Author Promotions ~ An Evaluation of Our First Children’s Book Blog Tour

August 21st, 2008 · 5 Comments

Heh, heh See how I put Author Promotions in the title of this post? I told you I’m going to try to move my site up for those key words. Because I want children’s book authors who are looking to promote their books to be able to find me. Why? Because I think the tours work. I think everyone wins when we run a tour.

I think the author wins

Jimmy’s Stars hit Technorati’s “most popular book page” on the first day of the tour. It was in the seventh slot. The second day it moved to the fifth slot. By day three, Jimmy’s Stars was in first, My Best Friend was in eighth, Yankee Girl was number twenty, and First Grade Stinks was twenty-one. Here’s a screen shot of day three. Click to make it larger. Today the tour is over and Jimmy’s Stars is still sitting second on the list.

What does that matter? Who knows? We have no way of knowing if landing on Technorati’s page will increase sales. What we do know is that it makes the book visible to thousands of people. It’s like a newspaper ad. Bloggers who are clicking over to Technorati to see who’s blogging about what, see that cover shot on that page and the next time they’re in the book store looking for a book to buy their niece or their daughter, they may see Mary Ann’s book and think, “Oh, yeah, that’s the book all those bloggers were talking about.” And they may pick it up.

Even more important, is this: All of your readers, which works out to several hundred people from all over the US, have heard about an author they may never have heard of before. They have done more than read an ad. They’ve heard you talk about the author’s book for several days. They’ve heard the author speak for herself. They’ve learned things about the book and author that you don’t get in newspaper ads. They’ve gotten a feel for whether they’ll like this author and whether they want to pick up her other books. This is what good marketing is all about. This is akin to the hand-selling that book reps are always wanting booksellers to do. It’s cyber hand-selling and I’m convinced it works.

I’m convinced simply because it works in my own life. I bought The Adoration of Jenna Fox last week. Why? Because several bloggers I know read it, reviewed it, and recommended it. I would have never, ever have bought this book otherwise. I can guarantee it. I don’t care for the cover and the premise doesn’t interest me. But bloggers I trust hand-sold it to me.

I don’t think I’m all that different from others. Younger people than I, are even more comfortable with using the Internet as a social gathering place and a giant store, wrapped up in one. They meet their friends and buy their goods online. Will they buy Jimmy’s Stars? I think some will. I think others will buy Mary Ann’s picture books for their kids. I think we’ve hand-sold an author here, not just a book.

And this is how it should be because this author does good work and she deserves some exposure. One of the reasons I like the book tour is that I get to do a little bit to change the face of children’s publishing. I get to have my say. I get to cast my vote for the kinds of books I love.

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