CFBA News

Today the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is issuing a release to CBA publishers, announcing new things on the horizon for the organization. Members of CFBA received this news last night. The changes affect CFBA members in that they will have access to more books for review, including those outside traditional CBA publishing houses. But the biggest change is for the publishers. Here's the release to them from Director Bonnie Calhoun:

What CFBA is going to do, starting immediately:

-Conduct 2 standard book tours a week, approximately 100 tours a year.

-Charge $500 per book blog tour.

Why is there a need to charge for something that has always been free?

The organization is growing by leaps and bounds. Where we once had 80 to 90 members, we now have over 200. Where we once spent 2 or 3 hours a week managing members and tours, we now spend 40+ hours a week. Where it once cost nothing but time, there are now monthly emailing service, website, and other related costs.

There are other companies charging much more for the same service, with considerably less results.

Why would you pay $500 for a blog tour with CFBA?

- We presently have 202 reviewers, and 217 blogs as members, and are signing up new members at the rate of approximately 5 a week.

- We have our own Linux server, so our website space allocation is unlimited. And we contract with a top of the line email campaign company that has the ability to deliver individual email to thousands of members simultaneously.

- Our bloggers are quality reviewers. For example: we have over 30 published authors as members including Brandilyn Collins, Chris Well, Tony Hines, Robin Lee Hatcher, Tricia Goyer and Lisa Samson to name a very few. We have several editors and agents as members. A writing chapter from ACFW is a member. One of our members runs 4 book clubs at a Lifeway Christian Book Store.

-Our track record on blog tour successes is well-known. A recent article in CBA Retailer & Resources documents this. If you would like to read the article, we have it archived HERE on our blog. Click on each of the page images to open them in a larger readable format.

-Our Technorati results are listed on our blog after every tour. The recent Tour Update for Brandilyn Collins' Amber Morn, shows that because of our tour, her books from the series netted positions #1, #2, #3, and #4 on Technorati's Popular Books.

-For those unfamiliar with Technorati, their core strength is as a blog search engine. Their Popular page, dubbed Blogger Central is visited by 10 million global direct measured visitors, and almost 5 million US direct measured visitors a month, according to Quantcast statistics.

-Amazon results are trackable by comparing the book ranking before and during the tour. Amazon results are trackable by comparing the book ranking before and during the tour. A recent example of this was expounded on by Jeffery Overstreet, in the CBA Retailer & Resource article. Overstreet was amazed that his CFBA tour for Auralia's Colors raised his Amazon ranking by 75,000 points. His statement said, "I've done 25 radio interviews and I've never seen this kind of spike. It's pretty amazing."

-We will conduct our 100th tour in the month of April, and we presently have 49 other tours booked, some into next year. (All books that already have tour dates are exempt from the new change.) Because of the new schedule we can place an additional 20 book tours for this year.

-All of our Alliance members get my undivided attention. When publishers send books to their "influencer lists" there is only a small percentage of readers who will ever post anything about the book online, or in an organized manner that will create buzz. CFBA tours require 100% posting compliance from all reviewers who have solicited the book for promotion. We stay on top of this. Those who receive the book and don’t post are contacted. Those who don’t comply are dropped from CFBA membership.

-Each paid tour will also get a free ad in our new monthly magazine. (Startup tentatively for July 2008 - it will have author interviews, book reviews, a writer's corner, columns on writing tips, agent tips, industry news and much more. It will be free to all.

Additional exciting news:

In the month of July we will be launching our new monthly online magazine:
CFBA presents…
Christian Fiction Online Magazine

We have hired author Michelle Sutton as the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine. She has put together an exciting lineup of twenty-five columns and features for each monthly issue written by notables of our industry. The magazine will cover the complete spectrum of Christian fiction, from reading and writing to agents and interviews, and will include news relevant to upcoming blog tours and their dates.

There will also be paid advertisement space available in each issue.

I hope you will join in our excitement at the prospect of moving into even greater expansion than we have enjoyed so far in the area of online advertising. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Bonnie Calhoun
Director- CFBA
Founder/Owner - Christian Fiction Online Magazine