The Benefits of Hosting Others

The Benefits of Hosting Others

guest post by Jo Linsdell

A book tour has long been known as one of the most effective ways of creating a buzz about your book and growing your author brand. With internet you now have the opportunity to do a virtual book tour and reach even more people whilst leaving a virtual footprint that will keep your marketing efforts working for you long after the event is over.

The benefits of doing virtual book tours are numerous: collecting reviews, creating a buzz about your book, increased sales, can help become a best seller, strengthening author brand... the list goes on. What I want to share with you today though is the benefits of hosting.
I recently filmed this video where I talk about the benefits of hosting others.

Do you host others on your site? What other benefits have you noticed from hosting?

Jo Linsdell is a best selling author and illustrator, award winning blogger, and freelance writer. She is also the founder and organiser of the annual online event Promo Day (www.PromoDay.info). Her latest release Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home is now available from Amazon. Find out more about her at her website www.JoLinsdell.com

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A heartfelt welcome today to Jo who dropped in to Slow and Steady Writers to talk about how to create a buzz for your book. Jo is not only an award-winning writer but an expert marketer as well. 
Best of all, she is a truly nice person, always willing to help others. When it comes to promotion, her halp and advice is invaluable. 

Virtual Book Tours

About the book:

Virtual Book Tours are a great way to create a buzz for a new release or to put life back into an older publication. 
In this book Jo takes you through everything you need to know to be able to set up and carry out a successful virtual book tour. The book is divided into 4 main sections for easy navigation: 
1) What is a Virtual Book Tour? 
2) How to organise your own tour 
3) Promoting a tour 
4) Useful resources.
You'll find it packed with links, tips, and advice to help make your tour a hit.

Create a Challenge

http://www.taralazar.com

Writers seem to thrive on challenges--a specific word count per day, a set time in which to write a book or e-book. Who's signed up for NanoWriMo for November? Yep, a real challenge. A Novel in a Month--madness!
But more and more novelists are writing and publishing because of it.

This year I'm following Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo--aiming to create a picture book idea a day for 30 days. The challenge works on the honor system and there are lots of prizes...now, are you beginning to get the picture?

A good motivational idea, daily support from guest bloggers with a track record in achievement, or just your own diary of successes and failures, and the feel good factor at the end of the month.

Both Chris Baty and Nano and Tara Lazar started with very few followers...and look at them now. They have built strong self-supportive communities of creative writers and artists working together, networking for success.

Find more writing contests for November here

Search out challenges, see what makes them successful and start your own. Just not in November, please.

And be sure to share all the challenges you create in the comments here as well as on your social networking sites.

Writing Challenges

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%

3AAlbert_Anker_Schreibunterricht_1865.jpg

Albert Anker [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Writing challenges are always popular. The trick is to find and join one that matches your needs. Do you want to improve your writing skills? Do you want to swap procrastination for action? Do you finally want to  see that book published to Kindle?

Every month of the year sees the return of an established challenge or the creation of a new one.

There are no winners or losers.  Whatever happens you will extend your abilities that little bit more, increase your networking acquaintances and make yourself more viable as a writer.

Taking Up the Challenge

Between pressure of work and procrastination, I lost my way this Spring and flip-flopped between possible projects and ideas so fast they all floundered. My poor blog lost its way.

Then Marg McAlister of Writing4Success appeared in my email inbox. Her 7 week Writing challenge sounded perfect. Set your own goals. Fit writing into the ten-minute slots of the day you're apt to waste.

She is fitting her writing life into her holiday travel schedule and like everything she does, she is doing it brilliantly.

But to my amazement, with her  helpful insights on my comments, so am I.

In less than two weeks, I have cleared my backlog of term papers, my editing pile and am now on my fun DIFM (Do-It-For-Me) projects starting with planning my blogs. And I still have five weeks to go...Start now and you'll be surprised at how much you accomplish in those small blocks of time.

Yesterday I started work again on my editing blog and changed Slow and Steady Writers to a more dynamic template. Let me know if you love it or hate it.

Where to Find Writing Challenges

Use a search engine. Add a specific time limit--one day, 7 day, 30 day. A month is good if you are using it to develop a particular writing habit.

Wikiwrimo.org has a month by month list including the three day novel writing contest over Labor Day weekend (Aug 31-Sept. 2). 


Set your own goals first than find a challenge to 
match. Or adapt an idea from another artistic 
discipline.

The Ted talk by Cesar Kuriyama on creating a one second video for every day of your life is inspirational. Adapt it by writing one perfect sentence every day of your life encapsulating the greatest memory or moment of that day.