I'm going on tour...

Advertising, promotion and marketing, oh my!! I'm going on a virtual book tour, or a blog tour as it's also known.

Until recently, I'd never heard of such a thing. I'll be guest blogging on a host of different blogs and websites in the hope I come across as interesting, inspirational, friendly, witty and perhaps even funny. Why? With a book coming out (gulp) TOMORROW, I need to be building my author brand. It's a baby step in the long process of getting my name out there, which I started with this blog a year or so ago. If it helps to sell my book (and I'm not sure it will), that's great, but it's not the sole intention. I'd like for people to get to know me a little. I really feel for an author to be successful, readers need to build a connection in some way, even if it's something small (like they're accessible) and I hope this accomplishes that.

My organized tour occurs between the dates on the banner above, but I'm also appearing on a few other places through August. Thanks so much to the wonderful and generous bloggers who were willing to host a newbie! You're all awesome. So, where will I be?

June

29 - Cari Quinn, Girl Writer
30 - Coffee Time Romance - Author Spotlight Event

July

5 - A Writer's Rush
8 - The Variety Pages
12 - The Lovestruck Novice
12 - Cindy Jacks **
13 - Jacqueline Paige **
14 - Taste of Kiwi
14 - Book Junkie **
15 - Diary of a Literary Goddess **
16 - Savage Hunter **
19 - Helen's Heroes
19 - Romance Alley **
20 - Nine Naughty Novelists
20 - Amber Skyze **
21 - Alisha Paige **
22 - Sexy Adventures, Passionate Tours **

23 - My Reading Addiction **
26 - Kaye Manro
27 – The Romance Room author chat/interview 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm (EST)

August

2 - I'll be the spotlight author all week at Whipped Cream!
14 - Dawn's Reading Nook
28 - Long & Short of it Reviews Chat @ 8:00 pm (EST)

Wow, I feel tired already! One commenter (drawn randomly) on any of the sites above marked with ** will win the goody tower below!  Yum. Comment multiple times or on each of the different blog posts and earn additional entries. I'll also pick a random commenter from the other blogs for June and July for a mystery prize. It'll be something funky and fun and I'll annouce the winner here on July 27!

In addition to all of that, I'll be in the August RWR with my First Sale announcement and I get to wear a First Sale ribbon to Nationals in Orlando. Yay!! I also took out an ad in Romantic Times magazine and it'll be in the October edition. It will likely be accompanied by a review (another gulp). I'll have a book cover ad running on the Whipped Cream site July through September and during August, I'll be participating in their WC/LASR 3rd Anniversary Party, but I'll post more about that later.

Whew. I know it probably seems like a lot, but surprisingly, none of this has cost very much, except in time! To a writer of course, that's extremely valuable, but I think the 'investment' worth it at this stage.

I hope you'll join me on some of the tour stops! Some of them will be Q&A format (and boy did I get some varied and thought provoking questions). Some of them are my posts about what it's like being published for the first time and topics relating to writing. Some are just, well... off-beat :).  Hope to see you!