What better way to celebrate than with wisterias in full bloom!
The Light Never Lies Blog Tour has come to an end. The tour ran over a three month period with nineteen stops on seventeen different blogs – seven interviews, five guest posts (written by yours truly) and five book reviews. I estimate the total reach of the tour was in the range of 10,000 viewers.
There were prizes attached to the tour – two softcover copies of The Light Never Lies. I am happy to announce the names of the winners.
Jill Weatherholt won for being the blog host who garnered the most engagement on her post. Including her responses, she had 82 comments! Whew, Jill – loyal followers or what? I send out many thanks to Jill and say congratulations on managing a very engaging blog. Please, people, check out and follow Jill’s blog.
Gwen Stephens won the random draw taken from all commenters over the course of the tour. Gwen was also one of my hosts and she was running in second place to Jill for post engagement with 67 comments. You won’t go wrong to be following Gwen either – she blogs over on The 4 A.M. Writer. Intriguing blog name, right?
Many, many thanks to every one of my seventeen blog hosts. I plan to keep the tour page up on my blog so links to all of your great blogs stay put.
The blog tour sold books and it increased the number of followers on my own blog. All the bloggers who did reviews posted those reviews up to various Amazon sites and often to Goodreads, as well. This was an added bonus for me.
By reposting the tour stops to my own blog, putting links up to Facebook and tweeting, I was happy to direct new traffic to my blog hosts and increase my own visibility.
I put this blog tour together on my own. It was a lot of work but well worth the effort. It’s sort of like what my husband often tells the clients of his construction and renovation business – if you want to put in some sweat equity on this project and work with me, you’re going to get a better price. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying you can’t have a good experience with a money-out-of-pocket blog tour. I’m just saying, here’s something else to think about.
I am planning a more of a how-to post where I’ll provide tips on getting the most out of a do-it-yourself tour.
In closing, do consider putting together your own tour. And if another blogger asks you to be a host, carefully think about the request. It doesn’t have to be a free-for-all. A few of my hosts were very detailed in what they thought their followers would be interested in and that’s great. I appreciated that they knew what would work and gave firm guidelines. Win, win for everyone.
disappearinginplainsight 
Congratulations on a successful blog tour, Fran. I can only imagine how much behind the scenes work was involved.
I was honored to host you on my blog. After I saw your post on the storyboard, I knew I wanted to know more. It’s so impressive.
Yay for Gwen! She’s awesome…a true gem in the blogosphere.
Thank you for the mention and for allowing me to participate. By the way, those pictures are gorgeous!
Nothing like wisteria in bloom. We’ve been babying this one for about 16 years so enjoy every second of it when it blooms. Expect to see your copy of The Light Never Lies on your doorstep or in your mailbox on or before June 10th. Enjoy 🙂
Congratulations Francis. I appreciate the hard work and enthusiasm you have put forward on this tour and am inspired by your success as an author. 🙂
Thanks so much for the kind and encouraging words, Jet. The hard work paid off and now I’m definitely ready to gear down on promotion a bit so I can get writing on Chasing Down the Night.
It is a tricky thing to both promote and write–two such different sets of skills–as I know very well. I wish you the best. BTW, I am VERY appreciative for your recent fine review. 😀
It was a pleasure to participate in the tour, Fran. In all your post amassed 67 comments (including my own and yours), which is my highest so far for 2014. It was a topic that resonated with many readers!
Sorry to have reported the total comments on your blog incorrectly, Gwen. I’ve fixed the error. As you’ve figured out, I reported yours minus your comments and mine and Jill’s with. I’m so glad your followers resonated with the guest post topic. As I’ve said in this post, bloggers know what their readers want more of. Your copy of The Light Never Lies should arrive on your doorstep on or before June 10th. Enjoy 🙂
Hey, no worries, Fran (I didn’t put that in the comment to “correct” you). After the initial post, comments tend to trickle in indefinitely. This topic appealed to a wide audience. I’ll let you know when my copy of the book arrives and thank you again!
You are most welcome, Gwen!
Congratulations, Fran!
Thanks, Mark. It was a great run and now it’s time to get to serious writing on the next work-in-progress.