Some people have asked me to explain how the blog party came together in the way that it did and the value of it for me, so here it is.
Lots of authors have blog parties and ask their author friends to participate. I always have fun at those, but it seemed like often the same people would be there. Which is fine too, I love my crowd.... but I wanted to try to find a way to be different, to reach more teens.
Then I decided to use only Pulse authors. That way I could see if my publisher would support the blog party. I wrote the marketing department and told them my idea. At the same time I was also getting in touch with Pulse authors. The response from authors was fantastic. I only had three tell me no, and mostly because they had huge events going on in their lives. And my publicity people were behind it 100%. They told me to come up with a guest list and they would design me a logo and a banner. So I kept asking for things. I asked for an invitation and got a fabulous one. I asked for a ticker and got one. I asked for a big box of Pulse books and got that too. But the big prize was they promised to send an announcement of the party out to the Check Your Pulse E-zine list... this reaches thousands of librarians, teachers, teens and other teen fic lovers.
With everything looking so professional, I garnered a lot of industry attention. I got a mention on Ypulse, a marketing site devoted to teens and middle graders, I made it to countless blogs, and I even had another Pulse editor write to tell me how much she loved the idea and the invite.
I sent the invite to everyone I knew and on the first day of the party, Pulse sent it on to their e-zine. The results the first day were huge... over 150 comments and the hits went through the roof. My hits stayed high, though they slumped on Weds a bit and picked back up on Thursday.
Will this result in more books being sold? I think so... I hope so. But I did accomplish several things. One, I had a great party and it was a blast. Two, I got my name out there in a big way. Three, I learned that publishers are willing to go the extra mile if your PR event promotes more than just one author or book. (I really think giving them more bang for their buck is key. )
I also made some fabulous friends in the industry. Writers are just nice people, you know?
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9 comments:
NICE! I'm so glad you got everything you wanted and had a blast, and I'm sure it will get more people to buy your book, because they now know much more about you and your book. And it IS fun to promote other authors/books at the same time too. :)
I'm glad the party went well. Congrats!
-Lauren
I love "behind the scenes" posts like this - thanks.
Now all you have to do if you want 1000 comments is to give away all 4 of Stephanie Meyer's books like Maw Books is doing ;)
Great post, Teri - I think you might be turning into a marketing guru!!!!!!!!
Thanks for recapping this, Teri! So interesting/exciting! And I LOVED the party.
I know! Writers are nice people and amazing too. ;-)
Thanks for sharing this insight. I really liked the party and your point about promoting more than yourself.
Congrats on such a successful event. I wish I'd been around more to hang out at it.
Great post! Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, we are a pretty good group, aren't we? *:?) Congrats on the huge success of your huge party. May it result in HUGE sales for you and the other authors involved!!!
Awh! I've been out of the loop for a bit and missed what happened. :-( But it sounds like you all had a blast! :-)
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