Hola! Today is finally the day for Scott's Blog Tour! Woot! And remember if you want to be eligible to win a Kindle 3 or Kindle DX all you have to do is comment with your contact info! You get one entry per blog you visit so make sure to check out all the stops along the tour! And without further ado here's Scott!
Okay, this feels like the day where I can’t think of anything fresh to say. Hopefully, that means it will be the best post of the tour.
The whole blog tour has been one big, crazy promo idea, designed to sell books and make me rich so I can sit on a big pile of cash and go “Bwahahaha. I win!”
Except I’m not that dumb. I know it doesn’t happen that way. The only way to become an overnight sensation is to get trapped in a mine for a couple of months, have your sailboat blow off course as a teenager, get born to a Palin, or else already be rich and famous. Or at least famous.
The rest have to stay slow and steady, meeting one reader at a time. Most writers and artists have to brainstorm with creative ways to sell their books, and I’ve probably worked as hard as it as anyone, though nothing compares to JA Konrath and his 500-stop book tour where he dropped in and signed copies across the country. Now Joe doesn’t have to promote, because everyone else does it for him. (See?)
But I’ve also done some crazy stunts like giving away three of my teeth to promote They Hunger (here is Shawn, a.ka. Monster A-Go-Go, with one of them). I also rounded up a photo shoot with a real model and an ancient casket, using the gimmick of “Buy my book or I’ll kill this vampire.” I printed up about 300 slick sheets of the promo and sent it to my publisher and never heard a peep, nor saw any, so I suspect they all got recycled. A monumental fail, but fortunately I utilized (a.k.a. “exploited”) friends for most of the work so all it cost me was for the model and the printing.
I’ve tied in real-world events with my promotion, especially in relating Appalachian ghost stories and the real places that inspired my novels. As a journalist, I know a local angle sells better when you’re trying to get coverage, and “I wrote a book” simply isn’t news anymore when Aunt Gertrude and her dyslexic offspring are self-publishing. My best efforts were on The Red Church, where I wrote a monthly column series following the year-long publication process of the book. It was widely published on the Internet and in writing newsletters and the book sold like hotcakes (in fact, it’s still one of my best sellers).
I’ve posted in numerous forums, been a member of four writing organizations, and written lots of free articles. All these blog posts on the tour equal about a novel’s worth of work, which is why I am going to collect them in a book when I’m done. I’ve given blurbs, written reviews, built up a Twitter community, and participated in a number of additional blogs. I run Indie Books Blog to help newer writers get some exposure.
I’ve had a number of contests besides Kindle giveaways, and maybe I’ve given away more books than I’ve sold. I’ve created press kits for all my New York books. I turned myself into a comic book character. I’ve conducted writing workshops for schools, libraries, and writing groups, and of course have done a few hundred store signings. What does it all add up to?
You.
I don’t know which of those activities got you here, but here you are. I hope I can share a book with you and give you a Kindle.
-------------
This week’s Scott special is
Disintegration, 99 cents for a limited time.
Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers
As I Die Lying,
Drummer Boy,
Forever Never Ends,
The Skull Ring,
Burial to Follow, and
They Hunger. His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are
Creative Spirit,
Troubled, and
Solom. He’s also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include
Ashes,
The First,
Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, and
Flowers.
To be eligible for the Kindle DX or Kindle 3, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered
once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. I’m also giving away a Kindle 3 through the
tour newsletter and a
Pandora’s Box of free e-books to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on
Twitter. Thanks for playing. Complete details at
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm ---------------
I'm currently reading The Skull Ring and I have to say I am getting paranoid! Julia's past keeps coming back to haunt her, and I'm feeling haunted too. Every time I get in my car I look in the back seat. O.O Everything that keeps happening is cast as coincidences and just figments of her imagination but I keep just waiting for some creep to show up with a knife. Like gah! I mean I love having the crap scared out of me. This is why I like scary movies so much. Yet it is infinitely creepier reading a scary novel. Can't wait to reach the end! The anticipation is killiing me. If you love a good scary story then you need to read it!
A huge thanks to Scott for asking me to be apart of this tour! Now all of you comment! Ya know you want a Kindle! XD