Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little. I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel. Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, go to my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
Here is the list of ideas for advertising--there are more and I'll add to the list as we go along. I'm certainly not an expert in all these, but I've dabbled in all of them. I'll try to relate my experience and the degree of that experience to you.
1. Have a website for your novel.
2. Write a blog.
3. Advertise.
4. Literary awards.
5. Book cards.
6. Contests.
7. Interviews.
8. Blog tours.
9. Press releases.
10. Speaking and teaching.
11. e-mailing.
12. Gifts.
13. Book signings.
14. Book trailers
15. ...
Just what is a blog tour? A blog tour is where you provide an Internet introduction for a blog site and then make yourself available for comments and to answer questions. To advertise for a blog tour you announce on multiple blogs and in multiple venues (email, social media, etc.) that you will accomplish a blog tour in a day, a week, a month, or however long. Since people are likely more interested in a topic rather than your novel, the most successful blog tours are on a topic rather than on a book.
The cool stuff about a blog tour is that you can accomplish it in a day. That is, you don't go from blog site to blog site over time. You rather set up the blog tour with a handful of blogs, and you accomplish it all at once. You send the introduction to all the sites at the beginning of the first day and then you check out the blogs every hour or so for the entire period of the tour.
I recommend that you accomplish a week long blog tour. Put up your introduction on the first day of the tour and just keep tabs on the sites for the rest of the week. You can add information to the sites each day or every other day--whatever the blog owner wants and that way keep your tour fresh.
We'll look at press releases tomorrow.
I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples: http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.
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