I'm getting around doing a book tour!

One of the biggest tools authors need to utilize is the blog. Not just their own as I've advised many of my authors to do but to make guest appearances on other authors blogs.  The more traffic, the better.

But balancing that act with writing can be tough, no doubt.  Not only should you come up with new content for each blog but you should weigh your options of doing a giveaway or not.  One blog I visited this past week had very little in the way of comments, but I don't know about the traffic  To see the posts, head on over to Tonya Kinzer's blog to see what I did.  Granted, these posts are almost all recycled content from 2009, that doesn't mean that Tonya's readers have seen them.  Click here for the last link.

Having a pool of authors who write for me makes a big difference in not just their marketing but mine too.  Some of my authors, like Margie Church are dialed into a different group of readers that I'd like to be connected with.  So popping over to her site once in a blue moon (can't give her too much of an ego boost...) helps her and me since our audiences are similiar.

The SEO on that sort of stuff is great too but ultimately a writer should be looking to step outside their normal reader group and constantly expand their brand name and readership base. 

Higher traffic blogs for well known publishing houses that allow guest spots also make a HUGE difference but remember, you're opening yourself up to new readers so first impressions count.  This I kept in mind when I talked to the folks at Romance at Random about being the bad boy of romance.  I didn't talk much from an editor's standpoint but more from an author's.  But I did share my passion about this genre though.

Remember, In romance, readers want an escape with the characters they can relate to..

In Erotica, readers want a sexual escape that stimulates the mind and doesn't screw too badly with their emotions. In Erotic Romance I want to be taken on a longer, harder, deeper ride outside of myself.

Publishers that capture the true hears and bodies and minds of their audiences stay in business and do well. Their authors have potential to do very well also.