So asketh the Good Witch when she returned from vacation. As if she didn't have internet access down at the lake and hadn't cruised the thirty sites that were sponsoring our new novel, The Runaway Mail-Order Bride .
"Good and bad," I told her.
(I also mentioned I was going to use this post to show a photo of Dale Chihuly's glass balloons -- or whatever these beautiful bubbles are called -- because I liked the balloons and I liked Glynn's picture. The Good Witch said the photograph was a little random but she enjoys random so here it is.)
There are at least a dozen book tour outfits but Glynn and I went with Goddess Fish because a friend recommended them. Marianne from G.F. was lovely. She was always friendly, she answered my emails quickly, and she patted my hand when I needed some reassurance. When the tour was over, she remained in contact, just in case there was something else I needed. What more can you ask?
G.F. also sold more slots than I'd been promised, which was kind of a miracle. I was guaranteed 15-25 slots and they found 31 interested parties. They provided links to every site and all but one of the sites was up and running when I stumbled out of bed. Since G.F. wants their authors to post in the morning, I had to set my alarm for 5 A.M. which, I'm telling you now, is part of the bad. The vital we'll-save-you people of this world -- the nurses and firemen and policemen and such -- well, we need them out of bed and ready for action before the sun has risen because stuff happens. But fiction writers need to be treated with a touch of delicacy. Let us sleep in, awaken us gently as you enter our room, bringing us coffee and chocolate chip pancakes ...but never before noon. Yes, that should be the rule.
Many of the tour sites were lovely (you know who you are) but a few of them were so filled with other tours, books, and promotions, all on or around the same day, that it felt as if any individual author or novel got lost in the clutter. Only a few comments were made at any of the participating locations, which is fairly common according to Marianne, but it felt a little lonely on those sites where the only obvious visitors were Goddess Fish and me. The novel’s sales ranking improved steadily throughout the day. Sales were modest – our Amazon sales ranking went from 186,000+ to the 30,000 range – but probably would have been better if Glynn and I used Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr or Pininterest or did anything else in the world to have promoted the Book Blast. All we did, all we wanted to do, was to list it here, on our website.
Oh, and one of the bloggers gave us our first review and then posted it on Amazon. That was very good news. Thank you, Brenda Casto. The next day, a second review appeared on another of the Book Blast websites and we were told we could post it to Amazon. Thank you, Ruth.
Since the novel was launching, I also decided to see if I could send out our first newsletter through MailChimp. I found the process to be pretty easy, meaning the email/newsletter was probably terribly messed up, but I didn't send a copy to me so I don’t know for certain. Oh, and a couple of new subscribers joined the day of the tour, so I counted that as a ‘win’, too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to bed. I’m waiting for Glynn to bring me my chocolate chip pancakes and a cup of half-caff. That doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?
"Good and bad," I told her.
(I also mentioned I was going to use this post to show a photo of Dale Chihuly's glass balloons -- or whatever these beautiful bubbles are called -- because I liked the balloons and I liked Glynn's picture. The Good Witch said the photograph was a little random but she enjoys random so here it is.)
There are at least a dozen book tour outfits but Glynn and I went with Goddess Fish because a friend recommended them. Marianne from G.F. was lovely. She was always friendly, she answered my emails quickly, and she patted my hand when I needed some reassurance. When the tour was over, she remained in contact, just in case there was something else I needed. What more can you ask?
G.F. also sold more slots than I'd been promised, which was kind of a miracle. I was guaranteed 15-25 slots and they found 31 interested parties. They provided links to every site and all but one of the sites was up and running when I stumbled out of bed. Since G.F. wants their authors to post in the morning, I had to set my alarm for 5 A.M. which, I'm telling you now, is part of the bad. The vital we'll-save-you people of this world -- the nurses and firemen and policemen and such -- well, we need them out of bed and ready for action before the sun has risen because stuff happens. But fiction writers need to be treated with a touch of delicacy. Let us sleep in, awaken us gently as you enter our room, bringing us coffee and chocolate chip pancakes ...but never before noon. Yes, that should be the rule.
Many of the tour sites were lovely (you know who you are) but a few of them were so filled with other tours, books, and promotions, all on or around the same day, that it felt as if any individual author or novel got lost in the clutter. Only a few comments were made at any of the participating locations, which is fairly common according to Marianne, but it felt a little lonely on those sites where the only obvious visitors were Goddess Fish and me. The novel’s sales ranking improved steadily throughout the day. Sales were modest – our Amazon sales ranking went from 186,000+ to the 30,000 range – but probably would have been better if Glynn and I used Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr or Pininterest or did anything else in the world to have promoted the Book Blast. All we did, all we wanted to do, was to list it here, on our website.
Oh, and one of the bloggers gave us our first review and then posted it on Amazon. That was very good news. Thank you, Brenda Casto. The next day, a second review appeared on another of the Book Blast websites and we were told we could post it to Amazon. Thank you, Ruth.
Since the novel was launching, I also decided to see if I could send out our first newsletter through MailChimp. I found the process to be pretty easy, meaning the email/newsletter was probably terribly messed up, but I didn't send a copy to me so I don’t know for certain. Oh, and a couple of new subscribers joined the day of the tour, so I counted that as a ‘win’, too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to bed. I’m waiting for Glynn to bring me my chocolate chip pancakes and a cup of half-caff. That doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?
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