Blogging Tip #2

Everyone is connecting on Facebook and Twitter these days. Be sure to have your links high up in the sidebar. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It just has to be quick and easy.

Blogging Tip #1

It's easier for your readers if your blog title is the same as your URL. So Blog Book Tours is easy to find at http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com without too much need to memorize anything. Make it easy for your fans!

The Tale of Oat Cake Crag

Have you read any of the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter? The Tale of Oat Cake Crag is the seventh in this series. Susan Wittig Albert kicked off her week-long blog book tour yesterday at Straight From Hel (you can still sign up for the drawing until noon). Today we’ll give you an overview of the rest of the week’s visits as well as some insights about how the tour was planned.

Susan’s fans will be following this tour and signing up for a book drawing each day, and also to be eligible for the grand prize if they sign in at each blog daily.

But they are not the only followers of this blog book tour. When Susan wrote her posts for each blog, she also considered any new readers and what their interests might be. On this blog, a post about the various aspects of a blog book tour would be appropriate. That’s what you’re reading right now. Here are some clues about what to expect on upcoming blogs:

Tomorrow (Wednesday), Susan visits The Blood-Red Pencil where the editors daily discuss all the many aspects of writing. So the post was crafted to explain the unusual Victorian narrative voice that the author employs in these Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. It’s quite an intriguing concept, especially to the many writers who are fans of this blog.

Thursday, Lorna Barrett hosts the tour stop with her regular feature, Pet Peeves Thurday and you can bet Beatrix and her friends have a pet peeve in this seventh book in the series. Find out about it here and be sure to tell us your pet peeve.

On Friday, the Cozy Chicks host the final tour stop and you’ll learn that cozy mysteries (and their protagonists) might be a lot stronger than their cozy reputations lead us to believe. Beatrix Potter enchanted children with her delightful writing and illustrations, but she made history in another way, too. You can find out how by visiting the Cozy Chicks blog.

Do you have questions for Susan about writing a mystery series with a real-life heroine in the starring role? Please leave them here and she’ll be sure to answer them sometime today.

And don’t forget to sign up for the drawing to win an autographed copy of Oat Cake Crag by visiting the drawing page at http://cottagetales.com/blogtour/drawing_0914.php.


Check out the grand prize if you sign up for all five stops.

To buy a copy of the book, click here.

You can visit Susan at her Lifescapes blog for ongoing news about her books and life in the Texas Hill Country. Be sure to visit her often.

Congratulations to Betty S of Seabrook TX, who won Tuesday's BBT blog drawing! And if you haven't entered yet, today's drawing http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com  will be open through Thursday noon.

Next class starts soon

The next blog book tours class starts the day after Labor Day. Cost is $30. Sign up at our Yahoo!Group classroom. Expect to work hard and learn lots!

And They're Off!

It's been fun chaperoning Little Pickle Press through their first blog book tour, especially since owner and author, Rana DiOrio is a student in the current blog book tours class and I get to use her as an example of how to do things the right way. ;) Now the rest of the class is closely following the What Does It Mean To Be Present? tour to see what they can learn for their own book promotions.

We started the tour at the fabulous The Smart Mama blog yesterday where Jennifer Taggart  talks about her phone conversation with Rana. Both are attorneys, have young children, and are deeply, passionately committed to creating a healthy world for their families. Their blogs were a match made in heaven!

On day #2, we take an entirely different slant at the Blood-Red Pencil with an interview between resident book designer Sherry Wachter and Eliza Wheeler who illustrated the book. We have a lively discussion going amongst fellow artists and publishers.

Tomorrow, Gina Raith at Be Well Together shares her experience of the book and the idea of  "being present". It's a concept that adults are also discovering during this book tour so be sure to join us again to learn more.

To get the entire schedule and to sign up for the name-the-next-book contest and prize, jump over to the Little Pickle Press blog. Remember that each of the tour stops also has  coupon codes for a special 2-book/free poster for $29.95 offer. The posters are printed on an environmentally-friendly paper called Terraskin.

I'll add more to this post as the tour progresses. So far, so fun!

