Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #6

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on different blogs every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, and broaden your blog-reading horizons.

First, I visit Mary Duncan's blog, Eyes of Garnet, and talk about the problems with modern publishing, and when Ebooks will finally replace print books.

http://eyesofgarnet.blogspot.com/2009/03/guest-blogger-ja-konrath-on-his-cyber.html

Then, if you're burning to know what JA Konrath is like while doing one of his infamous book tours, now you can get read a third-party account. I did a mini-tour in St. Louis with wonderful author Joanna Slan, and she wrote an article about it for the Romance Writer's Report. She has kindly reprinted it on her blog.

http://joannaslan.blogspot.com/2009/03/travels-with-joe-what-its-like-to.html

Please take the time to visit and bookmark all of these terrific blogs.

Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #5

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on different blogs every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, and broaden your blog-reading horizons.

Over past few days I've talked about my favorite horror books, getting rejection letters, writing sex scenes, and I revealed my top ten editing tips.

First stop today is at Gabrielle Harbowy's blog, Gabrielle.Edits, where I share what every writer needs to know about working with an editor, and reveal my super secret power.

http://www.gabrielle-edits.com/2009/03/05/be-afraid-of-ja-konrath/

Then I visit Kathleen McDade over at TechnoEarthMama, where we discuss why I used a pseudonym, parenting, and free Ebooks.

http://www.technoearthmama.com/2009/03/a-talk-with-ja-konrath/

Finally, an unscheduled tour stop. If you can't wait until March 31st to get your copy of AFRAID, or if you're broke and can't come up with $6.99, Ali Karim and J. Kingston Pierce are giving away free copies at The Rap Sheet.

If you win a copy, help me out and review it someplace. Time Magazine would be nice, but I'd be thrilled if you could review it anywhere online.

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2009/03/fear-and-free-books.html

Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #4

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on different blogs every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, and broaden your blog-reading horizons.

Today, I'm over at Brian Crawford's blog, The Leaf Blower, talking about something near and dear to all writers: rejection. Check it out at:

http://theleafblower.blogspot.com/2009/03/rejection-konrath-style.html

It's also worth noting that the response to this blog tour has been more enthusiastic than I had anticipated, and there are many more blogs that want to host me than days in March.

I've decided the only fair thing to do is to accept all offers, though that means several visits per day. The ultimate goal is to link blogs and cross-pollinate fans, so the more the merrier. If you've requested to host me, and haven't heard back, feel free to keep emailing until I respond, as my inbox is a bit...overwhelmed.

If you like radio interviews, and want to see if I'm as witty live as I am in print, check out Rowena Cherry's show, Crazy Tuesdays. Yesterday I gabbed with her for two hours, and was joined by fellow scribes Michelle Pillow and Lori Soard.

http://www.internetvoicesradio.com/CrazyTuesday.htm

Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #3

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on a different blog every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, and broaden your blog-reading horizons.

Today, I'm over at romance author's Beth Ciotta's blog. As befitting such a setting, the entry is about sex.

Did that get your attention?

http://bethciotta.blogspot.com/2009/03/thrillerhorror-writer-gets-sexy.html

Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #2

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on a different blog every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, and broaden your blog-reading horizons.

Today I'm visiting Kerryn Angell, revealing my favorite editing tips.

http://www.kerrynangell.com/2009/03/ja-konraths-top-ten-editing-tips.html

Kerryn also graciously posted the tips on Kiwi Writers.

http://www.kiwiwriters.org/news/klog/jakonrath-editing-tips.html

Check out what I have to say, leave some comments, and then feel free to surf both sites. They're filled with great info for writers.

Where's Konrath? Blog Tour Day #1

To promote my horror novel, AFRAID, which debuts March 31, I'm appearing on a different blog every single day in March.

Please follow my daily journey, broaden your blog-reading horizons, and let me and my fellow bloggers know if this is working for you or not by chiming in with comments.

Today I'm visiting Robert Swartwood, discussing horror novels.

Read all about it here : http://robertswartwood.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/some-horror-novels-joe-konrath-wishes-hed-written/

Where's Konrath? Blog Touring

I never believed that blog book tours work.

A blog book tour, for the uninitiated, is when an author appears on as many other blogs as possible, promoting their book. Sort of like actors doing a talk show circuit to promote a new movie.

I've never tried it before, but I came by my beliefs fairly. A few years ago, I had a contest with my friend and fellow author (not to mention self-promotional genius) MJ Rose. Our contest, if memory serves, was a virtual vs. physical book tour. She tried to make guest appearances on as many blogs as possible, while I tried to visit as many bookstores as possible.

I won. Not because MJ isn't an amazing marketer. But because this was 2006, and there weren't as many blogs, or blog readers, back then.

Well, now it's 2009, and I want to give it a shot.

As I've said ad nauseum, people don't like ads. They like information and entertainment.

So I'm going to give it to them. And I need your help.

I'm going to be contacting many of the blogs that I've linked to. Check the sidebar to see those blogs.

My blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, gets several hundred thousand unique hits a year. You can see by the FEEDJIT Live Traffic Map (that world map picture in the upper righthand corner) how many people are currently reading me.

Would you like my readers to become your readers? Here's how we can make that happen.

I invite you to invite me on your blog. You can interview me about anything at all, like promotion, or writing, or publishing. You can ask me to guest blog on specific topics. You can have me do a meme list. The sky is the limit.

Then, in March. I'm not going to blog anything new. Instead, every day I'm going to post a link and tell my readers to go to your blog, where I'm appearing.

You know how blogging works. You'll get a lot of new hits from new readers, and if they like you, they'll bookmark you and return.

Besides linking to your blog on my blog (which gets 700 to 1000 hits a day), I'll link to your blog on my Twitter (383 friends), on my Facebook (1641 friends) and on my MySpace (13218 friends.)

Win-win. You get new readers. I reach new demographics.

Will this work? Hell if I know. But in my last newsletter, I asked for fifty people to review my latest novel, and I got well over a hundred responses.

If I can fill up every day in March with guest blog spots, I think it would mean more traffic for everyone involved.

So over the next few days, I'll be contacting bloggers to ask to guest post.

If you'd like me to guest post on your blog, contact me and we'll set a date in March.

I love experiments like this. If it fails, authors will know that it's a big waste of time and effort. But if it works, we could actually be laying down the framework for a way to self-promote that doesn't involve airplanes, hotels, author escorts, or big bucks.

Email me at haknort(at)wowway.com if you want to give this a shot.