Promotion Strength

When you're promoting your new book online, you must gauge the strength of your promotions in a realistic way. Hoping that readers will notice you is not enough.

I may be repeating myself, but it bears repeating. You must have a good blog of your own on which you post relevant articles 2-3 times a week. You must then make noise about your new blog posts at social sites like Twitter and Facebook so you drive traffic to your blog. Your blog is then a good platform for launching a blog book tour or other online promotion. Check your statistics regularly - anything over 100 hits per day is okay. More is better.

I can hear you grumbling now. Stop that and just do the work.

Next, pick blog hosts for reviews or tour stops that mimic all that I've mentioned above. Even if a blog doesn't have a hit counter that you can see, there are clues to the popularity of the blog. Does the host post 2-3 times a week? How long has the blog been in existence? Is the host getting comments on a regular basis? Do they have Twitter and Facebook links, and when you go there, can you see they are promoting their own posts and driving traffic to the potential review of your book?

Finally, do all the blogs we're talking about have clear links and instructions to a sales point? It's astounding to me how many promotions don't have a buy button or a suggestion to the customer to purchase the title in review.

Next we'll talk about Twitter and Facebook and how to build your viewership at those sites. You need a serious fan club to sell your books, and you can't just sit around waiting for people to discover you. Following and (be)friending in a regular though non-aggressive way is the method you need to develop.

Royalty Statement Realities

Just picked up on Facebook and you'll likely see this post again. The author had the courage to talk real numbers about her NYTimes bestselling books. You can see the royalty statements and get a sense of the timeline in getting paid for book sales. It takes a long time for an author to get paid for sales, especially when there is little or no advance. I fully understand why authors have to write three books a year to make any kind of a living at writing. You'll also see why gauging the results of a blog book tour to actual sales is virtually impossible. Click here to read the article.

Bookmark the Genreality blog - there is lots of good writing information there. Today's post talks about the daily routine of writing.

The Numbers Game

It's all about numbers and how to read them - this is how you gauge the success of your book promotions. I'm not talking about your royalty statement and check, which is the final and ultimate success determiner. I'm talking about statistics. Here are a few you need to get to know:

Your blog's hit counter is important, because it measures who is visiting the very foundation of your blog book tour - your blog. There are several free counters you can use. I like Sitemeter, others use Statcounter, and still more swear by Google Analytics. Get into the habit of using your hit counter daily. Read the reports that each offers. Your first goal is to create a blog that gets at least 100 hits per day. Then you're set up to use your blog as a launching pad for your impending blog book tour. A hit counter is how you track your own progress when building your blog.

Also track your amazon rating, from the time the book is listed with them, throughout your tour, and for months after. The numbers are not accurate, but the change is what indicates whether your promotions are effective. For example, if your title rates in the top two million, but moves to a ranking of 57,000 during your blog book tour, clearly the tour is having an impact at least in the world of amazon. com. Try Title Z for an easy way to track your title's ranking.

Next, we'll talk about another statistic - the visitors at your host blogs, and why this is all-important to the success of your tour.

Will a Blog Book Tour Sell Books?

Authors often ask if a blog book tour will sell books. How will they know?

The short answer: you won't. In all fairness, how will you know if your live tour and any other promotion is selling your books? Yes, if you are present at a book signing and fans buy, you'll know about those immediate sales. You could set up the same scenario by buying some books at cost from your publisher, and being the sales point for your blog book tour. Then you'd know.

Still, the tangential sales won't be reflected. Maybe the reader will return to the bookstore after payday. Maybe the blog book tour stops were intriguing enough that a reader adds the title to their amazon.com wishlist. How will you know? Especially since your royalty check won't arrive many months down the road. You likely won't see amazon.com sales reflected for 18 months. So it's almost impossible to relate any of your promotions, online and live, to your cash flow when it finally arrives.

The bottom line: every bit of promotion you do raises your name profile and that's really the goal.

Next we'll talk about other statistics worth tracking to gauge success.

Bolstering Your Enthusiasm

If you need a little help with enthusiasm, whether tackling daily blogging or starting your NaNoWriMo adventure, take some hints from the newest editor at The Blood-Red Penci blog. Here is a list of affirmations that can keep you inspired from day-to-day. You just need to stay optimistic - that's half the battle!

You might also want to check Craig Lancaster's three posts from last week. Craig is on a blog book tour for his new release, 600 Hours of Edward, which was his first NaNoWriMo attempt in last year's contest. It's quite a story.