For lack of anyplace better to do it, this is a post I’m going to use for organizing a joint Outer Alliance/Drollerie Press blog tour. Parties interested in participating in this, please check behind the fold! Everyone else, keep watching this space, I’ll have more details as this gets organized!
Quick intro for those of you who’re peeking behind the fold on this post:
My fellow Drollerie Press authors and I have been doing blog tours throughout 2009, visiting each other’s blogs and sharing posts on various pre-selected topics. Some of these have been straightforward, some light-hearted, and in some cases, there have been outbursts of character sketches or prose snippets pertinent to our works.
Here are links to the various blog tours we’ve done so far:
- January 2009: Introductions
- In February 2009 we did “origin stories”, but I can’t find a master post link for that, sorry!
- March 2009: Character Interviews
- April 2009: Poetry
- May 2009: Mothers
- June 2009: Fathers
- July 2009: Summer
- September 2009: Music
- October 2009: Sweetest Day
- December 2009: Dangerous Writing
So what I’d like to do for 2010 is something similar to what we were doing for 2009, only this time around, we can have Drollerie authors go out and visit other people’s sites, spread the word about Drollerie, and give the folks who host our posts a chance to spread the word to our own readers about their work in the meantime. In exchange, Drollerie authors can host posts from the non-Drollerie ones on the same topic, whatever the topic of the tour might happen to be.
If we have enough people who want to participate often enough, we can keep to the monthly schedule, but I’m also open to “less frequently than monthly” if that works better for a majority of participants.
Topic-wise, I’d like to keep to a nice mix of casual and serious topics. In particular I’d like to have periodic topics that encourage people to indulge in brief bursts of creativity and do interesting little side glimpses of characters in their work–I love writing these myself and would definitely like to see such glimpses from other authors. Length of posts can be whatever people are comfortable writing, whether a few paragraphs or many, though I recommend not going over 1,000 words.
Depending on the number of participants for this tour or any to come, I suggest that we do a simple exchange of posts between Drollerie authors and non-Drollerie authors. If the number of participants is unequal, I can take volunteers to host extra posts to make up the difference, just so everybody gets to have a post hosted somewhere.
So what I’d like to know from potential participants are the following things:
- Should we keep to a monthly schedule for this?
- If a monthly schedule is too often, what interval would work for you?
- What topics can you suggest for the forthcoming tour, or any to follow?
- Since I’m pulling in authors from multiple locations, I could set up a mailing list for coordinating our efforts. Would you be okay with joining such a list? (Otherwise I can organize via posts right here on my site.)
- How soon do you feel you might be able to whip up a post on the topic we all choose?
Please drop comments with your thoughts and I look forward to hearing from you all!
Comments
24 responses to “Organizing a joint Outer Alliance/Drollerie press blog tour”
I’d love to take part in the 2010 blog tours, especially as I have a LOT of stuff I’m working on and feel so inspired lately! I’m up for any topic!
Sweet, it’ll be great to have your continued presence on these efforts! 🙂 Watch this space for further details, I’m hoping to get a plan organized by the end of this week.
Hey there! Here are my answers….
1 Monthly works for me…
2 n/a
3 a bit blank… I like genre-related topics, but it’s good to stretch. 🙂
4 either way is fine with me, but email might be more efficient
5 a week’s notice is fine
Brandon, thanks much for checking in! I got sick last week and am only just in the last couple of days getting over it, but I’m hoping to get a plan organized by the end of this week for the first round of participants. Keep an eye here for further updates. 🙂
Hi,
I’m an outside author interested in participating. My answers to each question are below.
1. Should we keep to a monthly schedule for this? — Fine with me. I could host as many as 2-3 authors per week on my blog.
2. If a monthly schedule is too often, what interval would work for you? — Whatever you folks decide should be fine.
3. What topics can you suggest for the forthcoming tour, or any to follow? — Nothing pops into mind at the moment.
4. Since I’m pulling in authors from multiple locations, I could set up a mailing list for coordinating our efforts. Would you be okay with joining such a list? (Otherwise I can organize via posts right here on my site.) — A mailing list would be wonderful. I usually don’t have enough brain cells to remember to check sites.
5. How soon do you feel you might be able to whip up a post on the topic we all choose? — It depends on my schedule at the time. It’s difficult to predict.
Thanks,
Resa Nelson
http://www.resanelson.com
Hi Resa, thanks very much for checking in. 🙂 I unfortunately fell ill in the middle of last week and have only just in the last couple of days gotten to the point of shaking off the last of a nasty cold, so now I’m trying to get caught up!
I hope to get a plan going by the end of this week as to what we’ll try to do. Watch this space for further details!
Hey there Resa, just wanted to follow up with you. I’m organizing a mailing list and if you’d like to join us, you’re very welcome to do so! Let me know if you’d like in; I want to get round 1 of the blog exchange organized this weekend if I can!
I could work with whatever schedule works for you, and I’m fine with pretty much any topics.
A mailing list or forum would be fine and I’d be happy to join one.
In terms of writing a post, I can turn something around within a day or two. I <iwould say I could do it within a few hours, but I have a full time job and a bunch of freelance work, so things can get complicated.
I’m very excited about being part of this.
Thank you very much for checking in here! Sorry for not answering sooner; I got sick in the middle of last week and am only just as of the last couple of days shaking off the last of a nasty cold.
But I’m nudging the Drollerie authors tonight and am hoping to get a plan organized by the end of the week. Watch this space for further details!
