Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Some Thoughts About my Recent Blog Tour by Marilyn Meredith

Yesterday was the last stop on my month plus one day blog tour for River Spirits, the latest in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series. http://www.rebeccaswritingsvs.com/ where I wrote about What Makes A Mystery Writer.

It's too soon to tell you who won my contest(s) and I actually turned it into two. I'm pretty sure who the winner of being a character will be as one person posted consistently on all of the blogs.

On this tour I had far more unique visitors than ever. I think that's a good thing, especially if they decide to buy my book.

I tried really hard to put a different picture of me on every post--though when someone lost what I'd sent them (happened a few times) I hadn't kept a good record of who I sent what photo to.

Some topics seemed to draw more interest than others--and I can only judge by the people who left a comment as I don't have anyway of knowing how many just visited and read.

Was my tour too long? Perhaps, but I don't know any other way of getting the message about my new book out to many different people. I always try to find bloggers who have different followers--and I think I did that pretty well.

I've thought about not doing the tour on weekends, but some of my favorite blogs only have guests on the weekend. I have no idea what I'll do in the future.

Are blog tours worth the trouble? I say yes because I do see an increase in sales during the time I'm touring.

And after all, everyone says name recognition is what's most important.

Because I've cut down on my travel--this still seems to be a good substitute for some of the in-person events I can't do any longer.

Any thoughts about any of the ideas I've shared?






3 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

I'm glad the tour seems to be working out for you. I often wonder how many people are still looking at blogs, and if it's worthwhile to do another one. I'd done some on many of my books, but not on the last few.

Cara said...

For readers, I don't think it matters if a tour is long, so long as the venues are disparate. Each venue may attract different readers, and those who know about every stop can pick and choose the subjects that interest them. As an author with a day job, I needed to keep mine short, 8 guest posts over a six-day tour. I did get a sales bump, which was worth it, but I would not have been able to manage many more stops than that without something falling down. Kudos to Marilyn, master logistician!

Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. Meredith said...

Morgan, I had far more unique commenters than ever before, and I've seen my numbers go down.

Actually while it was going on, Cara, it was easy enough to keep track of. I pretty much knew who would be the winner of the contest long about the 10th blog.