Imajin Books asked me to host a blog hop as part of publishing DESCENT.  Of course I said yes. So now I have to figure out how to do this.

First, I needed a goal for the blog hop. I’m currently blogging about my publishing experience, and every day I discover there is more to learn. A priority for me is learning more about marketing a book, and this is how I came up with my goal.

Blog Hop Goal

To  improve my knowledge of marketing a book.

To share that knowledge with other writers.

Blog Hop Theme:

Based on the goal, I’m going to ask other bloggers to answer one simple question.

What is the most important book-marketing  tip you can give other writers who are about to publish a novel or who have recently published a novel?

Who am you going to ask?

The importance of building a network rises to the top of the to-do pile once a again. Long before you publish, you need to have a network of people who can participate in your launch and people who you can help in return. As you can see, I’m using this blog to encourage participation. I will also contact other authors personally via LinkedIn, Facebook, and email.

Why would other bloggers join the blog hop?

As with most things, it’s best to give something to people who participate. The participating bloggers should answer the marketing question at the top of their blog.  The blogger can follow the answer with a promotion of their novel in whatever style they feel is appropriate. The blog hop is about marketing after all.. Not published yet? How about promoting your upcoming novel or your blog?

Now to the technology behind a blog hop or blog party.

Linky Things:

I use WordPress (obviously) so I’ll use a tool recommended for WP. You may need something else. LinkyTools and InLinkz are two options. InLinkz has a good blog post on How to Throw A Successful Blog Party, so I won’t go into details on that topic, but I do have to decide if I should do both a blog hop and a blog party. See HandMadeTechnology for a description of how blog hops and blog parties differ.

I’m not sure yet which one I’ll go with. Any advice?

Test blog: One tip on the InLinkz site is to create a test blog site. I plan to use this, so I can practice, make a mess and get it right before I post to this site. I understand Linky Things don’t go live until the post is published, hence the test site.

If you’re interested in joining this blog hop, I plan to run it sometime in July when DESCENT is published.  Just comment below and let me know. Or access my Contact Information  and send me a private message.

Let me stress, I am new to this blog hop experience, so please share any advice you have on how to host a successful blog hop.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Thanks for reading…