The internet is a wonderful thing. We all know that. But it still makes me happy from time to time with new and original things. Webcomics like Jesus & Mo or xkcd, for example. Forums dedicated to any number of niche subjects where you can become firm friends with someone you’ve never met that lives half a planet away. Lolcats and Loldogs. The answers to pretty much anything you might want know. Answers you didn’t want to know to things you wish you’d never thought of. And virtual book tours.
The prevalence of blogging has given rise to a new phenomena in the world of books. It’s now not unusual for an author to take their book (or books) on the virtual road, visiting a number of different places in cyberspace. That’s what I’ll be doing for ten days, starting July 20th 2009.
I’ve tried to make the book tour as interesting as possible. First and foremost it’s about exposing new audiences to the existence of my books and myself as a writer. It’s a marketing ploy. But along with that, it’s a social interaction. All the places that are hosting a day of my book tour will hopefully get new visitors to their blog. Those visitors will be exposed to a variety of blogs they might not have known about before. My readers will find new blogs and the regular visitors to those blogs might spend a bit of time here. And along the way I’ll hopefully generate a bit of interest in RealmShift and MageSign and maybe even sell a few copies.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful bloggers that have stepped up to help me out with this adventure. You all rule!
Here’s the rundown of the book tour with a bit of info about what to expect at each stop along the way:
Day one: Guest post: Dark Fantasy – What is it exactly? – Monday 20th July at The Creative Penn
Here I’ll be discussing just what makes something dark fantasy, as that’s what RealmShift and MageSign are most often classified as.
Day Two: Interviewed by Leticia Supple – Tues 21st July at Brascoe Books Blog
Brascoe Books, a great Australian indie publisher, chats with me about publishing and writing and all the associated stuff, from an indie point of view.
Day Three: Guest post: Writing a good fight scene – Wed 22nd July at David Wood Online
I’m often congratulated on well-written and exciting fight scenes. On this day I’ll be talking about some of things that make a written fight scene interesting and realistic.
Day Four: Interviewed by April Hamilton – Thurs 23rd July at Publetariat
Publetariat is a hub site for all indie authors and on this day I’ll be chatting about my experiences as an indie author and publisher and why I went that route.
Day Five: Guest post: Demons and where to find them – Friday 24th July at Joan De La Haye’s blog
Joan loves her demons and blogs about a different one every Friday. She’s kindly given this Friday over to me and I’ll be talking about demons more generally, what they are, why they are and where they come from.
Day Six: Wily Writers publishing my short story “Stand Off” (featuring Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign) as both text and podcast – Sat 25th July at Wily Writers website
You may have read this story right here at The Word but Wily Writers are not only reprinting it, but podcasting it too!
Day Seven: Ruthie reviews MageSign – Sun 26th at Ruthie’s Book Reviews
This is the day when Ruthie will post her review of MageSign. I really hope she liked it! She already reviewed RealmShift here and gave it 4/5.
Day Eight: Pat Bertram interviews Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign – Mon 27th July at Pat Bertram Introduces…
An unusual but very cool idea, where Isiah answers some questions about himself and his work.
Day Nine: Guest post: Indie authors and the future – Tues 28th July at Musings Of An Aussie Writer
Fellow AHWA member and horror writer BT hosts a post from me about indie authorship and how I see the future of the method playing out.
Day Ten: Guest post: The inspiration for RealmShift and MageSign, what they’re about and what’s next – Wed 29th July at The Furnace
On this last day of the tour I’ll be talking about what inspired RealmShift and MageSign, how they came to written and what I’m working on next.
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Also, as a special bonus throughout the tour, both RealmShift and MageSign will be available in a variety of ebook formats from Smashwords.com for just US$1 each. I’ll post direct links to each article here as each one goes up and I’ll also post the discount codes for the US$1 books with each direct link.
So please do get on board, follow the tour, feel free to comment on any of the posts as I’ll be happy to have any discussions that they trigger. Tell your friends about it and spread the word for me. Hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun.
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Now that is an interesting idea. How did you come by it?
Will have to follow the tour around, see the sites and how it all goes.
It’s an idea I’d read about here and there for a while. Then Joan De La Haye (who’s helping out on this one) did a blog book tour for her novel, Shadows. I hosted one of the days of that and thought, “I should really do this!” So I am.
[...] The RealmShift and MageSign Virtual Book Tour – Starts July 20th [...]
[...] The RealmShift and MageSign Virtual Book Tour – Starts July 20th [...]
[...] The RealmShift and MageSign Virtual Book Tour – Starts July 20th Interview with Alan Baxter: How to Set Up a Blog Tour and Why Print Books Will Become a Niche Market Two posts centred around a Blog book tour by Alan Baxter. If you haven’t clued up about blog book tours and what they can do for you, then here is a good place to start. [...]