Riding Hood") has appeared in the webzine Grievous Angel. Her debut novel, Guarding Angel, received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: "... A fascinating story of a particularly loving guardian angel. Overall, the writing is emotionally grounded, character-focused, and technically superior..." The sequel, Reaping Angel, is available now.

You can call her Samantha.

website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

How to Book Your Own Blog Tour, Part 1: Planning Your Tour

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week-long series on how to book your own blog tour. On the agenda for the week is:

1. Planning Your Tour (This post!)
2. Recruiting Bloggers
3. Keeping Yourself Organized
4. Kicking Off the Tour
5. Wrapping Up the Tour

Introduction

This is Samantha, and I'm an SFF author with one book out and another on the way. Since I released my first book, I've done three blog tours, two cover reveals, and one release day blitz. (I'm also planning another blitz for April 12, 2016, and if you have a blog and want to be part of it, you can sign up here [left side]. Yes, that was a shameless plug, but I'm also going to talk more about my mailing lists on Day 5, so it's relevant. Kind of. Don't hate me?)

When I published my first book, I scheduled the cover reveal and my first blog tour through a company. However, I've a bit of a control freak--and I'm working with a limited marketing budget--so for the rest, I've scheduled my own.

Be warned: It's a lot of work.

However, there are many good reasons to DIY, and if you stay organized, it will run smoothly.

Usually I don't talk about my non-writing credentials, but since it's relevant for this series of posts, here we go. In my day job, I'm a senior project manager. I've worked in banking IT for twelve years, and I regularly run multi-million dollar projects. Whether you're putting together a book, a blog tour, or a system replacement project, the same principles apply:

• Create your plan ahead of time.
• Keep track of the details. (I prefer spreadsheets, but you can do it however you like.)
• Be prepared for unforeseen circumstances, both by keeping a flexible mindset and by creating contingency plans in advance.
• Have fun. If you're not having fun, why are you doing this?

The good news is that I'm going to walk you through the first three. Unfortunately, I can't manufacture fun for you, but, like, wear a clown nose when you're doing this or something? Watch some Mindy Project while you're sending out emails? You'll have to figure out what works for you.

So let's talk about your plan.

Planning

The things you need to decide are 1) when you want the tour to run, 2) what you want to contribute to the blogs, 3) whether you want to do a giveraway, and 4) how many stops you want to make.

I'll talk about two examples:


My July 2015 blog tour ran for two weeks and had eight stops.

My October 14, 2015 cover reveal ran for one day and had fourteen participants.
In the case of a tour, you'll schedule multiple dates and (probably) fewer blogs. In the case of a cover reveal or a release date blitz, you'll schedule one date and (probably) more blogs.

When Do You Want the Tour to Run?

The "when" is pretty straight-forward. In the case of my July blog tour, I picked a two week period, and when I invited bloggers, I let them choose their dates within that range. As you can see from my tour page, not all the dates were filled, but that was OK with me. I was also doing a 99 cent promotion, which I advertised on Book Gorilla (ok results), eReader News Today (pretty good results), and some others that didn't net to anything (so I won't link them).

Make sure you plan your tour well in advance. It will take a while to send out requests to book bloggers--unfortunately, there's no "mail merge and send" option. Because you want this to be successful, you're going to pick through blog lists and individually email bloggers.

July Tour Stats:

• Emails sent out = 53
• No response = 39 (74%)
• Negative responses = 3 (6%)
• Positive responses = 11 (20%)
• Actual stops = 8 (With 3 being people I connected with previously)

October Cover Reveal Stats:

• Emails sent out = 78
• No response = 48 (61%)
• Negative responses = 7 (9%)
• Bounced email addresses = 2 (3%)
• Positive responses = 21 (27%)
• Actual participants = 14 (With several being people I talked to during the July tour campaign)

As you can see, just because you get a "yes" doesn't mean they'll pull through. I targeted to send out about 25 per week. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is--but more on that tomorrow.

What Do You Want to Contribute to the Blogs?

In the case of a release day blitz or cover reveal, what you provide is easy and far less work because you're only creating one post for everyone.

