Should you do a blog tour? What is the value of blog tours? #PNR #ASMSG #BlogTours

Blog tours have rarely resulted in book sales for me, not that I could ever really measure. I might see a few extra sales here and there, but, that is not really the primary reason for a tour.

What tours do for me is reviews, social media exposure and some of that badly needed 'word-of-mouth' gushing book love. I tend to focus on reviews-only tour packages from http://www.rbtlreviews.com/, who specializes in novels of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy - my genres, and http://bookienookiereviews.blogspot.com/ who runs Erotic Enchants, the single largest Erotica group on Goodreads. Though I won't turn down a promo/excerpt posting when it comes along, I do push for reviews as much as possible.

As my series grows ever longer, I noticed that when I tour the latest book, (The Nightlife San Antonio) new bloggers I have never seen before will request to read/review all my books in the series. So, each tour I do in succession is bringing in reviews for my entire series. One fee, one blog post, 4-5 reviews in one. The tour hosts who have been with me a while will often link to the reviews they did of my previous books. So, either way you look at it, the backlist gets more exposure.

Example:

http://theboyfriendbookmark.com/2014/06/01/blog-tour-the-nightlife-london-the-nightlife-4-by-travis-luedke-giveaway/

http://bluechrysalisbookpromo.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/2093/

http://quickanddirtystories.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-tour-nightlife-london-by-travis.html

The first post, Steph at Boyfriend bookmark, has been one of my most awesome fans since February 2013. The second link is someone new to my novels, but, having read the whole series, she had loads of good things to say.

The tangible result? One more book blogger just added me to her 'must-have' list. Not because I had one book that was OK, not because of my book covers or whatever, but, mainly because I have a consistently entertaining writing style, with complete novels--no cliffhangers, and as she read through the whole series, I became an author she appreciated more fully. I'm not just a one-hit wonder that's so easily forgotten.

Another consideration: SEO. Bloggers often use Google+, twitter and facebook, and that means your book title and author name are going to be showing up all over the place in Google. Relevant Google+ postings always show up in the first page results. I have seen bloggers who posted a review years ago, that still show up on the first page of Google search results when I look up my name or my book titles. That stuff stays out there in cyberspace for a very long time.

Often, bloggers have a sidebar that shows their most popular blog posts. How do you get your review to show up there? Tweet their review over and over and over. Share that review everywhere, repeatedly. Tell all your friends about that review.  Before you know it, that review will be the most popular blog post that blogger has ever had, and now, its sitting there in the sidebar of their blog, forever immortalized as a popular post. Bloggers will love you for bringing buttloads of traffic to their blog. Its a win-win.

So, if you only have one book, by all means do a blog tour, you need the reviews and exposure. But, if you have several books, especially a series, make sure you do a blog tour with each new release, maybe even several tours back to back.

You will eventually find one or more tour hosts that become consistent fans of your fiction, and that is precisely where you want to be. Blog tour hosts are super bloggers extraordinaire, and if you can win them over, now you've got something of value.

Another thing to consider, which is in many ways like doing a blog tour, without trying to schedule or coordinate, is Netgalley. I use Patchwork Press to get my books into Netgalley for $45 a month, and I generally do it for 1-2 months. Its not really necessary to post books any longer than that. 

Netgalley has THOUSANDS of bibliophiles who love books, and regularly gobble them up in their preferred genres. These are book bloggers, media-library people, and voracious readers. What better audience could you ask for?

So, what is my latest tour you might ask?

Well, I have two of them going:  The Nightlife London  and in a couple weeks, The Nightlife San Antonio.

The Mexican Mafia of The Nightlife San Antonio #Mafia #Urbanlife #Vampires #ASMSG

In writing The Nightlife San Antonio, I was inspired by events in my life from 2005 through 2010, when I lived in Sonora Mexico, on the border of Arizona. At this time the border situation was red hot. By 2007, every week brought a new headline of the escalating drug war in the border towns that often spilled over onto U.S. soil.  Though our small town of Agua Prieta, Sonora didn’t see any major conflict, I noticed the camouflage-painted tanks cruising through the scrub brush in the countryside, patrolling the line. Yes, tanks, and camouflaged military soldiers with assault rifles. I had never seen this kind of thing in the U.S., actual military occupation. This was interesting, but the incident that really brought the border conflicts to my attention was the assassination of the Commandante of Agua Prieta, known as “Tacho.”

