Christian Fiction Blog Tours

Edition #1: "Forgiving Solomon Long" - Chris Well. Post July 20, 21, or 22.

Okay, let's get this party started. For the first edition of the Christian Fiction Syndicate, we'll be highlighting Chris Well's "Forgiving Solomon Long."

First Things First
Since we're just starting, we'll need to do a little extra work. But we don't want this to be too overwhelming, so let's just try two steps--things you should do right now.

1) Do you have a blog? If yes, good. You've got step one covered. If not, visit my quick online primer at http://www.tlhines.com/zoe/blog.html.

2) Now to register. We want your blog to be registered with a couple of major blog trend tracking services. In other words, you want your blog to be "watched" by these services. As an added bonus, registration should help build a bit more traffic for your blog. To keep it simple, let's just concentrate on three: blogpulse.com, blogdex.net, and technorati.com.

-->blogpulse.com registration: Is easy. Just go to http://www.blogpulse.com/submit.html and enter your email address and the url of your blog. You're done; blogpulse doesn't send a confirmation email or anything.

-->blogdex.net registration: Is a bit more involved, but not too taxing. Go to http://blogdex.net/add.asp to enter your email address and blog url. Make sure it's a valid email address, because blogdex will send you a confirmation email; you'll have to respond to the email within 48 hours, or you'll be purged from their system.

-->technorati.com registration: Is unneeded; your blog should be automatically tracked. However, it will speed up the process if you register. Go to http://www.technorati.com/signup/ and click "Claim Your Blog." You'll have to copy a snippet of code into your blog template.

Okay, you're ready to participate in the Syndicate.

Mandatory Items in Your Blog Post
Your post dedicated to "Forgiving Solomon Long" must contain two links, and must be posted July 20, 21, or 22.

Links: First, and most important, link to the Amazon page for this book at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736914056/qid=1119372503/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-5862885-1587911

Second, link to Chris's web site at:

http://www.forgivingsolomonlong.com

Just to be clear, these links don't have to appear on your permanent blogroll or links page, merely in the post devoted to "Forgiving Solomon Long." This is important because we want a number of new links to show up in quick succession, all pointing to the same pages.

Date to post: July 20, 21, or 22 - Again, this is important, because we want a number of links in quick succession.

Information from Chris
Chris has a lot of background and press information on his web site for FSL (www.forgivingsolomonlong.com) and his publisher's web site (http://www.harvesthousepublishers.com/book.cfm?ProductID=6914056). If you have specific questions for Chris, comment on this post, email Chris, or email me and I'll get the information to Chris.

A few questions that may come up -

Where do I get a copy of "Forgiving Solomon Long?"
If you send your mailing address and contact information to Chris by Friday, July 1, he'll do everything he can to send you a reading copy. Or, buy a copy at Amazon or your favorite CBA retailer.

But, I'll say it once again: you don't have to read the book to create a post. You're a smart cookie; you'll find something interesting to say about Chris, if nothing else. I don't want to hear anybody say: "I don't have time to finish the book and do a review by July 20th." We're not asking you to buy and/or read the book. We're asking you to help us create links, and resulting publicity, for the book. If worse comes to worst, here's a ready-made post you can use for your blog:

Read "Forgiving Solomon Long" by Chris Well.

This post will be just as effective for what we're trying to do with this project as a long, in-depth analysis of the book.

Really? I don't need to make a big deal out of my post?

Yes, really. This is a quantity thing: we want to build a number of links in a short, concentrated period of time.

Okay, enough preaching. I'll step off my soap box now.

Any questions? email me.

Posted by TLHines at June 27, 2005 07:20 AM