However, in the case of a tour, you have to decide: Are you going to do a guest post? Excerpts from your book? Deleted scenes? Something themed? Any old random thing? Decide ahead of time so you can communicate that to the bloggers you're inviting. And I highly recommend a unique post per blog, which means you can cross-promote effectively. If it's the same post everywhere, people aren't going to go to other blogs, which works for a release blitz but not a tour.

For my stops, I did a combination of guest posts and deleted scenes. Some of the bloggers had specific ideas of what they wanted. For instance, Amaryllis at The Opinionated Woman wanted me to review something, and I picked a book I'd just read, Starship Troopers. Others, such as our very own Operation Awesome, of which I wasn't a member yet, wanted something in a theme--in that case, writing-related--so I wrote about a technique I use to flesh out characters. Others were open to anything, so I gave them deleted scenes.

Do You Want to Do a Giveaway?

Giveaways can be whatever you want--books, amazon gift cards, swag, pet lemurs--but don't forget that you have to get everyone their prizes after the tour. If you're giving away Physical Stuff In The Real World, you need to decide if it's open internationally or not. (Postage isn't free!)

You also need to decide how much stuff you're giving away. If you're doing a giveaway per blog, that's great! People love to enter giveaways! They'll hop around to all your stops! However, that means you have to do more organization both before and after.

I didn't do giveaways as part of either example I'm using, but I have in the past, and I recommend Rafflecopter. It's free and easy, although you still have to package up and send out the pet lemurs yourself.

How Many Stops Do You Want to Make?

This isn't quite as straight-forward as it might sound, and it's closely tied to the previous decisions. The more you plan to the do, the more work it's going to be. I mean, duh, obviously, but you really have to think about this.

If you're doing a unique post per stop, that's great! Bloggers love unique content! You'll probably entice more to participate! However, that means you have to write as many unique posts as there are unique stops. If you give yourself plenty of time, you can crank out 20 blog posts in the weeks leading up to the tour. Just be sure that you're prepared to do that much writing and editing and emailing.

My biggest problem? Coming up with interesting ideas. There's a reason I'm on a shared blog where I do more regular things like the flash fiction contest than blogging. But if you're someone who can crank out ideas, you'll have no problem with multiple tour stops.

Conclusion

Hopefully I've impressed upon you the importance of planning this in advance. Things will always arise that you haven't thought of, but make sure you've decided how you want everything to go. In the words of Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up some place else."

Tomorrow we'll talk about the actual recruitment process. I have some secret lists of book bloggers that I'll share from my secret repository of secret things.

Just kidding, they're not actually secret.

Or are they?

If you have questions for me, I'm happy to answer in the comments section.

Next post - Part 2: Recruiting Bloggers

***

S. L. Saboviec grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction ("I Am NOT Little Red Riding Hood") has appeared in the webzine Grievous Angel. Her debut novel, Guarding Angel, received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards: "... A fascinating story of a particularly loving guardian angel. Overall, the writing is emotionally grounded, character-focused, and technically superior..." The sequel, Reaping Angel, is available now.

You can call her Samantha.

website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

Crow's Rest Book Trailer, and the Making Of

Today's the day that I get to share my book trailer for Crow's Rest! Since I made this video myself, I wanted to give a little behind-the-scenes info on the images.

But first--the book trailer! And make sure you have the volume on; you won't want to miss the soundtrack.




Hope the trailer entertained and intrigued you! You can find pre-order and Goodreads info on Crow's Rest here.

These are all my images, by the way, which saved me a tremendous amount of licensing fees. I did end up buying a program to give the whistling of my original song a little reverb, and then bought some stock audio of the crows, so the entire trailer cost me $3.89!

