When Black Women Fall in Love by Ines Johnson
Heartspell
Media would like to welcome you to When Black Women Fall, a week long
promotional tour of romance novels featuring African American
heroines in the contemporary, historical, paranormal, new adult, and
erotica genres.
Romance
novels are increasingly featuring heroes and heroines of color, from
Courtney Milan’s Brothers Sinister series to Nalini Singh’s Guild
Hunter series. As society and its citizens increase in diversity so
does the market. With more and more authors bypassing publishers and
uploading these colorful romances on their own, starved readers now
have a buffet of books to choose from.
On
this tour, you will find that when black women fall in love it’s a
sign of the times in these contemporary offerings.
In
Farrah Rochon's "All You Can Handle" love was the
last thing professional pastry chef Sonny White was looking for, but
she finds it in a sleepy town with a motorcycle riding hottie.
In
Lena Hart's "Because You Love Me" when an old desire
is reawakened Sabrina will discover that even an imperfect love can
triumph over all.
In
Xio Axelrod's "Falling Stars" Hollywood actress' Val
Saunders finds her career skyrocketing which makes her real-life
attraction to her on-screen love interest come at the worst possible
time.
In
Ines Johnson's "Pumpkin: a Cindermama Story" having
given up on fairytales after falling for her toad of an ex, Pumpkin
is afraid to take a chance on a prince charming who comes to her
rescue.
In
Kim Golden's "Maybe Baby" Laney must choose between
the man who offers her financial security and the one who makes her
mind and body sing.
In
Victoria H. Smith's "The Space Between" Lacey has
dreams of the opera, but life has its obstacles, namely a man who
lights a fire inside of her that challenges everything she thought
she wanted.
In
Christina C. Jones’ “Inevitable Conclusions” Friends?
Lovers? Both? For Kora and Tariq, those lines have been blurred for a
long time.
When
black women fall in love it’s a magical affair as you’ll find in
these paranormal stories of love.
In
L Penelope's "Angelborn" he
gave up eternity for love… and lost. Will Maia be his second
chance?
In
Laverne Thompson's "Angel Rising" Thalya, a soulless
creature, meets her match when she hungers for the love of the man
assigned to hunt her.
When
black women fall in love it’s a defining moment as you’ll find in
this historical romance.
In
Piper Huguley's "The Preacher's Promise" Amanda
Stewart aims to teach newly freed slaves, but meets with the
resistance from the town preacher. Can these two put aside their
differences and come together?
When
black women fall in love it’s full of growing pains as you’ll see
in this new adult romance.
In
Twyla Turner's "Chasing Day" Daylen is the shy
cellist who falls in love with her best friend who also happens to be
the popular quarterback.
When
black women fall in love it can get a little spicy as you’ll find
in this erotica novellete.
In
Harper Miller's "Entwined" trouble finds Gabby when
she meets an ex-marine looking to release a little tension.
DIY Blog Tour by Ines Johnson
If
You Publish It, They Will Come
That
may have been true ten, five years ago in indie publishing. It is no
longer the case today. Readers have a lot of authors and books to
choose from. They don’t know you, so you have to do something
to get their attention.
Okay,
but what something? After visiting Google, I decided to do my own
blog tour. I went to listservs and chat rooms for authors and asked
questions. Established authors said a blog tour was a waste of time.
But new and indie authors said to go for it. I had nothing to lose,
and no money to spend, so I did it myself. Here’s how I did it.
1.
Build a MEDIA KIT
Honestly,
this wasn’t the first thing I did. I realized I needed it as
responses started rolling in with bloggers requesting the same
materials over and again. But I recommend it be the first thing you
do.
A
media kit is everything a blogger could possibly want or need in
order to host you on their webpage. Include in your Media Kit the
following:
Your
book blurb. I included different lengths of my blurb,
including the full blurb that’s up on Amazon. A shorter three
sentence blurb. And a one sentence blurb. My debut book was erotic
romance, so I also had to be sure and include a PG version of my
blurb for bloggers who also showcased YA books.
Book
excerpts. Choose one to two scenes that you feel would get
readers engaged in your story. I recommend the excerpt should start
somewhere in the middle of the scene and end before the scene is over
at a high point of tension. If you choose well, this tactic would
naturally lead a reader to push the ‘buy now’ link so they can
find out what happens next. Again, make sure you have a PG excerpt
for bloggers who showcase YA books.
Guest
Posts. I wrote three guests posts for my tour. I found that
bloggers liked craft pieces, writing tips, and social commentary. So,
I wrote one of each. I also found that some bloggers wanted you to
answer their list of questions instead of using your posts. I
complied, and then saved each question and answer. I included these
Q&A’s in my media kit and made them available to all subsequent
bloggers.
Author
biography. Be sure to include the bio you’ve written for
yourself and posted on your website. I found that some bloggers
preferred a one sentence bio, called a tagline. So, I paired my long
bio down and included two options in my kit.
Links.
