Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step Two - Creating Promotional Materials and HTML

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Woohoo! Tomorrow is Friday! My excitement cannot be contained. If you were with me on Tuesday, you got the first taste of this little series on blog tours. Today is all about the graphics and the HTML, baby! I'll give you a list of posts with links, and we'll move on to the awesome stuff. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

I'll update the links on all the posts each day so you can find your way around. Time for the gravy!

First of all, if you don't have a way to create teaser images, you'll need to get one. Many, many people just use a book cover, and that's fine and dandy. But, if you want to look a little snazzier, here are a couple of tools you can use:

FREE
Gimp (there's a learning curve. Tutorials can be found here -- I also suggest downloading directly)
PicMonkey (the ever awesome Sarra Cannon has a tutorial on how to use it here)
Tagxedo - Word Cloud Maker
Canva

PAID
Adobe Photoshop (there's a learning curve here, too)

Gimp is close a close sister to Photoshop, so I'll give you a little walkthrough here in a minute. Right now, you need to go grab a photo to use. Please don't use photographs illegally! There are a couple of great sites with FREE public use images, and a couple that aren't too expensive to purchase digital rights to. Please, don't get you or your bloggers sued. Here's a list:

FREE
Free Use Photos on Flickr
Morguefile
Free for Commercial Use

PAID
Dreamstime
123rf
RedBubble
Bigstock
Dollar Photo Club

Remember, when buying or downloading an image for a teaser, you usually want the smaller version so it's not a webspace/loadtime hog.

Now you may want to get a new font that fits the look and feel of your book, yeah? Here are some free font sites (please look at the licensing on EACH font you plan to use):

Dafont
Fontsquirrel (these are 100% free for commercial use)

Of course, free fonts come with their own issues (like not being very clean), but I'm trying to do this on a budget here. If you think you may want to purchase a font, do a search for buy fonts. You'll be overwhelmed quickly.

Now, let's get into creation! I'm gonna use a teaser I already created, but my screen will look a little different because I'm in Photoshop.

Be sure you've installed any fonts you downloaded before you begin, and your images are somewhere you can locate them quickly.

Open Gimp and choose file--open.

Find your image and open it.

Look for a good place to put the text. I darkened the bottom a little with the burn tool.

Select the type tool and choose your font, then set the color.

Click anywhere on the image (you can drag the type once you add it), and type in your text.

Position the text and add some little colored bits to make some of the words stand out (play with it--don't be skeered)!

Add the book title somewhere!

Save that puppy in a folder titled "blogtour_titleofbook_documents" and name it "titleofbook_tourpackage_teaserimage"

You're ready to rock and roll!

Now, some people will want plain text while others want HTML. This is easy to do! Follow these steps:

• Type out your entire text in a new blog post (leave out links for now).
• Hit Ctrl+a, then Ctrl+c.
• Open a notepad or Word document.
• Hit Ctrl+v.
• Type in your links where they go.
• Save the text document in your tour folder as "titleofbook_tourpackage_plaintext" and close it.
• Add your images (book cover and teaser you just created) and your hyperlinks to your blog post.
• If you're using Blogger, click the HTML button on the top, left-hand side.
• Hit Ctrl+a, then Ctrl+c.
• Open a NEW Word or notepad document.
• Hit Ctrl+v.
• Save it in your tour folder as "titleofbook_tourpackage_HTML" and close it.

You're all done! Now you can send your package to the bloggers, and they can create magic.

How easy was that?

Don't worry, I know it seems like a lot right now, but soon you'll be an old hand at this. Tomorrow I'll go into how to find reviewers for your book.