First off, once I had the script finalized, I knew I wanted to set the mood and place the story into its setting. To open the trailer, I used a few photos set in the Sierra foothills town that inspired Crow's Rest--and its haunted Castle. Here's another look in case they went by too quickly:

This is taken from the town cemetery, looking towards the Castle

This is an interior shot of the haunted Castle--which was abandoned for years after it did its duty as a boys' reformatory--and the perfect shot to accompany "Rumors that strange happenings are on the rise"

The exterior of the Castle, with one of the turrets that helped earn it its nickname (it was more properly called the Preston School of Industry when it opened in the 19th century)

With the setting established, I moved on to the characters: Avery, Daniel, and the corbin. The shots with the (human) models were actually taken as test photos for a possible custom cover shoot, and I didn't want them to go to waste--and I think they work really well here.

Uncle Tam is the caretaker for an historic cemetery, so Avery and Daniel spend a lot of time hanging around tombstones

The corbin picture is actually of a rook in Ireland--we definitely don't get these birds around here! But the crows that flock around my garden won't hold still for pictures, and I loved this ones's soulful expression.

For the trailer, I added a little violet to his eye color and cropped in tight on his face

 For a photo to depict the passage to Faerie, it was no contest--this lovely view is of the Stourhead Estate gardens, taken from inside the grotto

And the next one is the ruins of Kilcatherine church, which date back to the 7th century

That cheeky raven pic is from a trip to Bryce Canyon, but this post is already rather long so I'll skip adding that one! I just wanted to give you all an idea of what you can do with images that might already be in your photo collections, and that you don't need to spend a lot. For the links on the Power Point tutorials that helped me create this book trailer, see my post from November 24 here on Operation Awesome.

Blog Tour! Lisa Amowitz's VISION - and a giveaway!

Visit Rock Star Book Tours

My dear friend, the amazingly talented author/graphic designer/illustrator/book cover goddess Lisa Amowitz has a brand new book out and it's FABULOUS! Here are the deets:

About the Book

Title: VISION

Author: Lisa Amowitz

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Pub. Date: September 9, 2014

Find it: Goodreads|Amazon|Barnes& Noble

The light is darker than you think… High school student Bobby Pendell already has his hands full—he works almost every night to support his disabled-vet father and gifted little brother. Then he meets the beautiful new girl in town, who just happens to be his boss’s daughter. Bobby has rules about that kind of thing. Nothing matters more than keeping his job.

When Bobby starts to get blinding migraines that come with scary, violent hallucinations, his livelihood is on the line. Soon, he must face the stunning possibility that the visions of murder are actually real. With his world going dark, Bobby is set on the trail of the serial killer terrorizing his small town. With everyone else convinced he’s the prime suspect, Bobby realizes that he, or the girl he loves, might be killer's next victim.

About Lisa:

Lisa Amowitz was born in Queens and raised in the wilds of Long Island, New York where she climbed trees, thought small creatures lived under rocks and studied ant hills. And drew. A lot.

Lisa has been a professor of graphic design at Bronx Community College where she has been tormenting and cajoling students for nearly eighteen years. She started writing eight years ago because she wanted something to illustrate, but somehow, instead ended up writing YA. Probably because her mind is too dark and twisted for small children.

BREAKING GLASS which was released July 9, 2013 from Spencer Hill Press, is her first published work. VISION, the first of the Finder series will be released in 2014 along with an unnamed sequel in the following year. LIFE AND BETH will also be released in the near future. So stay tuned because Lisa is very hyper and has to create stuff to stay alive.

To contact Lisa try:  
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  | Pinterest | Goodreads 

My thoughts:

I absolutely loved this book. It's chilling enough that I would have liked to only read it during the day but it was one of those "I can't put it down" books so I ended up reading into the night just to finish it. And then spent the next several weeks looking over my shoulder. The characters are the kind that stay with you long after you've finished the book, and not just the main character, but the side characters as well. Bobby's visions are truly horrifying, as are the consequences of those visions. The story kept me hooked and guessing and sad that the story ended (I'm hoping for a sequel!!). If you like murder and mystery and an amazing male main character, you definitely need to read this one. I highly recommend!

GIVEAWAY!!

