Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Virtual Book Tour Primer V--leaving comments

Another way to conduct a book tour is to leave comments on folks' blogs. To tell you more about that, however, I'd like to share this article by Janet Elaine Smith. Janet is a novelist who also writes about useful tips for marketing your books. Check her out at http://www.janetelainesmith.com.)

Before you set off on a virtual book tour, remember that you are visiting various blogs as a guest. You don't run the show. Always leave a comment about something in the blog before you issuing an invitation to partake of something you have to offer, whether it is to purchase your book, to visit your blog or to hang out at your website. Sadly common courtesy is all too often in short supply.

The best way to find blogs that best fit your virtual tour is with this
search: www.blogsearch.google.com. Don't just look for the obvious; be creative. After all, we are all writers, and imagination is our forte. And look for something that you can tie your book into. Let me give you a couple of examples. You know, show; don't tell!

My book Par for the Course is a timetravel that takes a modern day golf pro and sends her back in time to golf with Mary, Queen of Scots, at St.
Andrews Golf Course in Scotland. Mary was the first woman golfer--true fact.

OK, so I did a search for Mary, Queen of Scots. History buffs who like to follow her are always looking for new info. Many of them do not know that she was the first known woman golfer. (I found that info in an old kids'
encyclopedia.) So, when I find a blog about Mary, I go to it and ask a simple question: "Do you know what sport Mary, Queen of Scots, was noted for? If you don't, you can find out in my time travel, Par for the Course.
If you do, or if you want to take a guess, come on over to my blog at www.janetelainesmith.blogspot.com and leave me a comment." Then I leave a comment about their blog, like "I was pleased to learn that Mary was the tallest woman in Scotland at the time she lived. I am a firm believer that I am never too old to learn something new."

Another one I did was for my book In St. Patrick's Custody. I did a lot of similar blog entries to the one above only tied to this book of when it was close to St. Patrick's Day. I then invited the blog visitors to go to Patrick and Grace's website, http://crumbycapers.tripod.com (a fictional website I set up especially for the protagonists of that book--another promotional idea, by the way!) and leave me a note in the guestbook. Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Another one I did for In St. Patrick's Custody was in connection with homelessness, because Grace ended up in a homeless shelter. That one got picked up and noticed by a few print newspapers and it led to a couple of actual print interviews about the issue of homelessness.

I don't always leave a bunch of signature lines in a blog, but I do give the info if it pertains to the book I'm blogging about at the time. For instance, with Par for the Course, I usually include "Named best timetravel of the year by Affaire de Coeur Magazine."

With In St. Patrick's Custody I might end with something like "Responsible for countless new volunteers in homeless shelters across the country."

Good luck! Janet

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