A Technique For Finding Blog Hosts

I asked the class to do a little exercise over the weekend - make a list of keywords for your novel, then using as many of those words as you can cram in, write a three-sentence synopsis of your book. Here's what Nancy submitted:

While traveling home, Missie is thrust through a portal where her music plays an important role in defeating a tyrant. Her career must be sacrificed, her life forever changed, to accommodate these Renaissance costumed people of Gil-Lael. Their values are so different from Missie's modern American lifestyle, that she believes she has truly entered a fantasy world.


My list:

music
career
sacrifices
values
costumes
Renaissance festivals
life changes
fantasy
travel

Nancy has nailed her keywords and a description that's clear enough for us to understand the gist of her book. (Polished, this could live on her blog, too.)

Just for yucks, I googled "Renaissance Festival blogs" and the first hit gave me a musical group that ties into that particular book theme:

http://www.cantigamusic.com/blog.html

This blog seems to be relatively active. And she's doing some traveling so that's another keyword connection along with music!

The next step for Nancy is to start a separate blogroll on her blog - either for music or for the festivals that relate to her theme, or both. (She could link to many Ren Fests throughout the country.) Add this blog right into a related blogroll immediately. Then it won't be forgotten or lost forever. Nancy will see the name on her blog, hop over there, and start interacting with this blogger by leaving a comment now and then, or at least staying in tune with what they are doing. (Don't just dump your book info on them though - that's just too tacky.) Always check to make sure a potential host blogger has Twitter and Facebook information and try to connect on those levels, too.
Nancy might also check costume blogs and travel blogs for countries pertinent to her theme. Even if a blog doesn't look particularly good or active, look at their blogroll, because that's where the good hosts often lie... even another layer or two down can yield some real blog gems. One related blog leads to another.

Yes, it's time-consuming, but well worth the effort. You do this a little each day, until you have dozens upon dozens of potential blog book tour hosts in your clickable blogrolls. By the time you're ready to plan your tour, you'll have choices and, even better, relationships established with other bloggers. And that means success for your blog book tour.

Blog Critiques Begin

The class spent most of last week learning about the elements of a good blog - their own, and the ones they will be seeking out as potential hosts for their blog book tours. Today we start with critiques of the member blogs. Alex J. Cavanaugh has agreed to let me post the review that started off his critique this morning. Go to his blog here and then compare it to the comments below. These are all tips that can help improve your own blog.

Basic Design Attractiveness?

Excellent and right in line with the book theme.

Title and URL cohesive?

Yes. Easy for readers to remember.

Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?

Mostly.

Loading speed?

The header hangs up on my dial-up. It takes quite a while to load but presumably slow connects aren't an issue in outer space.

Follow widget in place?

Perfect - all of them up high and right.

Hit counter?

Yes, and well-placed towards the bottom of the page with actual count showing.

Bookmarking in place?

Positioned with the follow widgets, but maybe could add an RSS feed link?

FB and Twitter widgets?

Didn't see Facebook, but Twitter is there.

Blogrolls?

Yes, very good. Could be organized a bit more concisely.

Linking effective? Tags/keywords used?

Good enough. Could have more linking within posts and between posts.

Frequent posting 2-3 x weekly?

Yes, very good, and a nice mix. Could include the occasional shorter post, or split longer posts into two.

Quality of overall posts?

Excellent, and clearly readers love this blog.

Comments section working?

Yes, and Alex gets enviable comment interaction. I suspect his ability to cyber-schmooze and interact with other bloggers (make friends) results in long-term loyalty. All bloggers should try to achieve this. Then you don't have to look for blog hosts - they beg to host you!

Blog components arranged in optimum manner? (see tomorrow's post for more about this)

Yes, except where noted.

Too many/too few third-party gadgets?

The blog award gadgets are a bit much - I know that it's hard not to accept these tokens of friendship, but maybe add older ones to the bottom of the page, and keep only a few of the most recent at the top?
They are both a psychological attractant and a visual repellent, so may take some clever managing.

Pages used effectively? Can the reader easily learn more about this writer and book?

Separate pages with tabs - with author bio, maybe an excerpt under another tab, a list of your favorite books - these could all engage the reader even more.

What's great?

Almost everything!

What can be improved?

Not much.

Is it ready for a blog tour?

Without a doubt.


Nice job, Alex! We'll expect a great blog book tour from you sometime this autumn.