Lisa is giving away 2 Signed copies of Vision and swag for 2 winners US ONLY.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Week One:

9/1/2014- Word to Dreams- Interview

9/1/2014- Books Complete Me- Review

9/2/2014- Suzy Turner, YA Author- Guest Post

9/2/2014- Her Book Thoughts!- Review

9/3/2014- Mom With A Kindle- Interview

9/3/2014- The Bookie Monster- Review

9/4/2014- One Guy's Guide to Good Reads- Guest Post

9/4/2014- Reader Girls- Review

9/5/2014- Realm of the Sapphired Dragon- Interview

9/5/2014- Amaterasu Reads- Review

Week Two:

9/8/2014- The YA Lit Chick- Guest Post

9/8/2014- Buried Under Books- Review

9/9/2014- Anonymous Interests - Interview

9/9/2014- In Between The Lines - Review

9/10/2014- Curling Up With A Good Book- Guest Post

9/10/2014- Dalene's Book Reviews- Review

9/11/2014- Avid Reader Musings- Interview

9/11/2014- Operation Awesome- Review

9/12/2014- kellyvision- Guest Post

9/12/2014- Reese's Reviews- Review

CURED by Bethany Wiggins - and a Giveaway!!

I am thrilled to have my dear friend Bethany Wiggins with us today. Bethany is celebrating the release of her new book, CURED, the sequel to her book STUNG. They are both absolute must reads! You'll never look at honey the same way again :)

She's not only stopped by to answer a few questions for us, but she'll also be giving away a copy of the book!! Just leave a comment and we'll choose someone at random to receive a copy of this awesome book :) And now on to our questions!

OA: Tell us a little about CURED. 

BW: CURED is the story of a girl (Jacqui aka Jack) who is pretending to be a boy, and she's all cooped up inside of herself and dying to break free.

Here is the official blurb: Now that Fiona Tarsis and her twin brother, Jonah, are no longer beasts, they set out to find their mother, with the help of Bowen and a former neighbor, Jacqui. Heading for a safe settlement rumored to be in Wyoming, they plan to spread the cure along the way--until they are attacked by raiders. Luckily, they find a new ally in Kevin, who saves them and leads them to safety in his underground shelter.

But the more they get to know Kevin, the more they suspect he has ties to the raiders. He also seems to know too many details about Jacqui and her family—details that could endanger them all. For the raiders will do anything they can to destroy the cure that would bring an end to their way of life.

OA: CURED is the sequel to the amazing STUNG. What was the inspiration for this series? 

BW: Believe it or not, STUNG was primarily inspired by a horrible nightmare I had, about waking up in my childhood home and finding everything abandoned, and then being chased out a window by an insane beast who used to be someone I loved. That nightmare is chapter one! Other parts of STUNG were inspired by the frenzy in the United States to get the flu vaccine when the swine flu was going around and the bees dying off (colony collapse). CURED continues with those themes, but goes into more detail about how the normal world became a post apocalyptic disaster.

OA: What do you have in the works now?

BW: Currently, nothing. I recently had a baby, and the lack of sleep is seriously eating into my creativity! But there are a couple of possible stories brewing around in my head. I am hoping one decides to make a strong creative impression soon!

OA: What sort of research did you have to do for these books, if any?

BW: I did a lot of research. I Googled everything from "honey bee colony collapse" to "genetic modification gone wrong," to "criminal male behavior after hurricane Katrina" and "underground bomb shelters." I even went to my local police station (with a group of cub scouts) and asked the sheriff who was showing us around how close I would have to be to him to shoot through his Kevlar vest. He gave me a funny look.

OA: What are three things you need in order to write?

BW: Music, a great idea, and long walks when I am having writer's block.

OA: Anything you'd like to reveal about yourself that your readers might find surprising?

BW: I have five young kids. I am LDS (Mormon). I'm really quite sweet and goofy and nice, so a lot of people who know me in person are surprised at the type of books I write. I am older than my husband, but I look and act a lot younger.

OA: How can readers connect with you?

BW: I love Facebook! And I have a website www.bethanywiggins.com and a blog (which I inherited from my sister a number of years ago. Her name is Suzette Saxton, if you're wondering about the unusual blog address). www.suzettesaxton.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for stopping by!! And congrats on the release of CURED :)

Remember, one lucky commenter below will win a copy of this awesome book so comment away!!

