After the Storm - Blog Tour Winners
Last Sunday, massive storm Hurricane Sandy
moved up the Atlantic coast, turned inland on Monday, and wreaked havoc across
the northeast United States for two days, causing an estimated $50 billion
worth of damage, not counting the loss of human lives. It was such a
catastrophic event that the vicious presidential campaign actually toned itself
down for a few days (well, for the most part, anyway). Wednesday, folks in the
northeast began digging themselves out of the snow, pumping the water out of
their homes and businesses, and assessing the damage. Some folks in New Jersey
say it will be a year before they’re back on their feet.
Sandy
missed Charlotte almost entirely. I can be thankful for that, but I had my own
‘perfect storm’ going this week, the Blog Tour for the release of The Dragon of Doughton Park. Although on
a much smaller scale, my storm lasted five days, and (metaphorically, at least)
I am just now digging myself out and assessing the damage.
Blog Touring is a phenomenon that’s
developed only in recent years, yet it is agreed upon as an essential aspect of
self-publishing. For those of us who don’t have the advertising budgets of large
publishing houses behind us, it is the best way to spread the work about our
work.
Theoretically, blog touring is the virtual equivalent of a face-to-face
book signing tour that would be the staple for the release of any well
known author’s book to the network of brick-and-mortar stores. And
theoretically, it should be even better, because each stop has the potential
for reaching hundreds of thousands of potential readers with reviews,
interviews, and book-related swag giveaways.
In reality (for this author, at least), each
stop probably reaches ten to twenty potential readers, with further
restrictions on prize giveaways (you generally have to have some sort of
blogger account to enter) that narrow participation further. I’ve been blog
touring sporadically for almost a year, and I couldn’t give any concrete,
measureable correlations between the activity and actual sales.
And, for me, it takes its toll mentally,
emotionally, and physically. Each day last week consisted of early morning
correspondence and posts of Facebook to announce the daily stop address, a
breakfast of coffee before an 8-12 hour work day, followed by an hour or two
stop at a coffee shop (for wifi and, of course, more coffee), a nightly
un-related meeting I’m attending, then more late-night follow-up on the day’s
post, a meal if it’s not too late, and finally (and always too late for me)
bed.
The schedule caught up to me Thursday
evening. I closed up my laptop at a Starbucks in the Meyers Park area of
Charlotte a little after 7 pm. Realizing I was already late for my meeting, I
decided to skip it. I went home.
When I walked into my apartment, I noticed
the week’s worth of dirty dishes in the sink, the unpacked bags from my trip
the previous weekend, the over-flowing garbage pail in the kitchen, and the
half-empty basket of laundry I’d hastily pulled from the dryer last Sunday. I
wasn’t too exhausted to care, but I was too exhausted to do anything about it.
Operating on auto-pilot, I pulled my laptop
from my backpack and plugged it in to recharge the battery. On a whim, I
opened up Windows Explorer and checked my Writings folder. I stared at the Date
Last Modified on the document that contains the work-in-progress on the third
novel in the Red Wolf series. I was horrified to see it was 09/07/2012. Other
than this blog, I have done no creative writing for almost two months! And,
yeah, the next question is, could this
blog remotely be considered ‘creative writing?’
Okay, I’m going to stop my rant before
delving too deeply into that last question! Suffice it to say, something needs
to change. There are many other reasons besides the time I’m spending on this
blog for my not doing any more writing than I have been lately. But this blog
is one of the things I’m going to have to back off on some in order to do the
writing that I love.
I will no longer be doing a weekly post on
this blog.
No, I’m not abandoning blogging altogether. I
will continue to post occasionally and provide updates on the progress of the
Red Wolf Novels. So check in occasionally, okay?
You
see, I’ve been so focused lately on publishing and marketing that I’ve missed
the true value of these blogs and the tours they host. The marketing
opportunity, good or bad, is not where the value lies. It’s the networking. It’s
the people you meet along the way.
Bloggers hosting sites dedicated to reading
and reviewing books are an interesting and admirable breed. Regardless of
whether they are authors (like myself) who are trying spread the word about
their work or so-called “normal” people who like books and reading, they all
share a common love of the written word. I swear, from the efforts and for-free
hard work that I’ve seen them do to support us indie authors, that love is
palpable.
Ironically, it was commiserating with one of
the hosts of this week’s tour about the difficulties of networking that helped
bring this into focus for me. J.S. Turner, author of The Realm Between Heaven and Hell, hosted my Halloween stop on her
Lost in Thought blog spot last week. Jessica is an interesting person and a
perfect example of why I really need
to keep doing this sort of thing. In her I found the opportunity to chat with a
fellow author, exchange reviews of each other’s work, and talk about the
challenges of self-publishing.
And in one of the emails to her I found
myself answering my own question. Ultimately, my success as a writer does not
hinge on how many potential readers I reach on a blog tour. It hinges on the
effort I put into developing my craft. It hinges on how well I write.
Blogging, and visiting the blogs sites of
others, gives me the opportunity for networking and feedback, so I can tell if
I’m on the right track in my craft.
And
it puts me in contact with some wonderful people with whom I can share my own
love of writing and reading.
To hell with marketing. From now on, my
friends, I’m blogging for fun.
Now,
it’s time to announce the winners from last week’s blog tour:
Fangspiration
bookmark winners:
Must Love Fangs (2), Ray DeLotell, Kristi.
Dragon
of Doughton ebook winners:
Must Love Fangs, KaraC, Dragonmama
Dragon
of Doughton signed paperback winner:
Tammy Middleton
Congratulations to all you winners. I am
trying to make contact with all of you to collect email and address information
so we can send your winnings. If you want to help me out, please email your
info to jhundley50@gmail.com.
And
remember:
You can purchase my books through the
following venues…
The
Draculata Nest
The
Dragon of Doughton Park
Until next time… Happy Reading!
Comments
Post a Comment