Dementional Blog Tour- Guest Post

It's the final stop of the First Rule-organized virtual blog tour for Dementional, my second novel, and I thank Megan for the opportunity to visit on the other side of the Atlantic. It takes a special kind of organizing and perseverence to manage blog tours, and I'm grateful she and other bloggers make the effort to help indie authors to get the word out about our hard work.

The irony of me saying that is that my day job is in a marketing department, and I'm in the process of going back to school to earn my MBA--with a concentration in project management and marketing. My first class in that process just ended a couple weeks ago, with a research assignment that had me investigating the current publishing trends. There is a huge debate in the industry about whether we're watching the death of traditional publishing, or whether readers will rebel at the volume of words inundating the market now that Mark Coker and Smashwords have offered an independent avenue to publication.

The numbers seem to indicate that readers are embracing the written word as never before: The number of eBooks sold in 2011 was, for the first time, higher than the number of printed books. And despite the global economic contraction, books are selling at higher volumes than ever. Not only that, but independent booksellers are making their own resurgence.

All of this information makes me very happy as a reader: I have more options than ever before, and the marketplace is that much harder to game.

It makes it much more challenging as a marketer: I have a fraction of a fraction of the budget the Big Six do, and I value the ethics of authentic word-of-mouth recommendations. That means I rely on the good offices of book bloggers and readers to an extraordinary extent. Which brings me back to my initial statement of gratitude, and a small lesson in what helps readers support authors. If you like a book (whether traditionally or indie published), the best ways you can help that author gain visibility are to:

1. Like the product page on which the book is listed.

2. Tag the book with keywords that will help people find the book if they're searching by genre or topic.

3. Leave feedback on the book, either in social media places like Goodreads, or on the book's product page.


I hope I earn those actions from my readers, but suggest that whether you're so moved for my work or someone else's, you understand that those actions are the only things that allow indie authors on shoestring budgets to gain any kind of visibility or following.
Thanks, again, for the opportunity, and I welcome any feedback on what drives readers to choose one book over another (writing, cover art, and genre being equal).

 

 

Blurb:

 

Mark Inman has two loves: particle physics and Sarah. She agrees to become his wife at the same time his experiment to find the Higgs boson goes off the rails.

Journey with Mark while his existence melts and reforms in unpredictable ways as the veils between realities thin. His exploration of the minutiae of quantum physics builds a fascinating tapestry of alternate universes.

His search for survival, and the search for meaning and what is real, drive Mark as he experiences lives he never dreamed possible. His only touchstones: find Sarah and find his way home.

About the author:


A voracious reader since she was a toddler, and an ordained spiritualist, Tonya Cannariato has now presided over the marriage of her love of reading and her love of writing. She'slived a nomadic life, following first her parents in their Foreign Service career through Africa, Europe, and Asia, and then her own nose criss-crossing America as she’s gotten old enough to make those choices for herself. She’s currently based in Milwaukee with her three loves: her husband and two Siberian Huskies. She suspects her Huskies of mystical alchemy with their joyous liberation of her muse and other magical beings for her inspiration. She loves to sleep, to watch her interesting dreams, some of which are now finding new life in written form.


Buy the book:

Amazon (Paperback)
Amazon (Ebook)