Winners of Hiram Grange Giveaway, Blog Tour Reflections

First off, I'd like to congratulate Jeff of California, Kenneth of Virginia, and Dixie of Georgia.  Goodreads has selected you as winners, so you'll soon be getting free copies of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One in the mail. Kudos! 

However, that's not all.  Because I like to give stuff away, (it's a compulsion, actually), I'm also going to throw in copies of The Midnight Diner, Volume Three - featuring my story, "Lonely Places" - and Abominations: 17 Tales of Murderous Monsters, which features my story "Water God of Clarke Street".  So, Christmas has come early for you folks.  Hope you enjoy the goodies.

So, the blog tour is done.  For a list of the all places I toured, go here.  Now...what's next?  What are my thoughts on the tour, about what I might have accomplished?

Mixed feelings.  First of all, my original tour idea - to ping Technorati's "Popular Books" Page (which no longer exists), see if I could drive a small press novella up the ranks was a bust from the beginning.  But with the overwhelming response from bloggers who wanted to throw their collective shoulders behind the idea, I went ahead anyway. 

And, it turned out to be pretty fun.  I enjoyed writing some of those different guest posts and answering a whole bunch of interview questions that somehow - amazingly enough - managed to touch on many different topics without much overlap.  Some nice reviews came back, and I wrote some new short fiction.  I hope things didn't get too "over pimpy", as I tried to maintain my regular blog presence, as well.

Did it impact sales? Not much, I imagine.  Did it help spread the word about Hiram and me?  Maybe. I did get a whole slew of new Twitter and Facebook friends during the tour, far more than I usually get in a month. Will that translate into new fans of my work, new blog followers? Who knows, really?

Probably the nicest thing about the tour, the biggest surprise and best result was this: all the folks who chimed in and basically said with their efforts: "Hey, Kevin - we like your work and we think it's worth supporting. How can we help?"  That was probably the best takeaway, and something that really made my day for a whole month, seeing folks cross-posting, re-tweeting and posting things to Facebook.  

Some folks even did RL (real life) things like ordering Hiram Grange for their libraries, (something I'll detail about later, after I've resumed my regular blogging), set me up with potential speaking and signing gigs in the area, stuff like that.  I'm thankful for that, thankful for all of it, really.

Now, however...

Time to drop off the promotional radar.  There are a few reviews and interviews leftover from the tour that'll show up eventually, a few other reviews that had nothing to do with the tour due anytime, but what I really need to do now is let Hiram Grange go his way, and have me go mine.   I have a huge opportunity with these three chapters and novel synopsis, an opportunity that's basically a Godsend.  

A chance to pitch something to a New York publishing house. That's a whole 'nother level of awesome, so you can imagine I'll be pretty obsessed with that over the coming weeks and months.

Also, I have The Drift (Shroud novel) to return to, and in the Spring - The Terror of Miskatonic Falls.  Also, a few stories requested of me, and when I get final due dates on those, I need to get cranking there, too.

Busy, busy, busy....

Blog Tour Update

So far the blog tour has gone pretty well.  Initially, I wanted to play with some experience I'd gained as a reviewer on several other blog tours.  Back then, those tours all blogged about a particular book, they registered with Technorati, posted an Amazon URL, and Technorati featured a service called "Popular Books" which rated the most blogged about books on the interwebz.

The goal of those blog tours?  To blog about a certain book or a new release for a concentrated burst and push said book up the ranking of Technorati's Popular Books.  Some of the past tours I worked on pushed the book all the way to number one for three or four days straight, even past such hot tickets as Harry Potter and Eragon.  I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could push a small press release up Technorati's list.

As it turned out, though, Technorati discontinued or put on hold their Popular Books List, so the central part of my tour plan was skunked.  However, so many bloggers responded with not only interest but enthusiasm, I expanded the tour to a whole month, kicked off the Hiram Goodreads Giveway, and said: "What the heck?  Let's experiment and have some fun."

Anyway, we're about halfway through the tour, and what's been accomplished past some nice new reviews and interviews?  Who knows, really?  Definitely a bunch of new Facebook and Twitter friends, and some new blog followers.   The reviewers have indicated they really enjoyed Hiram, so that's been cool.  In the end if that's all I accomplished, that's good enough for me.  Any case, only about two more weeks of "Hiram pimping", and things will go back to their regularly scheduled programming.

