As Becky has mentioned in her email, we’ve helped push Trackers to #2 on the Technorati Favorite Books list! Very cool. A very successful tour this time around folks. Thank you so very much! Below is Becky’s thank you email. And I’ll also add that those of you on Beta Blogger who did not have an option for “Other” I was not able to post though I did visit!
On to Becky’s note:
First, my apologies to those of you using Blogger beta. I was unable to leave a comment at your site, though I did visit. What a great tour! Thank you to each of the participants for your thoughtful posts.
A number of you also linked to other bloggers which, I understand, helps their Google ranking. For example, when I Googled “Trackers Birthright Project” six on the first page where CSFF members. Behind Christianbooks.com and Amazon.com was InFuze, then Mirathon! Thanks to our webmaster, Tina Kulesa, the CSFF web site was sixth.
I mention this because, as you might recall, one of our goals is to raise the profile of our individual sites.
Of course, another is to draw attention to Christian science fiction and fantasy and to the particular book we’re featuring. Along that line, I’m happy to report that yesterday Trackers moved to the number four slot on Technorati’s Popular Books list, and today it pushed passed two Harry Potter books to top out at number two. Eragon, with the movie tie-in, is an understandable number one.
I couldn’t help noting that the top four spots are all in the fantasy genre. That books written by Christians belong is without a doubt. Many of you did a great job emphasizing to your readers the importance of supporting the genre by buying the books. Thank you!
One other idea came from Shannon regarding WestBow/Thomas Nelson canceling the third book in the Birthright Project. She suggested e-mailing the publisher to see if we can’t influence their thinking. Mackel suggested prayer in her comments to Valerie, and I think that’s something we should unite in, but I don’t think that excludes following through on Shannon’s idea either. Here’s what I said this morning on A Christian Worldview of Fiction:
I respect Mackel for not trying to organize such a push, but I don¹t see that it could hurt for her fans to voice an opinion, with courtesy and even gratefulness for the publisher bringing the books to print in the first place. If you¹re interested in such, you can contact them here.
That link is contact Thomas Nelson.
I sent a note this morning and expressed my thanks for them being bold enough to contract the books pre-Narnia movie, then asked them to reconsider publishing the third. I think a polite inquiry is appropriate, but do what you think is best.
As one of our tour participants mentioned, another thing that helps an author is posting reviews on bookseller sites. If you did a review of Trackers, I’d encourage you to post it this week in as many places as you can.
Last note. Tina does a great job of maintaining the CSFF Blog Tour web site. If you haven’t been by recently, I suggest you take a look; read her last post and the wonderfully impassioned plea she made for buying CSFF and for joining the grassroots movement to get the word out.
To build more readers for the next tour, consider adding the CSFF Blog Tour URL to your signature line to indicate you’re a member. Consider handing out fliers to your friends at work, at church, or in the neighborhood. Consider e-mailing your contacts, inviting them to your site during the tour. Be creative and let’s see if we can’t move the blog tour from writers talking about a book to readers buying it.
Our next tour, BTW, is January 22, 23, 24 featuring Wayne Thomas Batson’s Door Within Trilogy. Those of you who did not receive review copies, I encourage you to BUY the book(s) if you can afford them, or check a local library for at least book one, The Door Within (though, in my opinion, book 2 is better, and I’ve heard book 3 is the best of them all. I think you should start with the first book to understand the stories, and finding the last two in the library might be hard). The point being, knowledgeable reviews are unquestionably more effective if we’re trying to convince readers these are books worth their dollars.
Again, thanks for what you’re doing as a part of CSFF Blog Tours.
Becky
Nice Post.
That was well said. Always appreciate your indepth views. Keep up the great work!
John