Was this helpful? What didn't you already know?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Book Review - Honey Queen

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you another book review. This one wasn't on my TBR for the year, but I won a paperback at Utopia and took it on a trip with me. I devoured it. This title will go into the 2015 Time for Books Review Team pool. As of today, there are 373 book reviews posted there. You must check them out. Amazing authors on that list! Anyway, enough of my gabbing! Here's the book up for review today:

Title: Honey Queen
Author: Christina Mercer
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Mythological Romance
Length (print): 284 pages
Buy Link: Amazon Paperback $11.99

Blurb:
A Regional SCBWI "Best in Show"

Love is honey sweet, but it comes with a fatal sting . . .
Melaina Maris needs wings to fly the gap between loving Sam and her family's ancient curse that forces carnal love and then kills the male lovers. She won't let the same fate that killed her father befall another. She refuses to allow her goddess-created bloodline to continue. But there's no easy way out, specially after the curse turns her into the Honey Queen--savior to honey bees--intensifying her charms.

To help her fulfill the curse's demands in the least harmful way, her grandmother takes her to mate with terminally ill Boyd. But Boyd's gay. And an expert in mythology. Instead of having sex, Melaina learns how she might summon the goddess who created the first ancestor bee-charmer and cursed her bloodline. Melaina's magic--tears to save honey bees from endangerment--could be enough to persuade the goddess to end the curse. But an unexpected discovery soon changes that hope, spinning Melaina into a swarm of love, friendship and death.

***Will not appear in review elsewhere. Let me tell you, the cover and interior of this book blow me away! What a wonderful job by the designer. Love the branding with the bees. So amazing! I'd like to see the author's name a bit more prominently, but that's just a nitpick of mine :)***

Let's get to the review!

I won a copy of this book in a drawing at Utopia, a conference for women writers. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was, because I'd had my eye on this novel for a long time, but hadn't had an opportunity to add it to my TBR. Well, having a paperback turned out to be the thing that got me reading it (on an airplane, no less). I dove in and devoured this book in a little over twenty four hours. Now that you know how I came about a copy, let's get to my thoughts on what's inside.

From a Reader's Perspective:
What an interesting premise for a novel! I have to say, I've never read anything quite like it. Mythology, sure, but honey bees? I fell in love with the main character right away. Watching her struggle through the curse made me smile because she's funny when she's frustrated. Melaina's grandmother was awesome. I adored the interactions with her and the guys chasing her granddaughter. Quite a spry old lady. Tears of the Honey Queen being the savior of the bees was a great twisty idea.

Romance in this novel was a slow burn that had been building over the years. Take two characters that have known one another since childhood (and seem destined by the gods to be together), and you have a recipe for perfection. However, the romance didn't play front and center, even though it was the reason Melaina wanted to be free of the curse. It was beautifully complex.

Another thing I got into was the description of the cars. You can tell the author likes American classic muscle by the way she describes Melaina's vehicle. Roaring, even. I loved it!

Pacing was awesome, and didn't let up on the action from page one. Like I said above, I read all 200+ pages in just over twenty-four hours. There was never a time I felt like things were dragging.

One detail threw me off, and I mention it because it was questioned, clarified, then stated again several times. Melaina talks about how she's the last in the line of descendants from the goddess Aera. But the last daughter has always been the last in line--the only one left--until she procreates. There's one place where the characters mention how Iliana had two daughters, but then it's clarified when we find out one of those daughters died. So there's always been just one. Gran was the last when she was a teen, Melaina's mother, then Melaina. I just didn't quite understand why this girl was the most important "last" one.

From an Editor's Perspective:
Plot, grammar, and punctuation were all on the up and up. Nicely done!

Rating:
1 Star for making me love the main character and her Grandmother
1 Star for the fresh idea
1 Star for pacing and wonderful humor
.5 Star for the slow romance
-.5 Star for the confusion
1 Star for editing
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars! I round up, so this book gets a 5. Recommended for those who like a good dose of gods and goddesses and a fresh story idea.

What do you think? Have you read it? Plan to?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Creating Your Own Blog Tour - Step One - Signing up Bloggers

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Today, I'm talking about how to create your own blog tour. This will be a series of posts that will include how to sign up bloggers (today), how to create your promo materials (including HTML posts), how to find reviewers, how to create a Thunderclap campaign, and how to throw a Facebook launch party. If you've ever wanted (or needed) to do some (or all) of the things yourself, strap in, grab a pen and a notebook, and let's get going!

