What is this thing anyway?

I created the concept because I wanted to start something unique that I could do to promote myself and help market fellow writing bloggers. It’s like a blog tour except with flash fiction. Basically, I searched for folks to host a piece of my flash fiction for one day (genre specific to the host’s own writing). I asked each host to post a link to the next blog for the next day so that traffic could move forward as well as a link from the previous one.

One fresh piece of flash for every day of the month spread out over 30 blogs. I provided everything I possibly could to the hosts.: the links, the flash, and a brief intro. I promoted each host as much I possibly could from my little world.

What I learned from the blogstreak

I think the streak went well; only 6 people forgot to post me on their blogs and one had to step out at last minute. That makes a total of 23 posts on 23 different blogs. Not bad. Besides tweeting the actual blog link and sharing the links on facebook, I tried to visit the Goodreads blogs of the hosts as well and like and comment on them and tweet that link too to help push the exposure all over the place. Not sure how it worked for them, but it sure kept me busy.

The results

Interest

Well, you can’t measure interest, but I’ve added it as a result because although it’s not as quantifiable, it’s why I started the blog in the first place. I had a lot of people asking me on twitter and facebook what the blog streak was. These folks were not necessarily writers; in some cases, they were just regular folks I knew. So that it generated some kind of interest made it worth it for me.

Blog awareness:

11 new subscriptions to my blog. Not a lot to you, maybe, but I rarely get subscriptions.

I went from an average of 29 daily hits to 45 daily hits and while I had a total of 1092 hits in March, it increased to 1257 in April:

Maybe not earth shattering (as Marvin the Martian from BugsBunny says, “Where is the Earth shattering kaboom?”) but I’m treating this as a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m still getting hits at about 45 per day now in May.

I didn’t necessarily expect a lot of hits to my blog as I was mostly promoting the host blogs. My rationale: build a platform of interest/knowledge based on readers I DIDN’T know. So my hope was that readers of host blogs would learn that little ole thea existed, and any readers I might have already had would then discover other writers and genres. Symbiotic kind of thing.

Which brings me to the thing you all want to know:

The biggie: Sales

Ok. This is the thing. I have no idea if it generated any sales because there are so many factors involved (I had a guest spot on another blog and a couple of reviews of my work came out in April), but I do know that I typically only sell my Anne Boleyn book, and that one does fairly well with zero promotion. In truth, it’s the least well written of all my novels, but I suppose it’s a topic readers are still interested in and so it takes no work from me to sell a few copies a day.

But: I sold some books that I don’t ever promote. I sold about 9 copies of Secret Language of Crows and that book is one most people don’t even know exists. I also know by my ranking changes on BN that I’ve sold books there: again, the nontypical books like One Insular Tahiti and Secret Language of Crows. I chalk this up to the streak because I don’t EVER promote the Nook copies.

The key here, is that now I seem to be selling more in the US than I did. I’m getting some consistent sales across all my books rather than just the historical. It may be from a variety of things, but networking and promo is about spreading the exposure, so it’s always hard to tell exactly what has made a difference.

You have to remember, I’m a total unknown. I’m not Amanda Hocking, or Jack Kilborn, or even Mel Comley. My goal was to increase exposure for myself as well as to help other authors gain some readers. I wanted a way to network that would be beneficial to the people I was networking with.

What the hosts have said:

So was it worth it for the hosts? You be the judge

Ed Robertson said, “Just wanted you to know the streak went really well–in fact, it was my highest-traffic day ever. You pushed a lot of views my way and I had a recent blog post pulling in a bunch of readers.”

Glenn Bullion said, “I think the most hits I’ve had in a single day.”

Leah Peterson tweeted, “I had fun!”

Jarret Rush said, “Was great for me. I’d do it again.”

What do you want to know?

Is there something I haven’t covered? It was a pretty big project so I’m sure I didn’t answer all your questions, but you are welcome to write one in the comment box and I’ll answer them that way. Or better yet, check on my blogstreak challenge. Take up the gauntlet and … Streak on!

If you’ve been following my blog for the last 30 days, you will have noticed that I’ve been on something called a blog streak. What is a blog streak, you ask. Simple.

I came up with the idea as I was trying to think of a way to promote some authors that I know as well as help build myself a platform. I thought about the blog tours that many writers go on trying to advertise their books and their writing and I thought about my penchant for flash fiction writing. I thought maybe I could combine the two. Flash fiction (streaking)+ blog tour =blogstreak

The idea was relatively simple: write a piece of flash fiction for 30 blogs over 30 days. Each flash would be tailored to the host blog’s particular genre of writing. I would link them together by asking hosts to post a link from the blog before them and the blog after. I also developed a new hashtag to tie them on twitter: #blogstreak.

Then I would try to drive traffic to those hosts. It wasn’t about getting people to buy my books. It wasn’t about getting people to come to my blog (although both of those would’ve been nice.) It was about trying to get my name out there as often as possible to as many different people as I could. You know: exposure (no pun intended)

You can imagine I had a lot of fun. I’m typically a literary fiction writer but over the 30 days I was asked to write in every genre from chick lit to science fiction to fantasy to crime and many others. It really stretched me as a writer and allowed me to step into some different shoes.

I’ll talk about the lessons I learned during this blog streak another time very soon, but what I want to do for now, is challenge seven writers to their own blog streaks.

Streak for seven days over seven host blogs in genres other than your own. I will offer you a space for one of your seven days. I will even be your first host. I might even promote you each day for your seven days.

Come on. What do you have to lose?

Sign up in the comments section below. Seven writers over seven days writing seven different flash fiction pieces for seven different blogs.

Sounds like a magical number to me.

So who’s in? Just sign up. The details can come later.

Comment below.

Day 30 Misty Rayburn is a photographer who loves to read. When I flashed her, I figured I’d try something photo related. Hope she likes “black and white” for the topshelf

april 29 I must be getting outstripped. I was supposed to write a nice little menancing piece about a Paul threatening me, but heck, I just couldn’t do it. Pau at bookpumper is just too nice for that. I did my best, but it’s a pale pale piece of work.

bookPumper.com

Day 28: I gave an attempt at humor for Karen Cantwell. I did originally  publish “My Muse Talks Back” in Yankee Pot Roast, but I didn’t think she’d mind. Feel free to check out yesterday’s flash at JR Tomlin’s blog.

And it’s always nice when you leave a comment for the hosts. Or tweet. Or stumble.

Day 27: flashes JR Tomlin any ole genre. Thank heavens. I flashed her “Whispers”  as I streaked from Jason Anderson’s blog.

Day 26: Because Jason Anderson is a scifi writer, I gave it my best shot. I was never good at physics or science and I had no idea what I was doing as a scifi flasher. This was pretty eye-opening to attempt a totally foreign genre, but I ended up with “Residue of Einstein” as a flash piece.. And I thought Fantasy was tough as I moved from Edward Roberson’s blog.

Ah, well. Please visit and let him know you were there.

Day 25 Edward Robertson is kind enough to let me try my hand at sci fi/fantasy. Sorry, Ed. I tried. I really did. I flashed through Tania Tirraoro’s blog to flash Ed a piece called, “Let the Rain Fall.”

Please visit to make him feel better.

Day 24 I had fun yesterday with ole Shakespeare at Vivienne Tuffnell’s blog, but I just had to streak by Tania Tirraoro who is a fan of chick lit. Um. Again, another genre to stretch my writer muscle. I gave it a go with “Bus Stop.”

Please visit her and leave a comment, if only to say how wonderful she is to host a poor schlep like me.