Guest Blog: Roll Your Own Blog Tour

By Scott Nicholson 
www.hauntedcomputer.com

About three weeks ago, I was driving to the day job and reflecting on the blitzes I've done with a few other authors, where we would cross-promote each other and try to stimulate a sales rush on Amazon.

I was preparing another new book for independent digital release and the idea of several weeks of organizing just for a few hours of boosted sales seemed a little disheartening.

Then I realized I was still stuck in "old brain," a hangover from the days when I would drive three hours on my own gas card to sit at a bookstore for two hours hoping I would sell a stranger a book. Of which I would earn eight percent, assuming I helped the publisher sell enough of my books, assuming I earned out, and assuming the publisher actually mailed me my 48 cents (minus 15 percent agent commission) in 18 months. All under the cheerful panic of "Sell product or publisher dumps you."

Now I work for myself and I am not dumping me. And I don't have to drive to a bookstore, because I am virtually invisible on those shelves. My audience is now at my fingertips.

And that disheartening thought completely flipped around during my commute, and the crazier it got, the better I felt.  Still at the wheel, I got the idea for a "90 Days of Nightmares" blog tour, in which I would go around to various book blogs from September to November, promoting not just one book but all of them. Clearly, that is deadline pressure with an emphasis on the "dead."

But I decided not to be locked into an organized plan, because in the digital age not only can I respond to my audience directly and immediately, I can alter my books at any time and go anywhere. The entire dynamic is now fluid. I spent a year before the release of my first novel The Red Church planning my promotion for it. Now here I am, promoting four novels, three collections, and a novella at the same time, with four new titles actually releasing during the tour.

By the time I finished my drive to work, I resolved to make the blog tour big enough to fail spectacularly. Since my core audience owns a Kindle, I decided to give away a Kindle, which I was going to fund myself, since I figured I would earn enough additional sales to offset the cost. But I also wanted some partners, so I hooked up with Kindle Nation Daily, the most plugged-in connection with my new audience, and arranged an advertising package with a lot of extras spread over three months. Then I recruited Ted Risk at Dellaster Design to spruce up the book formatting in exchange for a sponsorship and a few well-placed plugs. (Hi Ted, who loves ya?)

Seriously, though, the most uphill part of the whole tour is to be taken seriously. Even though I have published six novels in New York, now I am essentially banished to the wastelands of "self-pubbing" or "vanity press" or "pusher of books nobody wants to publish." And the biggest obstacle has been getting responses from respected book bloggers, because I am determined to compete directly with New York, on their terms and in their playground. Book bloggers, having taken over the role of promotion from daily newspapers, now get weekly cases of juicy new books from publishers, and it's incredibly appealing, because I work at a newspaper where it is still cool to get free stuff. Why would they give up their free books?

With a digital file, bloggers appear to get no tangible goodie. But I will drive new visitors to the participating blogs, because that is how people can win the Kindle DX. It's a partnership. And the next generation of emerging book bloggers is e-friendly and owns devices themselves, and they require no convincing that giving away a Kindle is a benefit instead of a threat.

Full of myself because of my inventiveness, I approached Amazon in a very roundabout way, through an obscure media link on the site, and after a few rounds of communication got a commitment for both a Kindle DX and a Kindle 3--nearly $600 of value. I immediately changed the tour name to "Kindle Giveaway Blog Tour," because free Kindles are catchier than free nightmares. We're still working on a UK-exclusive giveaway, since England has been dragged kicking, screaming, and pudding-flinging into the digital age.

So, the DX winner will be randomly selected from the pool of people who comment on the various blog posts. The Kindle 3 will be given away to a random subscriber of the tour newsletter (scottsinnercircle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com).  Winners will be selected at the local public library to remove any question of propriety.

But since social media is critical to an impromptu digital campaign, I added a Pandora's Box of free e-books as a prize to a follower of "hauntedcomputer" on Twitter. People like M.J. Rose, Vicki Tyley, Debbie Mack, and Zoe Winters are already in, as well as the entire catalog of Ghostwriter Publications, where Neil Jackson has been providing my covers, which I believe are as professional as anything coming out of New York. I also have authors house-sitting with posts on my blog while I'm away.

Because I want to raise the respectability of indie publishing and back up my belief that I must be even more professional than New York, since I have no one else to blame, I am aiming for book blogs with at least 300 followers and largely avoiding author sites except for those of indie success stories like J.A. Konrath, Zoe Winters, and Debbie Mack. I have a few prominent blogs on board, plus some Kindle-centric blogs that were reviewing me back before I was cool.

So, with launch a few days away, most of the September schedule is full and starting to creep into October and November. I'm not worried about picking up the extra blogs, because I believe this will build momentum as it goes.

I have so much faith that I upped the stakes and will kick in an extra Kindle 3 if any of my books break the Top 100 in either the U.S. or U.K. Kindle stores during the tour. That gives people an incentive to promote me, because the better I do, the more I give away.

In writing some of the exclusive guest posts, one for each blog, I realized I have never told the Scott Nicholson story, nor had I referred to myself in the third person before. I look forward to talking about my paranormal and psychological thrillers, the local legends that are source material, the new digital age, and the intimate new experience readers and writers share. I even plan to collect all the posts and turn them into a book, because I can do that, and I can give it away, and the Scott Nicholson story can float around a little longer.

During the tour, I have to format several novels, revise one former U.S. title for U.K. release, co-write a novel with J.R. Rain for a November release, and work with my agent on some graphic novels. While managing the tour. And working the day job. And canning tomatoes. And being a husband and father. And brainstorming some more surprises for the tour. I am living the dream.

I will probably hit some Uphype Twitter types and have them broadcast the message and call on my supporters for yet one more favor. All told, I will spend $300 at the most, and I only have to sell an additional 150 ebooks or so to earn that back. And I get the money in two months instead of two years.

What have I learned in three weeks, besides that I am irrevocably insane?

(1) That perhaps I would have gotten more value, dollars for time, if I had hired an established blog tour organizer and saved myself several hundred cold emails. I am not sure there are any e-book-specific tour organizers anyway (anyone sense a business opportunity?) But I would have missed the chance to learn about the blogging world and experience the passion of book bloggers, who are 95 percent female and heavily skewed toward young adult novels.

(2) That even giving something away isn't easy, and selling a novel takes more creativity, passion, and drive than writing a novel does.

(3) That this is the most fun I've ever had in my 14-year writing career. The curtain is about to part on Act II, and this time the audience is writing the story.

I hope you will join us at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm.
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Scott Nicholson is the author of 12 novels, four comics series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. He's also editor of the freebie download Write Good Or Die. A journalist and freelance editor, he lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Comments

[Zoe Winters]

Hey Scott, thanks for the shout out! Can't wait to have you at my blog!

[Chris Bauer]

Hey Scott! Long time listener, first time caller, big-time cheerleader. Great post.

[Indiebooksblog]

thanks, I love the entire improv feel...

Scott

[Colorado85]

Can't wait for the day I finally get a new ebook reader. I have an old one I bought several years ago, the RCA REB1100 eBook http://www.amazon.com/RCA-REB1100-eBook-Reader/dp/B00005T3UH.

I actually pulled it out of storage and charged it up to see if it still worked. Powered up just fine. I got this software for it that would convert documents so I could read them on it. I would type my term papers for school, convert them, then DL them so I could edit later. I could highlight and edit with a stylus. I guess it was ahead of its time.

Scott (your #1 Fan/Stalker)