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.

Expanding Your Profile

Well, it's time to wander off the deep end into unknown territory. As most of you know, I have leaped from being a fiction author for over twelve years into the newest realm of non fiction writing. I certainly don't know everything, even after attending a writer's conference, but I am trying to get my feet wet.

I am pleased to share that an outdoor magazine just recently accepted a small piece of my work for inclusion in their September magazine. It was an incident that happened on our hike a few years back for their CLOSE CALLS section. Click here for the article and scroll down until you come to Mountaintop Madness. When this came out, I was able to add it to my biography list I was compiling for my main event - my big non fiction book on our hiking experience.

I am also entering a writer's contest of sorts - that is, I am writing an article for a possible book compilation by Dr. Gary Chapman on the extraordinary things people do for love. Again I am taking an incident from our time on the trail last year when my husband performed a miraculous feat so he could see my son and I. This type of writing helps me practice in the area of non fiction while giving me the opportunity to sell. All in the name of building my resume for the important book I desire to have published.

If you have the desire to write non fiction or fiction, begin by writing. Look for opportunities to practice your craft, especially in the smaller areas like magazines and book compilations. Even writing contests. Go to a writer's conference and learn the techniques. Get involved in critique groups and other writing organizations. And then get your work on the editor's desk as soon as it's ready.

Marketing Yourself

I had the chance to speak the other night about my Appalachian Trail hike. And of course I got the great idea, hey, why not sell some books also? While I do not as yet have a book about the trail out there, I do have plenty of my romance titles, and some that take place here in Virginia. So I went ahead and set them out. Didn't sell a whole bunch, but the editor of the local newspaper is interested in my work and really wants to help me spread the word to the community. In fact, when she interviewed me for a newspaper article, she also went ahead and interviewed me about my writing.

The point is, you don't have to talk just about writing to have an avenue for your books. You can talk about the other gifts and talents God has given and use them as an outlet for marketing your work. There are lots of writers but not too many who have done the Appalachian Trail. So I am finding it an effective way to spread the word that hey, I am also a Christian romance author!

What talents to do you possess that perhaps God wishes to use as an avenue to spread the word that you're a writer? Feel free to share. And even if you have yet to accomplish that talent, just be patient. I waited thirty years to fulfill mine. And now God is using it in ways I never dreamed.