In this series:
How to Sign up Bloggers
Creating Promotional Materials and HTML
Finding Reviewers
Creating a Thunderclap Campaign
Throwing a Facebook Launch Party

If you all remember my post a while back about blog tour companies, you'll know why I'm about to tell you how to set up your own. It takes a lot more work from you to do it yourself, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

To start off, you need to head over to The Paisley Reader and learn how to set up a Google Form. Yes, it's about pre-orders, but it all works the same way, so it's relevant.

Here's something to think about: What kind of blog tour do you want to do? Options include:

• Cover Reveals
• Book Reviews
• Promo Blast
• Release Day Blast
• Author Interviews
• Meet the Character(s)
• Excerpt Blast
• Combo of Above

There are also things you can offer the blog's followers to increase signups. Maybe you'd like to give away a copy of your book or a gift card (or both). Yes, those things matter on two fronts!

One: You offer something to the bloggers for agreeing to handle your content.
Two: You offer value to the readers of the blog(s) for checking out your stuff.

Remember the rule of a great giveaway: What does everyone need or want?

Go with that and your click rate will increase tenfold.

You need to start this process a good two weeks ahead of time unless you want reviews. If you're doing a review tour, you'll want to start a month out.

So, decide if you want to have an enticement, and go create your form now. Once you're done, come back and we'll go into where to post the signup link.

Questions that should be on your form:

• Name
• Blog or other URL where you plan to share
• E-mail address
• Date you can post/share (you usually have dates in mind, checkboxes matter here).
• PLAIN TEXT OR HTML. We'll get into why this matters in the next post. 

Ready? Let's continue.

Places to ask folks to sign up:

• Street Team - If you have a street team (those folks who tirelessly promote your books everywhere), you'll want to start there. After all, they're already fans of your work and have agreed to share.
• Facebook Author Groups - Chances are, you're a member of an author group where writers of your genre go to collaborate. Many authors have a blog, and many of them will be willing to share your content with a copy/paste option.
• Facebook Reader Groups - Again, chances are, you're a member of a reader group where readers of your genre hang out. With an incentive, they'll likely sign up, too!
• Goodreads Groups - Authors or readers, this is a great place to increase signups!

Good rule of thumb: Don't be annoying! Post once and leave it alone.

Plan to take responses for at least a week (include a weekend). Now, in your Drive, you'll have a "responses" document that'll give you the hot info! If you want, print it out once you're done signing people up and have turned the form off.

You're all set! Hold on to that piece of paper or document in Drive so you can follow along with the rest of the series. This is just the beginning, but once you do it a couple of times, you'll be an old hat.

What do you think? Helpful? Anything not in the lineup that you'd like to see added?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Author Souls on Paper

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm gonna talk about something I've noticed more over the last few books I've read and why these things have suddenly come to my attention. I still find it awesome how conferences and interaction with other authors has changed the way I feel when I read now. Anywho, you ready? Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and let's get going!

I got on an airplane Friday to go to my daughter's bridal shower. While traveling, I always have a paperback handy (it makes flight attendants less nervous than me having my iPad or iPhone out, so I get left alone) so I can read and not get roped into conversations with seatmates.

This trip, I took a book I won at Utopia back in June: Honey Queen by Christina Mercer. I'll have a review later in the week, but I want to talk about many books right now, not just that one.

If you remember my review of Lex Talionis, I talked about the protagonist and how awesome she was. Same with Twisted, Never Forgotten, and the Tala Prophecy series. As different as these books were, I realized something after meeting the authors:

They've put their inner desires, their very souls, on paper for the world to see. I know more about the authors because I've read the words they wrote. Sometimes, it was before I met them in person, and sometimes, it was afterward. But each story held a nugget of what the author believed in, their inner strengths, and their core values.

I wonder if people get that from books they read? 

