I’ve come across a few links today that I’d like to share.
Conversant Life is a community that discusses faith and culture. This is right up my alley, and so far I’ve enjoyed searching through its many offerings. Looks like a new favorite for me. I’m even posting to some indie music they let you sample.
I Am Second. What do Jason Castro, Joe Gibbs, Greg Ellis, and others have in common? I encourage you to check it out. Be curious.
I’ve come across a few links today that I’d like to share.
Conversant Life is a community that discusses faith and culture. This is right up my alley, and so far I’ve enjoyed searching through its many offerings. Looks like a new favorite for me. I’m even posting to some indie music they let you sample.
I Am Second. What do Jason Castro, Joe Gibbs, Greg Ellis, and others have in common? I encourage you to check it out. Be curious.
I’ve been a member of two blog tours, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and the Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour, for over two years now. I’ve had the privilege to review many good books and enter into some great discussion with others out there in the blogosphere.
Even though this has benefited me, what about the authors? Do the writers who have offered up their work for review get a measurable boost from the coordinated focus of a blog tour.
So far I’d have to say there’s no direct benefit to a blog tour.
I come to this conclusion from from two sources. Brandilyn Collins has been involved with the CFBA tour since its inception, and I recall her blogging that she hasn’t seen specific movement of more books associated with a blog tour. However, with her marketing experience, she knows the value of getting her name and books out there with visibility.
Also, I was involved with a tour for Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture by Mary DeMuth, and Mark Goodyear tracked measurable stats regarding the tour. They tracked how many books were sold directly through Mary’s site. His conclusion was that there wasn’t a large increase in sales from the well-organized tour.
However, does this mean blog tours aren’t worthwhile?
I would say that there are benefits to blog tours that aren’t easily measurable, at least not directly. Maybe people don’t rush out and buy the book from Amazon right away, giving noticeable statistics.
My argument is that it is worthwhile for authors to do blog tours in order to get their book out there and find some people that could turn into influencers. I suggest this can be a big benefit for authors.
I can think of several authors whose books I would not have read if not for getting their book for review: Rene Gutteridge, Lisa Bergren, John Aubrey Anderson, and Tom Morrisey to name a few. All of these authors have won me over with the quality of their writing and their interesting stories. What has happened is I have become their advocate. I continue to think of them as I refer people to good authors.
Not only that, but I support them more than I would have earlier. Even though through the blog tours I generally receive the books from the publisher to review, I have purchased books from the writers above. Either I’ve purchased other books in their catalog, or I buy the books I’ve already read to give away to others. I also lend out books so others can given them a try and hopefully get interested enough to purchase other books in the future.
Of course this can happen randomly. Maybe I would have picked up one of these books in Barnes and Noble (I have no local Christian bookstore). I do recall looking at Anderson’s first book, Abiding Darkness, at B&N. But I never bought it. I don’t think I would’ve walked out with any books from the others I listed there. But I’ve purchased all of Anderson’s work since to give away. I just bought an older book of Gutteridge’s, outside of the series I’ve been enjoying so much. I reviewed Bergren’s first book for a tour, and made sure I bought the others so I could finish the series. Early this year I purchased Robin Parrish’s Merciless because I couldn’t wait an extra month for the blog tour to get it.
Just last week I read a new book from Tim Downs, Less Than Dead. I had read his book Plague Maker on my own and really enjoyed it, but had forgotten about Downs until reading his latest for the tour. I was so delighted to “rediscover” him that I fully plan on completing my collection of his books.
Maybe I’m strange (no comments Mark…), but I can’t help but think this type of situation happens with others for blog tours. My conclusion is that an author won’t know what type of people they will reach with a blog tour. If they get the right person, they will have an influencer who will carry on promotion that goes beyond the investment the author made by sending some books out for a blog tour.
If anyone reading this has been influenced by any of my posts, I’d love to hear from you on this topic. If you have any thoughts on blog tours, I’d also encourage you to speak up. Coolness.
I’ve been a member of two blog tours, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and the Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour, for over two years now. I’ve had the privilege to review many good books and enter into some great discussion with others out there in the blogosphere.
Even though this has benefited me, what about the authors? Do the writers who have offered up their work for review get a measurable boost from the coordinated focus of a blog tour.
So far I’d have to say there’s no direct benefit to a blog tour.
I come to this conclusion from from two sources. Brandilyn Collins has been involved with the CFBA tour since its inception, and I recall her blogging that she hasn’t seen specific movement of more books associated with a blog tour. However, with her marketing experience, she knows the value of getting her name and books out there with visibility.
Also, I was involved with a tour for Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture by Mary DeMuth, and Mark Goodyear tracked measurable stats regarding the tour. They tracked how many books were sold directly through Mary’s site. His conclusion was that there wasn’t a large increase in sales from the well-organized tour.
However, does this mean blog tours aren’t worthwhile?
I would say that there are benefits to blog tours that aren’t easily measurable, at least not directly. Maybe people don’t rush out and buy the book from Amazon right away, giving noticeable statistics.
My argument is that it is worthwhile for authors to do blog tours in order to get their book out there and find some people that could turn into influencers. I suggest this can be a big benefit for authors.