Blog Tour Wrap Up and Some Fun Stuff Going On :)

Well, my family spent most of last month sick, but I think we are finally on the mend (aside from this cold I seem to have picked up). I am soooo ready for spring! :)

While doing the sick thing though, I was also in the midst of my blog tour for my new release A Bandit's Betrayed Heart, the final book in my Blood Blade Sisters series. It's wrapping up now, but I was able to visit lots of great blogs and picked up some awesome reviews along the way :) 

For a full list of links of my stops, check out my Blog Tour page on my website. I was also able to chat with Babs Hightower on her Blog Talk Radio show last night. Here's a link if you want to take a listen :)

I did want to give everyone a heads up to a new feature my publisher has on their website. Entangled has a Steals and Deals page now (and a newsletter you can sign up for if you want to get notified of sales) that lists all the books currently on sale. If you like romance, it's a great place to check for new reads! 

And they are also celebrating their 3rd anniversary and are planning tons of fun things like sales and giveaways so be sure to check it out! 

You found ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART!

Buy Another Little Piece of My Heart

I'm so thrilled to be part of the Scavenger Hunt for Tracey Martin's YA contemporary Another Little Piece of My Heart, releasing December 1! Comment on this blog for a chance to win Harlequin TEEN books and swag, and collect all 12 songs on the Scavenger Hunt to win the fabulous grand prize. 

But more importantly, read the book, which is irresistibly sweet, bitter, and true.  

Here's what Another Little Piece of My Heart is about: 

What if your devastating break-up became this summer’s hit single? In this rock-and-roll retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, music can either bring you together or tear you apart.

At her dying mother’s request, Claire dumps Jared, the only boy she’s ever loved. Left with a broken family and a broken heart, Claire is furious when she discovers that her biggest regret became Jared’s big break. While Jared is catapulted into rock-star status, another piece of Claire’s heart crumbles every time his song plays on the radio.

The summer after her senior year, it’s been months since the big break-up, and Claire is just trying to keep her head down and make it through a tense trip to the beach with her family. But when Jared shows up, and old feelings reignite, can Claire and Jared let go of the past? Or will they be stuck singing the same old refrain.   

Here are the scavenger hunt directions:

In my post, you’ll notice that I’ve linked to one song from the Another Little Piece of My Heart Claire’s Summer Survival Playlist. There are 12 songs on the playlist in total, and therefore 12 stops on the scavenger hunt (posting from November 29 – December 1). Find them all, and discover 12 chances to win great Harlequin TEEN books and Another Little Piece of My Heart swag.

But there’s more! One grand-prize winner will be randomly drawn to receive a $25 iTunes gift card in addition to books and swag! To enter for the grand prize, send the complete, 12-song playlist, along with your contact information (including the address where you’d like to receive your prize) to the author by using this contact form: http://tracey-martin.com/contact/. The winner will be notified by email after the contest ends on December 5^th.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the playlist using the contact form above by December 5^th at noon Eastern Time. Entries sent without the correct playlist or without contact information will not be considered.

Here's what I think about Another Little Piece of My Heart:

I first read this book as a beta reader, and I was in love. As an underestimated middle sister, I've always had an affinity for Anne Elliott out of all Jane Austen heroines. But what if Anne didn't fade away after disappointed love, but dyed her hair bright orange, moved to a beach town, and joined a band? That's Claire. She's funny, outspoken, and smart. 

And so is Jared -- her one-time musical match, but now an international rockstar, out of her league -- and her life, unless they can stop being outspoken and just say what they really want.

Martin is a great writer, and Claire is a likeable, realistic character, one whose head I like to be in.

Here's the scavenger hunt song:

Song #3 in Claire’s Summer Survival Playlist 
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, “Running Down a Dream”

iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/runnin-down-a-dream/id359171619?i=359171994&uo=4

Here's how to enter the Operation Awesome contest:

Comment here by December 5 to enter the Operation Awesome giveaway of three Harlequin TEEN backlist titles as well as ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART buttons and bookmarks. Easy!