Keeping up with the promotion…

So in the past month, I’ve gotten Other People’s Heroes in every online eBookstore of which I am aware. I’ve sent out queries to dozens of different book bloggers offering free copies in the hopes that they’ll do a review. I’ve heard back from over a dozen of them that have offered a review, and a couple of them have even posted so far.

But I’m still trying to get the word out, because I’m doing all this myself, friends. I’ve got no publisher hustling up reviews for me, or taking out ads, or giving big, squishy hugs to reviewers who may be available to get the word out.

One thing I haven’t quite gotten as much of a boost with as I’d like, though, are reviews at the online book vendors. Reviews at places like Amazon.com help to raise the book’s profile, and the more people who see it, the more sales I can theoretically get, right?

So the question remains, how do I entice people to write more reviews? It’s not like I can start running contests or anything. I mean, I could, but I can’t exactly afford to start handing out iPads or the like as prizes. What have I got to offer?

Just… more story.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m currently working on the sequel to OPH, 14 Days of Asphalt. As you may surmise from the title, it’s a story that takes place across two weeks. It’s also a roadtrip story, and I’m in the midst of what’s called the “vomit draft” right now — where you just pound out the story to get it onto the page, giving you the chance later to massage it and turn it into a finished work.

So here’s what I’ll offer. For the month of May (2011), anybody who posts a review of OPH at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, or the iPad bookstore gets a special incentive. Before the review goes online, e-mail me at BlakeMPetit@gmail.com with a copy of the text and which store (or stores) you posted it to. As soon as it appears in one of them, I’ll send you access to a special Dropbox folder where I’ll post each “Day” of 14 Days as it is finished. (At present, only Day Zero is complete.)

It may not be an iPad, but it’s something, right?