Here are all the stops I've made so far.  Amazingly enough, all the interviews - past and future, unposted ones - have touched on completely different topics, so there's been very little crossover or repetition:

Interview at author Greg Mitchell's blog, Part One and Part Two.
Interview and bloody good tea at author Jackie Gamber's Tea on the Terrace.
Review at Serial Distractions. 
Interview at writer and reviewer Ben Eads' blog, Part One and Part Two, as well as his review.
Review by Martin Rose.
Review at The Event Horizon. 

Monday and Tuesday Swampdweller Reviews will feature another interview with me, I'll be guest blogging at Apex and Flames Rising, there'll be some more reviews, and hopefully a few other special surprises in store.  Anyway, if you've followed - thanks!  If not, come join the fun...

Should I Make A Shelfari "Kevin Lucia" Group? and Book Blog Tours

SO, I had this idea about a book blog tour for Hiram Grange & The Chose One.  An experiment, really.  A few years ago, I reviewed for a few book blog groups that picked a certain time of the week/month, blogged for three days consecutively about a book, always posting that book's Amazon URL so it'd "ping" Technorati's "Popular Book" list, moving it higher up the rankings, giving it more visibility.  I thought, "Hmm.  Wonder if we could do that for a small press novella?"

Sadly, Technorati no longer features its "Popular Book" list, and its book blog lists look too diffused and sprawling to feature anything I'd do with a tour.  Still, I had a really nice response from my query, so I'm going to do something this coming November.  Call it the "Month of Kevin".  I mean, why not?  At the end of November you roast a big turkey, and according to everyone I know and love, I'm....

Well.  You get the idea.

Anyway, there's a bunch of semi-formed ideas floating around in my head, but basically my thoughts are this...I'd love to get a bunch of blogs featuring Hiram Grange and...well... me...for the month of November.   You could do this in a few ways.  First of all, I've got tons of stuff I can  send you to post:  blurbs, an interview, other reviews, a synopsis, 1-3 chapters - either as text in your post or as a .pdf, other things.  I can send you a review .pdf or the real deal for your own review.  You can do your own interview with ME, if you'd like. If you don't have a blog, your Myspace blog or Facebook notes will do.

I don't have a set idea how many times a week I'd want to be featured.   I blog three times a week. I certainly don't want to hijack anyone's blog for a whole month.  AND, though all you folks have been really gracious in saying you won't take anything from ME, I've decided I'll give out some free stuff for a few different categories:

1. most posts total
2. most posts in one week
3. most creative posts

Plus, for the whole month of November, whenever I post, I'll post all the links of those people involved, and if those folks who are posting can ALSO post all the links of everyone involved, then you get this big huge whirlygig of interwebz fun.  Lots of traffic.

Now.  A word about marketing.  Word of mouth.  I'm a big fan.  But I also believe that if the quality isn't there, none of the above matters.  Heck, sometimes quality is there, word of mouth is too, and still things don't take off the way they should.  Anyway.  There are several reasons why I'm doing this:

1. experimenting for my first novel, which will be published by Shroud sometime 2011.  There are other, MUCH BIGGER ideas I'm keeping to myself.  This one is smaller, and needs tinkering.

2. Stoker Recommendations are happening.  Hiram Grange has already received a few recommendations.  It's ludicrous to believe it could be nominated, and I'm ludicrous that way.  BUT, I'm not into "trading" recommendations or begging HWA people to recommend it.

HOWEVER, one of the tips on the HWA page recommends (ironic) that those who want their work recommended should try and get it reviewed multiple places, build up a buzz, so then folks in a position to recommend it will have a natural inclination born of natural curiosity to check it out. So. Here's the buzz.

3. I'm basically bored and have very little in the way of a life, and I like to "tinker".  Makes me feel busy.

I'll have some RL (real life) ideas for contributing during the "Month of Kevin" over my next few blog posts, so those who are fans of the family and personal stuff, bear with me as I indulge in a little self-pimpage.  We have several doctors/teachers appointments coming up for Zack's recent sleeping difficulties, so I'll have plenty of that stuff soon, also.

Finally, I want to tie this into my Shelfari account and my Shelfari Author Page.  Also, I'm wondering...should I make a "Kevin Lucia" Shelfari Group?  Is that  too presumptuous? I don't want to make a Facebook fan page yet - I kinda loathe those things as it is, and that would feel too contradictory right now - but maybe a Shelfari "Kevin Lucia" group?  Is that too much?  Please - discuss.  And  if you haven't thrown in already: 


spreadingtheword@kevinlucia.com  YH84MTRVUV2T