Tia has gone to a lot of trouble to put together a short and to the point list of things authors should do when setting up a blog for the first time. Avoid never getting comments by doing things like this.
These are also helpful things to do for random bloggers as well.
Of particular interest to me where these lovely items for authors.
1.) Thank reviewers. Even thank reviewers for bad reviews. We feel all special when authors thank us. We may not be special at all, but it is in your best interest to encourage such feelings anyway. Don’t kiss our ass; we can see right through that. Just thank us. We’re more likely to remember you and to blog about you when we have warm and fuzzy feelings about you.
Please do, I hate it when I do a review and it seems to be floating in Neverland. You don’t have to comment, but an email would be nice. On one occasion, the author and I were even able to work together on ways to improve his work, as I had noticed some flaws, and he was planning a new edition soon. Maybe he took my suggestions, maybe not, but at least he got feedback, and so did I. My reviews improved a lot after that I think.
2.) Consider blogging about bad reviews as well as good ones. This makes you look uber-cool, like nothing can touch you. You may be crying your eyes red, but we don’t know that. We’re just marveling at how awesome you are. Of course, if you’re only getting bad reviews, this will simply make you look pathetic, so use some balance here.
It makes me feel good that I haven’t hurt an author’s feelings too badly when I write a bad review.
3.) Ask! Email the blogger/site owner and make a request. Offer to trade links, or to do an article or guest post, or to send a review copy. The worst they can do is say no, but most of the time, bloggers are happy (read: giddy) to help authors out.
YES, YES, YES. Always willing to let an author guest blog or do an interview, or giveaway, or whatever. In fact, my very first interview, with Paul S. Kemp, was a result of his query, not mine.
Read the rest, HERE.
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Thank you for the shout-out, John! I’m glad you enjoyed it.