Thank you all for a great tour of The Diamond of Darkhold! We had some lovely interviews, and reviews. I even learned about solar power. Good stuff.
We had a rough go of it in Technorati–the number one book all week, Hot Chicks With Douchebags (which I have not intentions of linking to since this is a children’s book blog–and I hate the title) was not easily defeated. Finally, John 3:16 unseated it to take the top spot. (ha! I find that funny.)
So, while the extremists duked it out for top spot, our little sci-fi, ecologically responsible, middle grade book, wasn’t even making the front page in the first two days of the tour.
Happily we did make it to fourteenth on day two and to twelfth on day three.
That put us on the first page, and ours was the only children’s book there. So, that’s not bad for a small group of participants–only fifteen of us.
We encountered some problems, with the tour. The first being my fault–broken links. I plan to remember not to do that again next month.
The second problem was out of our control–Technorati is messed up. So we only got credited with 10 links for our book. It doesn’t really matter, because if it’s messed up for us, it’s messed up for everyone else. None of us were getting all our links counted, I don’t think.
Some things we did really well–we introduced the Ember books to new people. If the commenters who said they wanted the book get it they will like it, probably, and they will spread the word in their parts of the countries (we have US and Canadian bloggers on the tour). I saw one commenter who said she had never heard of these books and now she was going to look for them. So even if she gets Diamond free from one of us, she’s going to go out and buy Ember and the others, probably. And she may see the movie now, too.
The author, Jeanne DuPrau, came off as smart, and gracious, even as she presented the idea that we’re trashing our world and we probably should think about that. She came across as a storyteller first–one with some thoughtful ideas but not one with a heavy agenda. She doesn’t beat people over the head in her fiction or in her interviews, so she was a great interview subject, I thought. She got her voice into some new places, it was a good voice, and some of our readers will look for future books from her because of the good impression they got of her this week.
So, I’m thinking from a promotional standpoint, our tour was helpful. Even though we are small, we are introducing these books into new places.
Tomorrow (or next week–I have out of state company and I may be gone this weekend) I want to address the tour from the bloggers’ standpoint. I want to get some input from you all about the length of the tour, discuss some ways we can make three-day tours easier and more fun. And I’d like to see if we can get more bloggers to join us–maybe have a membership drive and competition. I think if we get more bloggers on board–even though that’s more work for me (because I check you all out every day and this month I pinged Technorati myself with all your blogs, on two different days)–the tour would gain momentum and we’d feed off of each other’s energy.
If you have comments, observations, suggestions, complaints, please feel free to post them here or to send them to my email.
What do you love about the tour? What do you hate about it? Go ahead–let it all hang out.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Becky // Oct 2, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I know part of the supposed appeal for these tours is instant success or “proof” that bloggers make a difference. And I’m not negating that that could be beneficial. But my take on it is that it is the long-term effects that matter.
Posts don’t immediately make an impact. Some older posts get more hits per day or per week than newer ones. And that’s okay. That’s more than okay.
The way I see it is this, when people search for information on a particular author or a book, they’ll come to our sites be it today or six months from now. Or two years from now. If it’s well written, if the quality is there, then they’ll find what they need. And it will be beneficial to them then.
And it could be a timing thing as well. Maybe there will be more interest after the movie opens or even after the movie is available on DVD. Or if/when teachers assign one of the books for the class to read, etc.
But because the Ember books are timeless–in my opinion–then our reviews will still be relevant whenever they’re read.
2 Robin Rivers // Oct 2, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Hi Sally,
I had a lot of fun with this tour. It was great to read other people’s ideas and reviews and I definitely enjoyed my interaction with Jeanne DuPrau.
My biggest issue is the three days. I have a set editorial calendar that readers come to expect and it has REALLY disrupted the flow, much to the chagrin of a few readers. I realize this is more from my end than yours, and I will work out ways to make sure my weekly features are built into the blog tours we participate it. But, three days worth of content is tricky.
I also think that it would be helpful and community building to get the bloggers on each tour together to run a bit of a promotion together, either through giveaways, advertising or other means. There are many, many inexpensive and very effective ways to bring bloggers together and give them a sense of ownership over the brand. I would like to see that happen since, as of now, I feel little or no connection to the other bloggers on the tour and I would really like to know them.
Again, enjoyed this process. It was very much a learning experience for me.
Cheers,
Robin Rivers
Our Big Earth (formerly Comox Valley Kids)
3 Natasha @ Maw Books // Oct 2, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Hi Sally! Well, I didn’t participate in this tour (because it was a sequel and I hadn’t read it previously, I thought I should pass) but thought I’d get my two bits in. Like Becky said, it’s a long term effect thing. My top five viewed posts every month are posts I wrote 6 or more months ago. If the content is there and keywords are effectively used in the post, people will find it.
I didn’t have a problem with the three day tour for Jimmy’s Stars but I was worried that three days might be a bit much if bloggers weren’t creative.
I look forward to growing with you!
4 Amydeanne // Oct 2, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Being one of those who didn’t read the first ones, or actually ever hear of this book before, I think it was a great time for the review -just before the movie, as people are searching the movie they’ll be finding our reviews.. i noticed on my key search words today that it was picked up b/c of that!
5 Rebecca LuElla Miller // Oct 9, 2008 at 6:23 pm
FYI, Diamond of Darkhold is up to #12 today. My posts, at least two of them, have come through. So maybe being on the list longer is actually better than being at the top for a short time.
Becky
6 Noel // Oct 13, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Three days wasn’t a problem for me at all. I don’t foresee having to stretch content. In fact, I’m excited about all the posts I’ll get to do with Something Wicked.
I did post incorrect links because I scheduled the posts before you sent out links, but that was my fault, not yours.
Hmm … oh, I agree about wanting to build community. Something that wouldn’t really take additional time, but would be fun … maybe along the lines of what Marie and I did this time around … set up a discussion board for each title or something. Readergirlz has a set discussion each month for their selections. Maybe we could round robin groups of four or five each month, and each post segments of the conversations on our blogs. That would kill two birds, get to know one another and get a post out of the chat at the same time, without being redundant for readers who visit multiple participating blogs. I’m rambling here, but my brain is still jet lagged, so that’s my excuse. Thanks for all your work, Sally!
Leave a Comment