The Commandante, the chief of police, is like the sheriff of the municipality. I saw the Commandante’s Jeep after the shooting. The windows of Tacho’s vehicle had been reinforced with inch-thick bulletproof glass, and would have saved his life, if he could have closed the door. The bullet holes I saw were in the interior of the door.  He’d been standing in the open door of the Jeep when they attacked with automatic assault rifles. Tacho was killed in the parking lot of the police station, in broad daylight. Rumor was he’d been taking cartel payoffs for years, but, his cooperation wasn’t satisfactory anymore. The cartels had made a bold statement, an example, one of many cartel assassinations in those years.

Don’t fuck with the Mexican cartels, not if you value your life, or the lives of your family.

About a third of the Agua Prieta police force quit their jobs. New officers were brought in from all over Sonora. Most of the locals were too afraid to take the job. Police in border towns everywhere experienced tremendous pressure and constant threats.

The manhunt for Tacho’s killers went on for months, but the cartel assassins escaped and were never caught. This kind of violence against police and authorities hit both sides of the border, yet it was far worse in Texas and California. Arizona experienced only a fraction of the drug wars that Tijuana/San Diego and Ciudad Juarez/El Paso suffered.

The catalyst of this war was the new President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, who had made the cartels his number one target. Across Mexico and the U.S., joint task forces of DEA and Mexican federal military worked in concert to hunt down these powerful cartels. Their efforts may have slowed the flow of drugs, but certainly didn’t stop it. They created a vicious, bloody war that lead to hundreds of prosecutions and incarcerations. The U.S. federal prisons are now filled with Mexican cartel members.  These men are trapped for 10-20 years or more, but they’re still deeply entrenched in cartel connections, with powerful family ties in Mexico.

Now comes the Mexican Mafia, a gang born on American soil, recruited from the convicts inside the prisons. Cartel members doing a life sentence are out of action, but the other inmates with 1-2-3 years before release are ripe for training. These parolees hit the ground running, drugs, cash and guns handed to them as soon as they set foot on the streets. The cartels found new life and distribution channels through the prison-based Mexican Mafia gang.

In 2010, La Eme – “M” – short for Mexican Mafia, battled with other gangs over control of the streets of San Antonio. Law enforcement joined the battle and took out huge chunks of gang membership with massive conspiracy indictments and arrests. Still, La Eme thrives. As many people as are thrown in prison for gang-drug activity, there’s always a new crop being released, newly trained and ready to go into business.

U.S. prisons are the breeding ground for La Eme gang membership. Members wear distinctive tattoos of a black handprint with the letters E M E, or, something derivative of the Mexican flag, the Eagle and the Snake.

It was years later, 2012, when I moved to San Antonio. I had missed most of the excitement. But, my years spent in living in Mexico stayed with me to this day, vivid memories of things I may never comfortably admit to. As you read my macabre, perverse tales of mafia, corruption, cartel, and vampires, it’s obvious I have some intimate knowledge of these things. Did I learn from jovial conversations with men whose tongues were loosened by tequila and lime, or do I have a story of my own to tell?

I’m not quite prepared to answer that question today. Maybe someday when I’m old and grey, and it just doesn’t matter anymore. For now, enjoy my tales of chaos, mayhem and debauchery, and take it on faith that I know what I’m talking about.

J

The Nightlife San Antonio is now available at TWLUEDKE.COM or NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO

A little something different for The Nightlife Series ... a MAN on the cover? #Smexy #Paranormal #Erotica #ASMSG

If both her hands are occupied,
then what is that I feel behind me....

A

The Nightlife Series is going to SAN ANTONIO for a bit of madness and mayhem, Mexican cartel style. This time, I decided to do something a little bit different for the cover art ... A MAN.

Confession time, yes, I did sleep with your sister,
but, I didn't enjoy it, honest.

B

So, my cover artist is diligently working to put together covers from these MALE images. Well, the ladies have been saying, why don't you have any MEN on your covers? Cause I'm a guy, and I like to see half-naked badass vampire chicks. Duh.

Hey, I got this itch, just a little lower,
won't you scratch it?

C

So, I had to do this one for the ladies. So, tell me, which of these manly manflesh images would you like to see on the cover of NIGHTLIFE SAN ANTONIO? (Coming May 2014)

Leave a comment, let me know what you think, A, B, or C?

:)