Saturday, February 28, 2009

Where's Konrath? Blog Touring

I never believed that blog book tours work.

A blog book tour, for the uninitiated, is when an author appears on as many other blogs as possible, promoting their book. Sort of like actors doing a talk show circuit to promote a new movie.

I've never tried it before, but I came by my beliefs fairly. A few years ago, I had a contest with my friend and fellow author (not to mention self-promotional genius) MJ Rose. Our contest, if memory serves, was a virtual vs. physical book tour. She tried to make guest appearances on as many blogs as possible, while I tried to visit as many bookstores as possible.

I won. Not because MJ isn't an amazing marketer. But because this was 2006, and there weren't as many blogs, or blog readers, back then.

Well, now it's 2009, and I want to give it a shot.

As I've said ad nauseum, people don't like ads. They like information and entertainment.

So I'm going to give it to them. And I need your help.

I'm going to be contacting many of the blogs that I've linked to. Check the sidebar to see those blogs.

My blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, gets several hundred thousand unique hits a year. You can see by the FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map (that world map picture in the upper righthand corner) how many people are currently reading me.

Would you like my readers to become your readers? Here's how we can make that happen.

I invite you to invite me on your blog. You can interview me about anything at all, like promotion, or writing, or publishing. You can ask me to guest blog on specific topics. You can have me do a meme list. The sky is the limit.

Then, in March. I'm not going to blog anything new. Instead, every day I'm going to post a link and tell my readers to go to your blog, where I'm appearing.

You know how blogging works. You'll get a lot of new hits from new readers, and if they like you, they'll bookmark you and return.

Besides linking to your blog on my blog (which gets 700 to 1000 hits a day), I'll link to your blog on my Twitter (383 friends), on my Facebook (1641 friends) and on my MySpace (13218 friends.)

Win-win. You get new readers. I reach new demographics.

Will this work? Hell if I know. But in my last newsletter, I asked for fifty people to review my latest novel, and I got well over a hundred responses.

If I can fill up every day in March with guest blog spots, I think it would mean more traffic for everyone involved.

So over the next few days, I'll be contacting bloggers to ask to guest post.

If you'd like me to guest post on your blog, contact me and we'll set a date in March.

I love experiments like this. If it fails, authors will know that it's a big waste of time and effort. But if it works, we could actually be laying down the framework for a way to self-promote that doesn't involve airplanes, hotels, author escorts, or big bucks.

Email me at haknort(at)wowway.com if you want to give this a shot.

24 comments:

Stacey Cochran said...

I would love for you to guest post at howtopublishabook.org, JA.

Last year, I had close to 25,000 unique visitors to the site.

Beth Ciotta said...

I'd love to feature you on my blog! You're going to be at RT in April, right? Maybe we can do a thriller/horror/romance slant. ;) Let me know.

All best with the tour, Joe.

Mary Duncan said...

What a great idea, Joe!! I'm sending you an email right now!

Mary

Victoria Allman said...

Count me in! I write about food for my upcoming book Sea Fare. We could tie in the drinks aspect at www.victoriaallman.blogsot.com

Jim said...

Joe, I'd be happy to do one with you. Here's your assignment:

"Ten IFQ (Infrequently asked questions) about JA Konrath."

Email me your answers and let me know when you want me to post it. Jim

Anonymous said...

Are you going to let these people post on your blog, too?

JA Konrath said...

Are you going to let these people post on your blog, too?

Only anonymous posters named John.

Anonymous said...

My publisher is sending me on an "e-tour" to promote my book, so I'm curious to see how this goes. Sounds like a fun experiment!

Vickie said...

I'd like for you to guest blog on my blog. It can be anything you like, I read and review primarily mystery books of all styles. I have read your first in the 'Jack' Daniels series and very much enjoyed it.
I think this would be a good experiment.

http://iyamvixenbooks.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I'm a very recent newcomer to your blog -- via somebody Twittering your v. good delusional vs. confident post. It would be a hoot to have you over by me as part of your book tour. (Yes, I said hoot and I stand by it.) However, there are many fine bloggers far ahead of me in the queue so I shall stand patiently at the back hoping to make it up to the window before closing.

I am interesting to see how it all goes in any case. I think blogging book tours are an excellent idea.

JA Konrath said...

I'm heady right now with power, because I've got more requests than I can manage.

Got all of week #1 and most of week #2 and #3 taken, but I will eventually reply to everyone interested.

I knew I had cool people reading my blog, but, DAMN, I had no idea how cool you guys really are.

If you haven't heard from my by next week, please email me again. My inbox is so packed you may have gotten lost in the shuffle.

Jessa Slade said...

Why only one blog a day? There's plenty of your love to go around. Double us up!

http://www.jessaslade.wordpress.com

PokerBen said...

A "blog tour" to me sounds like a brilliant idea. I know I've come across different authors from my favorite blogs, (ie. from this blog)
I've found :
Mark Terry
Jim Hansen
Lisa Katzenberger
Dave Zeltserman
Henry Perez

and many more. I definitely see this becoming big for authors.

Angela Ackerman said...

It will be interesting to see the outcome. So far with other authors I've seen, this has been quite successful. Best of luck!

Anonymous said...

Please visit mine:

www.joannehuspek.wordpress.com

JA Konrath said...

So far, I've done about half of the blog entries, and it's been fascinating.

On A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, I preach about the biz. Appearing on all of these other blogs allows me to be, well, more like me, and less like a teacher.

The challenge is making sure each blog I visit gets something new, something different, and not the same "buy my book" speech. So far, I think there's a decent variety.

We'll see if that variety sustains...

Jessa Slade said...

Joe, is it rude to ask what the numbers were from your 2006 experiment?

Gayle Carline said...

I tried to email you, but the evil Daemons blocked me with the following message: "does not like recipient."

Ouch.

Anyway, is your blog dance card full? If not, I'd love to interview Jack Daniels.

Gayle Carline (aka GeeCarl)
http://www.gaylecarline.com
http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com

JA Konrath said...

I still have some slots open, and I'm wading through my email requests. If you haven't heard from me, you will. And I may have to double up to accommodate everyone, because I hate saying no to people.

As for my results in 2006, I didn't do a blog tour. I did an actual bookstore tour. You can read all about it in my ebook on my website, or by searching this blog for "RUSTY NAIL 500"

Jane Smith said...

JA, if you'd like to write a contribution for my "How Publishing Really Works" blog I'd be thrilled. I've emailed you about a separate scheme of mine, but do consider both!

(You're going to be exhausted, and am a better man than I.)

Anonymous said...

I recently joined Newbie Writers and found your site through their newsletter. I think that your book blog tour is such a creative and productive way to rally a community of support. I am looking forward to following your journey and taking the first tentative steps of my own. Best wishes on your new endeavors and thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

you never did add me to your twitter...did you??

Anonymous said...

Ha, just shows how small the world really is. Excellent idea,Joe - I'll exchange guest blogs if I may at http://sherylgwyther.wordpress.com/

ghostposts said...

guess I'll be sending an e mail