Test Case for Others

Over at BookBlogs there are several forum posts regarding the use of blog tours and PR folks to handle the release of a novel. It was a couple of months ago that I went ahead and signed up for one. I chose a package that provided 15-20 "blog stops" and reviews.

For the most part I feel that I was given what I paid for, but in some ways I'm unimpressed. Although the tour is not yet complete, so far the evidence is that there is no difference in sales to justify the expense. The last time I released a novel I did more work, but was able to tailor the blogs and reviews to blogs that more closely matched my genre, but more importantly there was a bit more rigidity to the schedule.

To the first part, last year I had to investigate and identify different bloggers who might be interested in reading and reviewing my book for their blogs. Many, in fact I would say 50% of them, told me that my novel might not fit their genre and passed on the opportunity. For the most part however, I found about 15 total bloggers over the course of three months and received decent reviews. How much of that translated into new sales, probably not that many. When I look at the types of blogs that have been used for this blog tour, I feel like I've really missed the mark.

Last year there seemed to be more rhyme and reason to the ersatz tour I planned. It was based on reviews. If an interview popped up, which it did at times, then that was found money. This tour has not had that foundation, one of being based on reviews. I have gotten good reviews (here, and here) but I got good reviews last time as well. This has been based on cover, banner and summary. I'd rather have reviews. Secondly, and this might have been the impetus of this post, the most recent stop on the blog tour was just an interview. A short summary to be sure, but mostly interview. Personally, I'd rather have a review that leads to an interview not the other way around.

All in all I think that the old adage, "if you want something done right . . . do it yourself" has been proven out here. One of the aspects of this experiment I didn't like was that I was using two different experimental media . . . ie. two different books. Last years novel was Toe the Line, this years is On the Edge. How would I know if a decrease or increase in sales was or was not directly related to the blog tour. Now that I've come to the end of the blog tour experiment, I think I am going to try last year's approach and measure my success rate there too. Because at the moment my answer to the Bookblogs question of "are blog tours worthwhile" . . . it would be a resounding . . . nope.

UPDATE: 6-29-13 - the original post included a diatribe regarding missed dates on behalf of bloggers on the blog tour. This was not accurate. Sage and her bloggers on this tour have hit each of their dates as scheduled and as promised.

A Plethora of Reviews

I've had quite a few reviews lately, and I thought I would go ahead and catalog them, not for the sake of self-promotion, although there is that to a small extent, but to have a link to these great sites so I can remember them both on a daily basis (as they are fun to read every once and a while) and to know where to turn for my next book review.

Read Rate and Review provided a great review of my work, but more importantly were probably the easiest blog to work with. The communication and willingness to work with me were by far the best of the bunch.

Home is Where the Book Is also another good review. There is an added bonus about this site, if you go to it you'll think you never left Publish or Perish.

At Curse of the Bibliophile I got a stunning review. This one actually made me think for a second that I'd sent them the wrong book. Now I think I just need to make sure they get a copy of book two first so I can feel good about myself.

Book Lover's Couch was perhaps the first review I found through Book Blogs and Michelle was my entry into the reviewers down under. Since then I've contact two other Aussie's, one New Zealander, and a Philippine.

Three Cats and A Girl are all up in Canada and all seem to like my book as well.

Another Canadian, this time a fellow writer, Cheryl has posted a review of my book on her personal website and coming from a fellow writer, this is one I'm particularly pleased about.

The first posted review I had was from Mom's Thumb Reviews and that thumb's up certainly got the ball rolling in the right direction.

Finally Living Loving and Writing has promised to put up their review of my work, I'm throwing this in now, prior to that posting, just so I don't forget. This might be the review that was furthest from me as Laura lives in Hong Kong.

There are still about a half dozen or so still out there reading it, or who have it in their to be read list. Another few have copies being sent to them. So this is what I meant in my earlier post about whether or not its worth scrounging for reviews or having a publicist do it for you. Two months worth of work, I say not a bad haul.

Less on the Website, but More on the Web

That title alludes to what I need to concentrate on next time. I spent alot of time and effort on building a website, and not enough time on web marketing. What do I mean? Read on to see.

I started building a DickHannahWriting website about three years ago. There's a reason I haven't provided a link. It's not done. I started on it ostensibly because I thought I needed one for marketing. Secondarily it went hand-in-hand with a project I was involved with at the company I worked at at that time (here . . . but don't hold me completely accountable, they've let it go to seed a bit it since my departure). It was a decent little website but sadly had even less content than decency. Since that time, I've started several stunningly good revisions, none of which panned out completely. I've since abandoned the project for  as no matter how I organize it, there is always too little content for a complete website. Needless to say the wasted hours on website development over the last couple of years grew and grew and grew.  

I should have spent more time on web marketing. What do I mean by web marketing? I mean those aspects of websites and e-publishing that are tangential but still inherent in so many of the portals where one can find my book. There is the Amazon book description (here), the Amazon author page (here) there is the (still absent) Facebook page on Toe the Line, the Smashwords author page (here) and the Smashwords book description (here) my BookBlogs author page (here) my Linkedin page and my banner ad (see the top banner in this blog).

 I'm not saying that each of these has to necessarily be unique or different, in fact many of them are direct cuts and pastes of one another, but I didn't know about most of them until I started down this path. I should have had them all prepped and ready by the launch of the book.

 The banner ad too has been used far more than I expected. I used it in forums in BookBlogs, I used it for the top of my blog, I used it in LinkedIn, Facebook, etc etc. Guess what? I threw it together at the last minute. I took a couple of features from discarded book covers and plopped them on the ole art board one evening.

 Had I known then what I know now I would have devoted more time to the banner ad and other seemingly less significant web marketing feature and spent less time on the silly website.  

Beginning the After Action Review

Whenever we completed a mission in the military we would perform an AAR or After Action Review. This would be a lessons learned session where everyone would get to talk about what went right with the mission and what went wrong. Although I'm still in the midst of self-publishing my novel, I think I can provide some AAR points on my efforts. Ergo, I am going to start having a series of posts on self-publishing lessons learned that way others who might be considering this option can learn from my mistakes and foibles.

It's Never Truly Complete/Edited

Toe the Line (here) was edited several times, and proofed twice. Despite that I am still finding problems in the text. Just last weekend I took my cousins marked up copy and inserted her edits. Far more than there should have been. The lesson learned here is DO NOT use multiple platforms for editing. I went from Kindle to MS Word and back to printed copy to make my edits. It was ridiculous, confusing, and I would swear it made for more problems than there were in the first place. Pick one (preferably paper) for that final edit and stick with it. Get a hard copy of your novel prior to announcing a release and have a trusted reader mark it up.

One of the editors recommended that I print it out and read the book out loud. This is just plain silly. Who reads a book out loud? My readers won't. I should have taken another few days, printed out an advance copy from Createspace (here) and read it as I expected my readers to read it. Next time I'll know better.

AAR Point #1 - I was way too fast in thinking that my novel was complete and completely edited. Won't make that mistake again.