So far, all of the feedback I’ve gotten on my idea for the Magic Appreciation Tour (MA Tour) has been positive. I’ve been getting more excited about it myself as I’ve formulated plans for how the web site will work. There’s only one problem: I’m running out of time to get the Spring 2012 MA Tour going.
My first priority is to get my book out the door and onto the virtual shelves. January 31 is still looking good for that. The next priority is to get the book web site up. I worked on the site while my editor worked on Vaetra Unveiled, so the site is actually almost done. After than, I can put the MA Tour site together.
So, yes, there will be a Spring 2012 Magic Appreciation Tour, but I won’t be able to show you much until just before it goes live. In case you are wondering, participation in the tour is free for both authors and readers.
Call for authors
If you have written a book that could be classified as magical fantasy, and you are interested in making your book available on the Magic Appreciation Tour web site for the Spring 2012 “March Magic” tour, please use the contact page on this site to let me know. Participation is FREE. I do ask that you commit to pricing your book at 99 cents for the month of March and be willing to help promote the MA Tour through your blog and social media. The MA Tour site is going to have an author signup form when it goes live, but I’d like to start a dialog with you as soon as possible. Just make sure you give me a valid email address so I can contact you.
How the site will work
The site will have the following pages:
- Home page: Explains what the MA Tour is and guides visitors to the appropriate starting point. Readers are directed to the Book Sale or Author page. Authors are directed to the FAQ or Sign Up page.
- Book Sale page: Lists all of the books that are participating in the tour.
- Author page: Lists all of the authors who are participating in the tour.
- Contact page: Provides a form for contacting me.
- FAQ page: Lists the most frequently asked questions about the MA Tour. The reader FAQ is first, followed by the author FAQ.
- Sign Up page: Lets authors sign up to participate in the next MA Tour.
- Blog Post Exchange page: Lets authors submit an offer to host a book review, author interview, author guest post, or book giveaway on their blog. It also lets them specify what kind of post they want in exchange.
- Subscribe page: Lets readers and authors subscribe to the Magical Appreciation News list, the official newsletter of the Magical Appreciation Tour.
More about the Book Sale page
The main goal of the Book Sale page is to give readers an easy way to quickly identify books they might be interested in reading. When readers find a book that sounds good to them, the page gives them links to buy the book or access more information about the book or author.
The Book Sale page shows the following information for each book:
- a color thumbnail of the book cover
- the book blurb (sans reviews)
- a link to purchase the book
- a link to the author profile on the Author page
- a link to the book web site (if one exists)
- links to book reviews by tour participants
- links to book giveaways by tour participants
What’s cool about the Book Sale page is that it acts like a hub for just about anything you might want to know about a book. Readers who are happy with the blurb and just want to go ahead and buy the book can do so. Readers who want to delve more deeply can do that as well.
Review and giveaway links are part of the “tour” concept. Participating authors can exchange review or giveaway blog posts with other authors and then pass a link to the post on to me. The more you participate, the more “link love” you get from the MA Tour site, and the more you push aside the curtain of author obscurity.
Here’s an incentive to sign up early for the Magic Appreciation Tour: The books on the Book Sale page will be grouped by author, and they will be listed on the page in the order the author signed up for the tour. That’s right: prime “featured” placement on the page goes to the first authors to sign up for the MA Tour.
More about the Author page
The goal of the Author page is to give readers a way to find out more about participating authors.
The Author page shows the following information for each author:
- a thumbnail photograph or avatar
- a short bio
- a link to the author’s blog (if one exists)
- a link to the author’s books on the Book Sale page
- links to author interviews by tour participants
- links to author guest posts on participating blogs
Just like the Book Sale page is a hub for participating books, the Author page is a hub for participating authors. Authors will be listed alphabetically by last name. The tour concept continues on this page with links to author interviews and guest posts.
What happens after March 31?
My plan is to leave all of the participating books and authors on the site until the summer tour starts on June 1. However, the 99-cent sale price is only guaranteed for the month of the tour. From April 1 to May 30, visitors can still learn about and buy books through the site, but authors can feel free to change the price of their books.
On June 1, the Summer 2012 Magic Appreciation Tour starts. The Book Sale and Author pages will be updated to reflect the new participants. Authors from the Spring 2012 tour are welcome to participate in the summer tour as well.
Come join me
I know it sounds like a lot of stuff going on, but the core of the MA Tour site is really just two web pages that are both reader-oriented. Magical Fantasy readers can come here knowing that they will get a great deal on the books that interest them the most.
For authors, the real fun will be in the networking we’ll do with each other through the MA Tour. I didn’t talk much about that in this post, but I covered it pretty thoroughly in my last post, Help Fight Author Obscurity (Including Your Own).
[Update: The Magic Appreciation Tour site is now up and running, and you don’t have to price your book at 99 cents. See the link below for more details.]
Are you a Magical Fantasy author? Come join the fun! You can learn more and register for the Tour right now on the Magic Appreciation Tour Web site:
Remember: the first authors to sign up get prime placement!
Definitley count me in! I’m going to sign up now.
I’m doing the final revision of my novel now. Having this deadline to aim for will really help me wrap it up by March. I work so much better and faster under pressure 😉
I also think it’s about time I do a post about it on my blog. Maybe it’d be best if I wrote up a short overview, then send visitors to your site to get more info. What do you think?
Oops, I thought the contact form was a sign up form. 😉 Anyway, you have my contact info, so please keep me posted;)
Thanks, Vanna. I do have your information and I will definitely keep you posted.
I would be honored if you would write a post about it on your blog. The more authors we can get to join us, the better.
The following link will show visitors both articles that talk about the MA Tour:
http://www.danielrmarvello.com/category/53.aspx
This sounds like a fantastic idea. I love the thought of similar books all gathered together like that, and ways to network with like minded people!
Good to have you on board, Agatha! I sure hope the concept appeals to readers as much as it has appealed to the authors. I know that *I’m* looking forward to having all that magical fantasy material gathered in one place!
Speaking as a reader, (I haven’t written anything that would qualify) this concept absolutely appeals to me 🙂
Thanks for letting me know, Sarah. Hopefully other fantasy readers will agree!
Great, I’ll post about it this week!