As I sat and thought about it, I realized I probably know, on a very soulful level, so many authors. I get a wonderful idea of the values they hold, and I can see what they're fighting for with their words. I've also seen authors grow as they write, becoming more like the characters on the page. Through those characters, the authors seem to grow out of their shells and take on some of their characters' traits: strength, outgoing personalities, bravery, and even self-awareness.

Perhaps this is why we feel our books are a lot like our children, and it might explain the reaction we have to negative reviews. Do we feel as though we're being judged because we've poured so much of ourselves into the story?

It's been eye-opening, for sure. It also made me think about my own books. Can people see the me on the inside as they read my stories?

Do you think you know what makes me tick? What story (or stories) of mine were the culprits?

I'm dying of curiosity over here.

Look forward to the review of Honey Queen later in the week. You'll be seeing a lot more book reviews over the next few months as I gear up to clear out and restock my virtual shelves in December. Yeah, baby!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

UTOPiAcon 2016 - What the Heck are Revolutions and Revelations?

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today is my very first post as one of the 2016 official Utopia bloggers. We have quite a lineup of rock stars for you this year, so I hope you're ready to get your information buzz on! As many of you may know, the theme for UTOPiAcon 2016 is Fight for Your Write.

Before I get going on revolutions and revelations, and how those pertain to the theme, I'd like to share with you all the ways you can keep up with news about the goings on at UTOPiAcon for 2016. Get your clicking fingers ready, and let's get going!

First and foremost, get your tickets! They're available now here (including one day fan passes).

Subscribe to the blog on the Utopia site:
Utopia blog

Subscribe to the official blogs:
Mine (link is on the right)
Maria Pease
Toni Lesatz
Shana Benedict
Kathryn Grimes
Ashley Bodette
Ren Reidy
Delphina Miyares

Subscribe to the official book tuber's channel:
Christina Marie

Follow Our Magazine on Flipboard:
UTOPiAcon BUZZ

Give my radio show a follow:
A Daily Cup of Jo

Join the Unofficial Facebook Group:
We Are Going to Utopia!

Like the Official Utopia Facebook Page:
UTOPiAcon

Join the event on Facebook:
UTOPiAcon

Follow Utopia on Twitter:
@utopia_con

So, now that you know where you can get your news about the most amazing writer's conference on the planet, let's get into what all this revolution and revelation stuff is about, eh?

Revolution: a dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized or in people's ideas about it.

Janet has already introduced her own revolution by changing the way Utopia happens. In 2016, there will be games, more workshops, and new age ranges for the con.

Attendees are creating revolutions of their own because of what they felt or learned at the conference. On the Utopia Revolutions portion of A Daily Cup of Jo (every other Thursday), Christina Marie has a chat with attendees creating their own revolutions. How their minds changed because of the conference, and what awesome things they're out there accomplishing now. There have already been two interviews, and you can expect many more! Check out Christina Benjamin here and Kelly Risser here.

See and hear what these women are doing. Revolutions are all about change, and Utopia embraces and incites those changes with warm hugs and author education.

Revelation: a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way.

Attendees will say it all the time: I never thought I was anyone, and I never thought I was capable of anything, until I attended Utopia. I had this moment, this spark, this idea, and everything seemed to sort of click into place. I realized: I can do it. I am someone. I'm part of something bigger than myself.

Now, these folks didn't come by this information gradually. No. That would be too un-life-altering to make an impact. They were hit with a sneak attack lightning bolt that shot from the ether and struck their heart, making it swell and grow with ambition and self-assurance.

One Wednesday morning a month, Ren Reidy and I will be talking with someone who had that lightning struck moment. We'll find out what caused it, what it was, and how the author has put it into action. One Wednesday evening a month, Kathryn Grimes will take over and have a talk with an author. You'll be shocked at how many people have had their whole lives changed by Utopia. Allyson Gottlieb joined me last week to talk about how her mindset was altered. Check out the interview here.

Revelations are all about being introduced to new ideas. Whether it's how to do something, when do do something, or just the fact that you can do something, you'll find your spark, your tribe, your herd of unicorns at Utopia.

