The Road of Blog Touring

Our road tour as we traveled the White Mountains to search out the sites for my newest book.

Ever go touring? Like taking a nice, long Sunday drive to see the sights?
My new book, Love Finds You in Bethlehem, New Hampshire is taking a drive for the next few months to different sites on an official blog tour. I've been busy answering interview questions and sending out cover art and my bio to multiple authors to post on their blogs and web sites. And why is this important? Because the Internet is the biggest tool for marketing out there. Right at their fingertips, readers can find out more about you, why you wrote your book, and other interesting facts that will encourage them to pick up your book. It's all a part of building a readership for your books. It takes valuable time and effort, to be sure. I never used to do much in the marketing angle, and I was really missing out on the valuable tools available so authors can connect on a more personal level with readers on this journey.

So keep in touch on my Love Finds You in Bethlehem blog to see where the tour is stopping next. And along the way there will be plenty of opportunities to get a free book and other goodies, too. It will be a tour worth the journey.

Some New Promo Ideas

I've spent the last week gathering some new promo ideas and places to showcase my books. If you look at my blog, you will see a new widget for a group called Goodreads where readers share reviews and comments on books they have read. I have a link to my web site and I am able to connect with readers on a more personal level as I share my thoughts on the books I have read or will read.

Other widgets I have displayed include my Facebook account as well as Twitter. These are other places to network with both writers and readers. I also have accounts at Tangle, Linked In, and Shoutlife.

On the bottom of my blog is my newest addition - a "carousel" widget from Amazon that displays several of my many books for sale. I have also set up an author page on Amazon detailing a biography as well as a list of my books for sale. While all this has taken time to do, I realize it's important as an author not only to write books but to make certain others know that the books I have written are available. The Internet is an invaluable tool to reach a great many people world wide with our work. And the more places we advertise ourselves as writers, the better chance we have of readers connecting with us and our work.

If you have a favorite site to connect with your readers, I would love to hear about it!

In Tribute of a Dear Fan of my Books...

For the next ten days I will leave this blog up - a tribute to the loss of a beloved fan of my books.

As a writer I tended to take my readers for granted. Those that have read my books and who have sought to talk to me about them. This week I lost a dear reader who deeply loved my work, and I suddenly found myself thinking about my readers.

Cindy enjoyed reading every single title I had. Over the last few months before she passed away suddenly, we were in contact through Facebook and enjoyed communicating with each other.

When I put up on my Facebook page a few photos from a fall hike I took (including the one seen here), here was Cindy's response to the collection -

"These pics are just like your books --=-- they take me on adventures that I cannot go myself! Thanks for sharing them!"

I am deeply grateful for all those who have enjoyed my work and have sent letters and e-mails of encouragement. They have spurred me on to continue in this challenging road of writing and publishing. There are times I found the road difficult. At times hard to press on. But it is fans like dear Cindy that have kept me on the straight and narrow and have allowed me to go places with my writing I never thought I would go. I will greatly miss her encouragement and enthusiasm.