Please welcome my friend and fellow author, Marilyn Meredith. It’s my pleasure to introduce her new book, A Crushing Death, as well as a contest readers may enter.
The Basics of a Blog Tour
Fool that I am, I decided to embark on yet another blog tour. I put it that way because it’s a lot of work. So why do it? Because it’s fun and does introduce new readers to my books.
For someone who’s never done this on their own, here are the basics of planning one.
Don’t begin until you have a firm date for the publishing of the book you’re promoting. Then, set the beginning of the blog tour at least three weeks later, just in case things don’t go as plan.
For each blog post you’ll need a recent bio—not too long, a short book blurb ( I say short because you’ll probably work things in about the book in some of your posts), a recent photo of yourself (I think it’s fun to use different photos for each post), links to your website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc., and of course a links to buy the book, and a .jpeg of the book cover. If you are having a contest of any kind, include the rules on each post. At the bottom of the post put a line to the next day’s post.
Once you know the dates of the tour, start rounding up blog hosts. Where do you find hosts? Check your favorite blogs and email the hosts. Ask on your favorite listserves. How many? As many as you think you can write unique posts for. When asking each person, ask if they have anything in particular they’d like to write. Some hosts will send you questions or interview topics. Others have specific ways they want you to send everything in, follow their directions.
Most blog hosts would like you to put all the printed material on one page and send it and all photos as attachments.
One the tour begins you need to advertise everyplace you can think of—Facebook, Facebook groups and all the listserves you are on. This means posting every day to these places. Yes, it is labor intensive, but you want lots of visitors to each site.
All through the day, check the comments as you’ll want to reply to each comment and keep track of who is visiting. You’ll also want to keep track of which blogs had the most visitors for future reference.
One last tip. If you run a contest, don’t have the prize be the book you’re promoting—the idea is to intrigue the visitors enough to buy the book you’re promoting. You could offer an earlier book in the series, or a prize that has some relationship to the book, or maybe an Amazon gift card.
Scroll down and you’ll see what I’m offering for a prize.
F. M. aka Marilyn Meredith
A pile of rocks is found on a dead body beneath the condemned pier, a teacher is accused of molesting a student, the new police chief is threatened by someone she once arrested for attacking women, and Officer Milligan’s teenage daughter is has a big problem.
F. M. Meredith: also known as Marilyn Meredith is nearing the number of 40 published books. Besides being an author she is a wife, mother , grandma and great-grandmother. Though the Rocky Bluff she writes about is fictional, she lived for over twenty-years in a similar small beach town. Besides having many law enforcement officers in her family she is counts many as friends. She teaches writing, loves to give presentations to writing and other groups, and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, three chapters of Sisters in Crime and on the board of Public Safety Writers Association.
Website: http://fictionforyou.com
Blog: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com
Facebook: Marilyn Meredith
Twitter: MarilynMeredith
Contest: Once again, the person who comments on the most blogs during this tour, can have a character named after them in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery. Tomorrow you can find me here:
http://www.jacquelinevickauthor.blogspot.com/
and
http://cncbooksblog.wordpress.com/
Thank you, Marilyn, it’s always a pleasure to host one of your tours! FYI, to purchase copies of A Crushing Death, here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Crushing-Death-Rocky-Bluff-P-D/dp/1610092260/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457618775&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Crushing+Death+by+F.M.+Meredith or click on the title throughout this post.
John M. Wills 
Thank you, John, for hosting me today. I always enjoy visiting you.
Your new book sounds intriguing, hope you sell a ton.
Great photo, Marilyn! And a useful post I’m filing to refer to when I get brave enough to blog tour on my own, thanks. Shared on Twitter so other authors can benefit from your expertise 🙂
Thanks for the share, Nancy, and for following me on this new tour.
I read the book. It’s interesting at several levels. Great job.
Only one problem with your advice. Some of us have our picture taken only once or twice a year. We couldn’t find enough picture for a new one every day on a blog tour.
JL Greger, Author of the new mystery, MURDER…A WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT, and the thriller, I SAW YOU IN BEIRUT
I make sure I get a picture taken whenever I’m doing an event, and I keep them in my Picture folder. And sometimes I have other taken just for the heck of it. Thanks for the comment, Janet.
Good advice, Meredith. And yes, blog tours are labor intensive but they can be fun and productive. I hope yours is both.
Hi, Susan, thank you so much for commenting, Susan.
It’s always fun to read what Marilyn has to say about her latest book and various aspects of marketing, where to get ideas, etc. I am happy to have won one of her blog tour contests and appear in this book. I’ve read it and it’s excellent. John is one of my favorite authors, as well, so this was a double pleasure.
Hi, Jackie, not everyone gets to be transformed back into a teenager. Thanks for the comment.
Always a treat to read what you write on these blog tours. They are so informative, if not challenging and I mean that in a way that it is a challenge to fellow writers, myself included to learn the best ways to promote your book. As always thanks Marilyn and thanks John for hosting Marilyn again.
Marilyn, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You are amazing! I don’t know how you manage to get so much done! Congratulations to you!
Great advice on blog tours, Marilyn. Much food for thought for those of us who hate social media but write anyway… LOL
Thanks, Marilyn. This is very helpful to me as I’ll be doing the same thing when book#2 comes out later this year. Enjoy your tour.
Once more you are everywhere with your newest book. Love to see it.
I admire Marilyn’s ability to write two books a year no matter what else is going on in her life. We are in the same writing group and whenever she reads a chapter, we all want to know what will happen next, but we to wait for the next instalment. Lucky readers can read the entire book. Her latest one has an unusual murder. You’ll see how it was done when you read the book.