I can think of several authors whose books I would not have read if not for getting their book for review: Rene Gutteridge, Lisa Bergren, John Aubrey Anderson, and Tom Morrisey to name a few. All of these authors have won me over with the quality of their writing and their interesting stories. What has happened is I have become their advocate. I continue to think of them as I refer people to good authors.
Not only that, but I support them more than I would have earlier. Even though through the blog tours I generally receive the books from the publisher to review, I have purchased books from the writers above. Either I’ve purchased other books in their catalog, or I buy the books I’ve already read to give away to others. I also lend out books so others can given them a try and hopefully get interested enough to purchase other books in the future.
Of course this can happen randomly. Maybe I would have picked up one of these books in Barnes and Noble (I have no local Christian bookstore). I do recall looking at Anderson’s first book, Abiding Darkness, at B&N. But I never bought it. I don’t think I would’ve walked out with any books from the others I listed there. But I’ve purchased all of Anderson’s work since to give away. I just bought an older book of Gutteridge’s, outside of the series I’ve been enjoying so much. I reviewed Bergren’s first book for a tour, and made sure I bought the others so I could finish the series. Early this year I purchased Robin Parrish’s Merciless because I couldn’t wait an extra month for the blog tour to get it.
Just last week I read a new book from Tim Downs, Less Than Dead. I had read his book Plague Maker on my own and really enjoyed it, but had forgotten about Downs until reading his latest for the tour. I was so delighted to “rediscover” him that I fully plan on completing my collection of his books.
Maybe I’m strange (no comments Mark…), but I can’t help but think this type of situation happens with others for blog tours. My conclusion is that an author won’t know what type of people they will reach with a blog tour. If they get the right person, they will have an influencer who will carry on promotion that goes beyond the investment the author made by sending some books out for a blog tour.
If anyone reading this has been influenced by any of my posts, I’d love to hear from you on this topic. If you have any thoughts on blog tours, I’d also encourage you to speak up. Coolness.
Blargh.
That’s the first word I uttered this morning. You see, I had a whole eleven days off of work, because it shuts down for non-essential personnel over the holidays. I know that people out there (Mark…) are saying that there’s no WAY I should be complaining. However, I have to wake up at 5:00 am to catch a bus at 5:30 am to ride an hour to work. When you’ve been used to getting up at 8:30 am and going to bed at 11:00 pm over the holidays, “Blargh” is exactly the response that is appropriate.
Plus, it is my blog, so I can whine if I want. Anyone have some nice cheese?
I had a point here somewhere…
ANYWAY, I just wanted to discuss a little bit of change around here. Since my work has me prisoner away for almost 12 hours Monday through Thursday, I would try to do all my blogging during lunch or before the work day officially started. It served me well all year.
Except for the fact that I got in trouble.
It seems that the government frowns on using the internet on their time, and my computer got picked up on a random scan. I will confess to being a net addict, and I know I abused the “check your email at lunch” provision. So I am duly chastised. Unfortunately this changes how I’ll do my blog.
This is actually a good thing, because I really do use the net too much. (This may come as a shock to many of you out there that this can happen) The nice thing about using it at work is that I tended to stay away from the computer on work nights and focus on my family. I don’t intend to change this for the most part. This means that my blogging will shift from Mon – Thurs on average to Thurs – Sun. Or somesuch.
I still plan on being part of blog tours, but I hope my blogging friends will forgive me if I’m not “around” as much. I do count so many of y’all as true friends, and I will miss hanging out on the web as much. I think this may be a God thing though. If that works out, I’ll report on it more later.
See you around!
Blargh.
That’s the first word I uttered this morning. You see, I had a whole eleven days off of work, because it shuts down for non-essential personnel over the holidays. I know that people out there (Mark…) are saying that there’s no WAY I should be complaining. However, I have to wake up at 5:00 am to catch a bus at 5:30 am to ride an hour to work. When you’ve been used to getting up at 8:30 am and going to bed at 11:00 pm over the holidays, “Blargh” is exactly the response that is appropriate.
Plus, it is my blog, so I can whine if I want. Anyone have some nice cheese?
I had a point here somewhere…
ANYWAY, I just wanted to discuss a little bit of change around here. Since my work has me prisoner away for almost 12 hours Monday through Thursday, I would try to do all my blogging during lunch or before the work day officially started. It served me well all year.
Except for the fact that I got in trouble.
It seems that the government frowns on using the internet on their time, and my computer got picked up on a random scan. I will confess to being a net addict, and I know I abused the “check your email at lunch” provision. So I am duly chastised. Unfortunately this changes how I’ll do my blog.
This is actually a good thing, because I really do use the net too much. (This may come as a shock to many of you out there that this can happen) The nice thing about using it at work is that I tended to stay away from the computer on work nights and focus on my family. I don’t intend to change this for the most part. This means that my blogging will shift from Mon – Thurs on average to Thurs – Sun. Or somesuch.
I still plan on being part of blog tours, but I hope my blogging friends will forgive me if I’m not “around” as much. I do count so many of y’all as true friends, and I will miss hanging out on the web as much. I think this may be a God thing though. If that works out, I’ll report on it more later.
See you around!