A Howl in the Night - Blog Tour Schedule

My blog tour with Goddessfish has started.  As promised, the following is a list of my blog stops for the week.  Please come over, leave a comment, and check out the reviews and interviews, and all the fun stuff that I have going on.  There are a lot of different posts throughout the tour.  Not JUST interviews, or JUST reviews either.  Plus you can enter to win one of two Amazon Gift Certificates just for commenting. 

July 30, 2012: From Me to You

And: Long and Short

July 31, 2012: Bajan Rosa Books

August 1, 2012: Coffee Addicted Writer

And: It's Raining Books

August 2, 2012: Welcome to my World of Dreams

August 3, 2012: Tara Len Walker

~*~

Also, as an update to my radio discussion of last week.  I am still working my way though the process, but I am 3 of 4 steps through.  Maybe in the near future I will be able to promote a radio event.  That would be fun and scary.  But as I have been told, we have to put our big girl panties on and deal with the things that scare us.  So onward I go to the land of scary. 

Hope to see you all at the blog tour stops.  Have a great week!

ctny

...and then I thought, RADIO

As an author, I am finding that I spend more and more time trying to find new and better ways to market my books.  I can’t sell my books to people if they don’t know they are out there. 

So this week, I spent time looking into radio, both advertising and interviewing.  Advertising is way, way out of my league.  So that left interviews.  I googled, I researched, and I found several options that I am looking into. 

Why radio?  Truthfully?  Cause internet is not working for me.  There is just too much information out there to trunnel your way through to find things and my book is one of them.  My latest release, A Howl in the Night, spent one day at #65 on Amazon.  That was due to a huge marketing promotion.  Once the promotion ended, I went right back up to #135,000.  How are people supposed to find my book when it’s listed that far down the list.  I can’t run a promotion every day.  I wish I could, but I can’t.

I have tried google “Adwords”.  I have tried Facebook “Adsense”.  I have tried so many things and I have come to realize, I just don’t know enough people to get the word out.  This weekend I learned that ½ of 1% of the people that know about you and your book or whatever you are trying to get noticed out there, will actually buy your book.  That means 5 people out of 1000.  No wonder I am having a hard time.  I only know like 250 people! 

So I am working on trying to get a radio interview.  We will see how that goes.  I’ll let you know. 

Speaking of promotions, next week I will begin my blog tour with Goddessfish. Come over Monday and I will post my links for the week. Please visit at the stops and comment.  Not only could you win some fun prizes, but it would make my day to see the comments and let me know that maybe something in the promo department is working, at least a little. 

Have a great week everyone!

Here I Am

Hello all blog readers!  Where have I been?  You would not believe the two weeks I have had! 

It all started off on June 29, 2012. A lovely summer storm rolled through our area and knocked us flat!  That was quite the drive home.  The wind was so strong I was truly worried about being pushed off the road.  I didn’t care how long it took though I was getting home to my girls.  I pulled up front of the house and see this!

Oiy.  As you can guess, I didn’t know where to park.  I ended up in the front side yard, praying that my car did not end up like my husband’s truck. 

Poor little truck.  What did our truck ever do to you, big stinky tree!  As you can guess, this did not go over greatly with my husband.  Anyway, I get inside and the lights are flickering, and smoking, and popping.  My girls are safe down in the basement, my husband is racing down to the main circuit breaker and off goes the power.  The house is smoky and dark, and immediately humid as all heck.  The firemen are making their rounds.  They see our mess and stop to make sure we are all right.  They tromp through the house, note the smoke, check our circuits, and say to leave the main off until the electric people can come out.  Our power line has been hit by a tree coming down, and has popped partially away from the house.  Great.  So that begins the fun. 

The next day is book release party day.  I can’t shower.  I’m not even sure I can get out of the yard.  Is there power at PJ’s?  We get to work on yard clean up.  Hahahaha.  That’s a joke.  We have 2 people with chainsaws, and me and Seren with a rake and bags, and after 2 ½ hours of work you can not even see much of a difference. Thankfully, PJ’s calls and says they are set for the party.  Yay.  One thing good for the day.  I hit the showers, get dressed and cleaned up as best I can in the dark, and I head off to the party. 

Not a great turn out.  Thanks to the storm so many people couldn’t make it.  I got several calls saying how sorry they were.  They did however, order books, so all in all it wasn’t a waste.  Not as great as I wanted or hoped, but not a waste.  That’s something.

Day 3 begins.  Sunday.  Still no power.  Hot as heck (100+). 

Day 4:  Monday.  Still no power.  Hot as heck. (100+)

Day 5:  Tuesday.  Still no power Hot as heck. (100+)

Day 6:  Wednesday, also known as the 4^th of July.  I get up with the intention of going into town for the parade, but I sit up and see that we still do not have power and I just have a complete breakdown.  Thankfully my sweet husband got up and went out to get breakfast and coffee and I was alone during my tears of self-pity.  Then, thank you LORD! Around 3:00 p.m. while we are sweltering away the day, AEP finally comes.  Five minutes later, the power if fixed, and they are gone.  FIVE MINUTES!  That’s all it took!  Freaking 5 minutes!  We go through the house to see what has died in the power surge.  We only lost a few light bulbs, a clock radio, and the netflix refuses to reconnect to our blueray.  Not sure what that is all about, but all in all not to shabby.  Cable is out, and internet is out.

Day 7-10:  Still no cable.  Still no internet.  This is even after 2 phone calls, an in home appointment and 2 additional phone calls.  I had to get snarky on the phone for them to finally get the problem fixed.  So Tuesday, July 10^th, in the evening, was when we were finally back to normal. 

I wont say how much food had to be tossed, how much patience was tested, and how many tempers were lost during this period.  All I can say is thank GOD we are finally back to normal as I truly don’t think I could have taken much more. 

On the good side, Seren’s softball team won their first game, and their tournament game to end the season in 3^rd place (Out of 5).  Congrat’s Orange Crush, it was quite the intense season. 

As for writing, without any power or internet, I didn’t get crap done in the way of writing.  I am finally back to it and making headway, but am so far behind.  So if you haven’t seen me at your blog lately this is why.  I hope to play catch up today and tomorrow. Then I have promos to do and then finally it’s back to my current WIP:  Angels Fall.  Yay. 

See ya next week.

Ctny