Be sure to include your store purchase links, your website url, and
all social media links and handles. In my ebook, I have fancy graphic
links. I assumed the bloggers would do something graphical with my
link, but few did. Instead they just left the entire URL up under my
name. I didn’t like that, but I had to realize that many of these
bloggers weren’t graphic artists or any more tech savvy than your
average person. Moving forward, I’ll need to think of a better way
to list these links.
Images.
Attach images separately, as well as in the body of the kit. If you
have a lot of images, make them available upon request.
That
was a lot of information, but I suggest you get started on that
before contacting bloggers. Many get back to you straight away and
begin making requests.
2.
Find BLOGGERS
Once
your media kit is assembled, you need to start finding blogs to host
your amazing information.
I
began my search at the Book Blogger Directory:
https://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/
I
made certain to check for bloggers who were in my genre.
I
also checked their sites to see when their last activity happened.
You don’t want to spend time querying a blogger whose last post was
in 2013.
3.
Make CONTACT
Once
I had my list of vetted bloggers in my genre, I began to contact
them. Be aware that some of these bloggers have handy Google Docs.
They’d prefer you use these instead of emailing them directly.
For
those I emailed directly, I made a form email, but I sent each
blogger an individual email with their name in the salutation. I also
tailored the form email to each blogger where possible. For example,
if I saw that a blogger was only interested in author interviews, I
didn’t mention that I had blog posts and excerpts because I knew
they wouldn’t be interested in those items.
Here’s
an example of the basic form email that I sent out:
Dear
[Book Blogger],
I
write erotic romance, paranormal romance, and fairytale retellings
under the pen name, Ines Johnson. My newest release, Pumpkin: a
Cindermama story, which is a fairytale retelling of the
Cinderella story will hit the print and virtual shelves on March
17th.
I’ve
planned a book tour throughout the month of March to create some buzz
and garner a bigger audience for my book. I’d love to make a stop
at your site. I’m happy to do a Q&A, a blog posting, submit my
book for your review, or any combination of the three. I’ve
prepared three posts for the occasion. If you feel that one of the
topics might interest your readers, I would be happy to make it
available to you any day during the month of March and April.
Attached you’ll find my Media Kit for your convenience.
4.
Keep RECORDS
It
looks bad to contact the same person over and again. Or to forget
that you agreed to give this blogger that post on this day. I kept a
spreadsheet in Google Docs so that I had access to it at all times.
On
the list I listed the blog title, the blog URL, the contact person’s
name and email address. In other columns, I placed what each blog
looked for from guest bloggers, when I contacted them, if they
responded, if they said yes and what they wanted, when the post would
be live, and when they needed the information by. You should also
note if they want exclusive content, and if they want you to provide
them a giveaway.
|
BLOG
NAME
BLOG
ADDRESS
CONTACT
|
|
Review
|
Interview
|
Blog
Post
|
Promo
|
NOTES
|
CONTACT
EMAIL
|
RESPONSE
|
DATE
Requested
|
|
*
a note about giveaways: try where possible to offer your book as a
giveaway. I got my highest sales on the days I offered my book as a
free giveaway. I didn’t want to offer a gift card, remember I was
broke by this time.
5.
Be SOCIAL
As
the blog tour began, I made a fancy banner announcing the tour for my
webpage. I linked to each blog that hosted me.
On
the day of each tour stop, I tweeted and posted each blog. And I
visited each site to try and interact with any commenters and
responded where appropriate.
6.
Send THANK YOU NOTES
But
the most important thing I did, was mind my manners. After each post
I wrote a personalized thank you note to each blogger. I told them
how they affected my sales rank that day. Each one invited me back!
The
VERDICT
I
had phenomenal success with my tour! I was on thirty blogs over the
course of my launch week. As soon as those posts went live, my debut
novel was launched into the Top 100 where it’s stayed for a week
after my launch. I could see the effects in real time. When a tour
stop went live, an hour or so later, I’d see sales. I didn’t see
much of a blip on social media (ie, my newsletter or Facebook Likes).
My twitter followers did see some of an uptick, but mostly from the
bloggers themselves as they tweeted about the post.
UPDATE
I
repeated these steps fro the When Black Women Fall promo tour. This
time I had over 50 bloggers sign up for the tour, many were repeat
bloggers who I built a relationship with over the year I’ve been
published. To see the other authors on the tour, please visit our
site at http://whenblackwomenfall.com!
Ines Johnson
Bio
Ines
writes books for strong women who suck at love. If you rocked out to
the twisted triangle of Jem, Jericha, and Rio as a girl; if you were
slayed by vampires with souls alongside Buffy; if you need your
scandalous fix from Olivia Pope each week, then you’ll love her
books!
Aside
from being a writer, professional reader, and teacher, Ines is a very
bad Buddhist. She sits in sangha each week, and while others are
meditating and getting their zen on, she’s contemplating how to use
the teachings to strengthen her plots and character motivations.
Ines
lives outside Washington, DC with her two little sidekicks who are
growing up way too fast.
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