Well, we’re a few days into the book tour and I think it’s going well. Am I making a bunch more sales? No. But (and I might be wrong on this, but this is my thinking) I don’t necessarily see that as the point. Exposure is what we’re going for here. Putting my name–my books–in front of as many people as we can. Some will become intrigued by the story and will (hopefully!) pick it up and read it. Others will skip over it in favor of a different book. But both groups will (again–hopefully!) recognize my name in the future and another of my books might pique their interest. They will then (hopefully!) pick that book up and might be intrigued enough to go back and read other books I’ve written.
There’s a lot of hoping going on here, but that’s what I’m aiming for. Exposure. Recognition. Growth.
So with those goals in mind, the tour is already a success. I’m pretty sure people have heard about me who hadn’t heard my name before. They’ve seen my book (and the gorgeous cover art) that they probably hadn’t ever seen before. And hopefully, they’ll be interested enough to look for more.
If you’re interested, you can follow along at CelebrateLit.
It’s also amusing to me to see the “more from the author” section that’s connected with the tour. I wrote it several months ago, and since then events have occurred to cause me to make a MAJOR change in my thinking. Those books set in Australia that I wasn’t planning to write? Yep. That. I have a series in the planning stages that is going to be set in my Dad’s hometown of Blair Athol, QLD. The town was demolished back in the early ’80s to make way for a coal mine, but this series will be set back in the early 1900s when the town was a bustling little hub. In preparation, I’ve been digging into the history of the area and picking my Dad’s brain. Because he lived there. He can look at the photos of the town and tell me what each building was, and who owned it. And yeah, some of them were owned by relations, so it’s not just a history lesson, there’s family tree stuff going on too. It’s fun.
But, seeing the tour notes popping up every day…
Never say never.
Oh, yeah, there’s also a giveaway. Sorry it’s only open to US residents, but there are laws (most likely), and shipping costs (astronomical), and other stuff (can’t think of), and I didn’t actually think of all of that until after the tour went live, but CelebrateLit set up the rules so I’m guessing there are reasons. Probably more reasons than I just listed.
I hope you’re able to follow along. And if you’ve read my books, I’d be interested in hearing who else you think I should write about.
Sometime. I really need to finish Maddie, then I have another Taking Chances book planned. I want to start the Aussie books, but I don’t know when I’ll write them. I could always work on more Taking Chances before diving into the Aussie books. Or vice versa. It just depends on what I feel like writing next. Or what people want me to write next. If you have an opinion I’d love to hear it.