1.Should we keep to a monthly schedule for this?
Monthly is terrific.
2.If a monthly schedule is too often, what interval would work for you?
N/A
3.What topics can you suggest for the forthcoming tour, or any to follow?
Definitely the intro and origin stories ones again.
Character interviews as well.
Favorite genres
Kinks and Squicks (what really turns you on, what makes you hurl)
4.Since I’m pulling in authors from multiple locations, I could set up a mailing list for coordinating our efforts. Would you be okay with joining such a list? (Otherwise I can organize via posts right here on my site.)
Mailing list is great.
5.How soon do you feel you might be able to whip up a post on the topic we all choose?
Give me 2-3 days and I’m good.
Thanks for chiming in on this! Good to know that some of our previous topics are ones you’d be interested in covering, too–and if we’re bringing in new places for people to post, I wouldn’t object to repeating previous topics at all.
Sorry for not answering sooner, I was sick last week and am only just now shaking off the last of a nasty cold! But I’m nudging the Drollerie authors tonight and am hoping to get more of them to check in on this post, and to get word out as to what I’d like to try for a plan by the end of this week. Watch this space for further details. 🙂
1) Should we keep to a monthly schedule for this?
Monthly would be easily manageable.
2) What topics can you suggest for the forthcoming tour, or any to follow?
I’d love it if we talked about topics that light us up and are directly related to our living work — like where our best ideas came from, how we manage projects, our best/worst experiences of sharing work in progress, whether we outline before writing, and such things, rather than hashing out another variation on a tired industry trend or topic (e-book this or that, whether indie books are real, how to prostrate ourselves properly before agents/editors, etc).
3) Since I’m pulling in authors from multiple locations, I could set up a mailing list for coordinating our efforts. Would you be okay with joining such a list?
Sure. Of course, I’d give my *public* address. (By now, doesn’t everyone have a HazMat e-mail address for the outside world and an inner sanctum one for friends and family?)
4) How soon do you feel you might be able to whip up a post on the topic we all choose?
Within a week, unless I have lots of other deadlines going on at the time, in which case I can produce something in a fortnight.
Thanks for checking in on this and sorry I didn’t answer faster, I got sick mid-week last week and am only just in the last couple of days shaking off this cold.
Oo, I like the best/worst experiences of work in progress idea for a topic. That might be a good one to break the ice for my first stab at this whole process.
I’m nudging the Drollerie authors again tonight so I’m hoping to get word out on what we’re going to do by the end of this week.
1. Without a schedule, it might not come together. Monthly is probably the most workable rhythm.
3. Writing superstitions, literary heroes
4. Mailing list sounds good.
5. A week is easy. Three days is too tight. Anything more than a week is gravy.
Thanks for checking in, Sarah! And ooh, good topics there, I like both of those. 🙂 Keep an eye here for further details, I’d like to get a plan going by the end of this week for the first round of this joint effort.
Hello Everyone
I’m not really much of a blogger yet, but perhaps this can help motivate me to pick up the pace.
1. Monthly is fine
2. N/A
3. Genre, writing topics, some human themes.
4. I’m cool being on a mailing list
5. A week is usually good for me.
Thanks Mike
You know I’m down for this 🙂
My thoughts:
1. Yes!
3. Hmm, I second the kinks and squicks post, favorite genres and definitely think that the character interviews should return. I’d also submit the following topics: summer, holidays (for any month with a holiday, really), cross-genre work, blogging about blogging, hobbies writers have and how they work within their writing (or careers and how they work together with their writing, though I’d have to sit this one out for reasons too long and too personal to go into here).
4. I’d be happy to join a mailing list.
5. Uh, definitely this month. In a week or two for sure. 😀
Yay!
– Jo
Right on and thanks for checking in! I see you’ve already joined the mailing list I set up. As I get more people onto it, hopefully everybody who’s commented on this post as well as a few of the Drollerie folks, I’ll get the game plan going for round one of this party. 🙂
These are fun ideas! I’m excited about the possibility of being part of this.
Angela, I hope your cold gets better soon. (Hopefully it’s gone by the time you read this.)
I’ve been feeling much better this week, thank you! (Barring mild lingering snorkiness, but that’s starting to fade with judicious application of Sudafed! 😉 )
You may have already seen the invite I sent out for folks who commented on this post to join the new mailing list I’ve set up tonight. Please do follow that email’s instructions, and once I get a critical mass of people on the list I’ll start a thread to get the plan going!
Angela, Nora Fleischer was kind enough to spread the word about your blog tour, and when I expressed an interest to her, she encouraged me to contact you directly.
While I see the value of a blog tour, I confess I’m clueless as to how it works.
Best,
Lawrence
Hi there Lawrence, and thank you for coming by!
The way this would work is that Drollerie authors and non-Drollerie authors would partner up to exchange posts every month on a previously agreed upon topic. I’ve already gone and set up a mailing list for interested authors to join so that we can organize it, and I’ve already sent around an initial message to get discussion going. If you’d like to join the list I’ll be happy to get you set up. It’s on my own private server so I’m running the list myself. 🙂
Sounds cool to me. Is it too late to join in the fun?
Oh wow, I’m reading one of your books in ebook form as we speak! It’s not too late at all for you to jump in; I’ve just yesterday set up a mailing list for interested authors to participate and have sent around an introductory message to get organization of this going. If you’re interested in joining the list I’ll be happy to add you to it. It’s on my own private server so I run it directly myself.