Lost in The USA

By Russel D McLean

In just under a week (in four days time!) THE LOST SISTER is going to hit the US market. I’m in the final stages of organising a blog tour which is going to probably kill me, if only because I’ll be writing about a different aspect of the book or writing and reading every day. I’m dreading the entire thing and yet I’m extremely excited. Unlike my physical tour last year there’s no real chance to re-use material that worked before because, well, some of the audience may have come across it already (not that I did repeat any material – well, maybe some that was relevant and my dad’s gag about when God Created Scotland which accidentally opened the tour and became a running skit throughout). I hope you’ll follow me, of course, as I hop from blog to blog like a bearded gazelle. Some will be US blogs, some will be respectable blogs, some will be from far flung places like Glasgow but all have been very generous in opening up their doors.

The hope of course is to touch new readers. To bring people on board. Its tough to know how directly these things work. When you do a physical event you can correlate the book sales at the time to the effectiveness of your appearance. Its not rocket science. But how do you know all the people who bought on Amazon one day did so cos of a blog tour? Or if they went to their local bricks and mortar to find the book?

God only knows.

But I’m still going to do this. Because I kind of enjoy trying new things out and seeing what I can and can’t do. I love doing physical events that are different (I’ve now done two “careers fairs” about being a writer which are not – despite what some people may think – about selling my books as much as they are about telling people the truth about what my day to day job entails, and I happen to dig doing book groups who are not always the same kind of people I get at signing and talking events). In short, for the most part, I enjoy the promotion as long as I can do it on my own terms. I’m not a hard seller. Its not in me to be that guy. In fact nothing puts me off an author more than the continual and constant hawking of themselves. I tend to seek out guys and gals who talk about their work in a meaningful and entertaining way or who can make a connection to other things in life, be they other writers or influences or whatever. But the whole “buy me, buy me I’m great” thing has never been my scene.

That said, seriously, I hope that people buy the book…