Crimson Eve CFBA Blour Round-up

As of Saturday afternoon, thanks to the CFBA blour, Crimson Eve was #2 on Technorati's "most popular books" list, and Violet Dawn and Coral Moon were #4 and #5.

Seventy-one members of CFBA took part in the Crimson Eve blour (blog tour), with 50+ members leaving comments at the CFBA blog with links to their posts.

I offered a free copy of Crimson Eve to those who'd never read one of my novels--up to the first 50 responders. Responses poured in and all 50 books are now spoken for. My assistant's gonna be busy mailing those out.

The first day of the blour (Wed., Oct. 17), Crimson Eve's amazon ranking was 12,910. By the third day it had fallen in ranking to 27,670. (Remember, a few books sold can make a big jump in amazon rankings.) In the five days before the blour started, rankings were between the 14,000s and the 20,000s. So all in all, not a big change during the actual tour.

When it comes to blours, amazon rankings aren't the main concern in considering how well the tour went. It's good to climb up high in technorati numbers, because that indicates anyone searching that "most popular" page will have at least seen the cover of the book. Better indications will be down the road, although hard to document (as marketing ventures so often are). I used the opportunity to give away copies to folks who've never read my books, and I think in general that's one of the best marketing tools for a book. Get the product in new readers' hands. Especially if the product is being very highly rated by folks who are used to reading the author.

Thanks to all the CFBA members who posted for me. And thanks most to Bonnie Calhoun, who runs CFBA and is a true saint for all she puts up with in keeping members in line, including me.