Come join us and FIGHT FOR YOUR WRITE!

~~~ 

You need to be sure and check out Maria's post for this week to discover what Utopia resolutions are all about. Those are some fun posts!

Did you learn anything from this post? What are you waiting for? Get your tickets already. We'd LOVE to see you there!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Your Opening Scene

Happy Thursday, everyone! Hang in there, Friday is just around the corner. Today, I'm talking about your opening scene. There are certain obligations you, the writer, have in those first few pages, and I'll go over the most imperative four. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

When you're browsing a bookstore, do you just read the blurb on the back of the book, or do you open the cover and read a couple of paragraphs to see if you might like what's inside?

I'm betting you do a little of both. Well, the people who plan to read your novel will likely do the same thing. Why not hook them with a little bit of oomph? There are a couple of things people don't even know they're looking for, but if those things are missing, their reader brains will shut off and your book will be stuck back on the shelf or dropped back on the table.

Some of these, I bet you even do on accident. Besides the tips on using powerful words, from a post I wrote on the first one hundred, you have to set certain things up. If you missed the post before this one, I recommend checking it out, too.

1. You have to hook the reader into the story. This goes back to that post on the first one hundred words. These words should be powerful and resonate deeply in the soul. Perhaps even introduce the central conflict or present a question that will be answered later. Either way, you want them to keep reading.
2. Consistency is the ruler of all else. Your beginning should set the tone and establish rules you'll adhere to later on in the story. Don't have the reader walk into a suspense thriller only to throw them into fairy land a page later (unless it's a fantasy thriller with killer sprites that slash people to death with razor wings). You get the point here. Also, don't use a hook that has nothing to do with the rest of the novel. Readers will feel, rightly so, they've been hoodwinked.
3. Give the central conflict. Your reader wants to know why they should keep reading. If Jane is going to plod through the book with no direction or goal, it probably won't be something many (any?) people would enjoy spending time on. There's room for some action. If you're using a prologue, this is where you can show the blood, guts, and gore (if that's what your book is all about) just before the bad guy escapes and leaves a path of death in his wake. Yes!
4. Hint at the ending. Have you ever been stuck at the end of a story that's flown from your fingers up until that point? It might be time to start reading your manuscript from the beginning. If you've crafted it well, you'll have an idea of where it's going by examining where it began. Readers like that, too! When they have a vague idea of what might happen, they're intrigued enough to buy the book to find out. Think "central conflict" as mentioned above.

Don't backstory dump on your reader! Please. Readers aren't stupid. In fact, many of them are highly educated and well read. They know how to infer things from the text. You don't have to spoonfeed them every single detail. Especially in the first chapter. Trust that your audience is intelligent, and your writing will take on a whole new level of awesome.

Did you know any of these? What's your favorite hundred opening words of all time?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Surprise! A New Collaborative from the Authors of Fractured Glass

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Boy, do I have some news for you. I hope you have your knickers on, because this announcement is a big one. Ready? Grab your cup of Jo and let's get going.

If you remember Fractured Glass, it's one novel with five sections written by five different authors. Yeah, we told a complete story, each of us writing 20k then passing it off to the others for further storytelling.

This title won't be done that way. No, I'm not giving you spoilers and telling you what we're doing. What I can tell you is this:

• Nothing like this has ever been done before. We're flipping things once again.
• We'll all be sticking to one genre (Paranormal Fiction), but we're changing the construct of the story and the definition of collaborative fiction once again.
• Yes, I'm teasing you. I want to know if you're intrigued.
• We met, once again, at Utopia this past June, to hash out this title and nail down the plot and specifics.
• Our character bios are complete.
• There have been many words written already.
• A blurb is coming with the cover reveal in October.

I bet you want to know the working title, huh? Well, here it is:

On Amazon, it'll be titled 7. Is it vague? Yes. This story is meant to keep you guessing until the end. Even we don't know what will happen once our characters come full circle.

What do you think? Have any guesses?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo