TIP: Don't cheat when trolling for readers

While yesterday's post about Mr. Ritchie seemed a bit out of place, and even though one of the Obie Joes shares his grin, the real reason we stuck our nose into his business was for an experiment.

Turns out our hypothesis was true: feature a celeb on your page, and your web traffic goes up. Even if said celeb has nothing to do with the flavor of your blog or site. Yesterday's statcounter.com for this blog count quadrupled.

For those wanting to increase traffic, you could use celebs, but such contact is fleeting. To build true, consistent traffic, you want readers who like you, your book, your topics.

Light for the day

About a decade ago, we shared Mr. Ritchie's sentiment.

OH! Something for your Friday

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/14636

Love this! Great to listen to in the background.

I can think of a half-dozen authors who need to be kidnapped and placed in front of just so.

Any one else have experience with this format?

Frankenstein, uh, lives again

Book authors should be so lucky to have a character like Frankenstein live on as a name and representation of certain ideas.

Plus, Frankenstein got his author, dead for over a century, a booking in a hip L.A. bar. Ms. Obie Joe loves the contrarian mix of the "Dead Authors" event: a performer impersonates an author, with commentary on current events, and reading of works.

Ms. Obie Joe's only suggestion would be to match a Living with a Dead Author; the two could share a similar vibe, subject matter, or even just similar looks (well, why not? Who wouldn't want a double bill of the high-hair twins, Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Twain?)

Wanted: a financial book

These are interesting times, especially if your book is about finances, the war or politics. Any other book? Not such interesting times, at least when it comes to the competition for media bookings.

The past few months have given all book publicists fingertip calluses as we struggle to find media bookings in one of the most memorable news cycles Ms. Obie Joe has ever seen. The tip sheets we get from journalists used to have 5-7 genres (finances, health, parenting, cooking, etc.); today, we're lucky if financial only takes up 20 of the 25 journalist requests.