It's a Mystery...

...that my head is still attached to the rest of me.

Apologies for late posting - I'd posted last week and failed to notice that today was the first Sunday of the month. I suspect I missed a board meeting about guest posts, since I just realized all the posts last week WERE guest posters. Which means...oh, heck, it means I'm overworked, confused and need to take more gingko biloba herbs for my poor smoking brain pan...

Being a writer is a tricky thing (or 'tricksy', if you're Gollum) in that there are so many things attached to the job other than writing. This isn't even taking into consideration day jobs, which so many writers, published or not, have to maintain to do things like pay their rent. If you've been a regular visitor to this blog or any other blog on writing, you've no doubt read about the trials and tribulations of publicity and marketing, which has become more and more of a 'do it yourself' thing over the years. Nowadays, unless you're Stephen King, Dan Brown or any of the other airport bookstore rack authors, you will have to put massive amounts of time into pushing your own work, even with a larger publisher. It's just the way things are.

Some writers thrive on the marketing side of things - I personally love speaking engagements and library panels. I don't mind the online social networking - sites like Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the blogosphere, make the job a lot easier if you can resist the maelstrom-like time suck that can happen. One 25 Random Things About Me tag or meme is an hour or two of my day that I choose to spend writing, thank you. In theory I'm all over things like that because it's fun to learn things about my friends and fellow authors. In reality, I don't have time.

The last month I've been setting up a blog book tour for 11 authors from Ravenous Romance (I'm one of the authors) to help publicize Ravenous, a relatively new e-publisher, and my fellow authors who've bravely joined me on this whirlwind visit through cyberspace. I thought it would be relatively simple, having done two of my own blog tours for Murder for Hire.

Hah. Hah hah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Yes, this is the sort of laughter that rises into a maniacal scream.

Time suck anyone?

Without boring you with the tedious details, I have put in a good 20 hours of my free time setting up this tour and if I ever make noises about doing something like this again, please feel free to whack me upside the head. I think overall the work will be worth it and I don't think anyone's done a blog book tour with so many authors at one time. Maybe something for the Guinness Book of World Records. If I have any hair left after tearing so much of it out trying to coordinate this, I'll look at it as a good thing. If not, let me me an object lesson to any of you planning your own tours. Ultimately, it's a good example of the time marketing and publicity can take if you're trying to do it right.

Okay, and if you're mildly insane.