Aug
19
Viral blogging contest: Do We Have Hand?
by Jane ♦ Leave a Comment ♦ Email This Post ♦ Print This Post ♦
Filed under: Misc

UPDATE To see if you have been entered, please check here. I have listed all the entrants that I know of. If I haven’t caught you, leave a comment and I’ll get you on the list. No worries if the image doesn’t load. Contest will end on September 5, 2006. The contest is only open to those who are 18 years or older. I don’t want to get an unhappy parent suing me for corrupting their children!

WIN $200 AMAZON Gift certificate from DearAuthor.com by participating in a blogging experiment to bribe encourage bloggers to participate, we are putting up some semi-cash, a book, goodies, and an ARC. Here’s what you can WIN:

  • $200 Amazon gift certificate
  • Signed copy of Slave to Sensation
  • New Zealand goodies chosen by Singh
  • ARC of Christine Feehan’s October release: Conspiracy Game

Jane here from Dearauthor.com. We are running a viral blogging experiment to see if bloggers can have an affect on the real world market. This idea was inspired by Anne Frasier’s blog entry about her dwindling print runs. (I can’t find the exact post). The “hand” term is stolen from a famous Seinfeld episode where George tries to gain “hand” in his relationship by doing everything opposite to his instincts. (no original ideas here).

I chose Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation because I really loved the book and because she is a new author without any significant exposure. Ms. Singh lives in New Zealand and will be doing limited promotional work outside the internet (ie no signings). Slave to Sensation is her first single title mass market. She’s written 5 category romances. I had never heard of her when she emailed me to ask if I would review her book.

The chances of Singh making it onto the USA Today bestseller list or any other list is not great. I wondered when I read Anne Frasier’s blog post what effect, if any, could 100 bloggers do to a mass market book and a relatively unknown author.While Dear Author has NO affiliation with Berkley or Singh, in the interests of keeping it in her voice, we did ask the author to supply the blurb. Intrigued by the experiment, she’s also offered to match our $100, taking the prize to $200. On Thursday, I received a copy of the ARC to Christine Feehan’s upcoming book and called the publicity office to see if I could give it away in this contest. The publisher said okay.

What is the experiment exactly? We are trying to get, at least, 100 bloggers to blog about this book. Simply put up the following code which includes a blurb and a link to the cover image. You can add whatever else you want. The only goal here is exposure and whether exposure does anything to the real world market. You must include the permalink or trackback link because that is how we will keep a record of all the entrants.

If you want to know more about Singh’s book, you can visit her website. Rosario gave the book an A. Romantic Times rated it 4 1/2 stars. My letter will be up tomorrow and I don’t think it’s any secret that I will be giving it an A. We understand if bloggers don’t want to participate, but we hope they will.

You can download the code that you need to participate at here.

You can see how the blog post will look here.

If you do not have a blog, but you are willing to post the contest and blurb, simply email me at jane at dearauthor.com with the link to where you posted and I’ll enter you into the contest. The entrants will appear on this page so keep checking back to make sure I’ve caught you.

Entrants:

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Misc. You can feed this entry. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

JaneJane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways. She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation! Email this author | All posts by Jane
« REVIEW: Snow Blind by PJ Tracy
Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, a blogging experiment »

133 comments to “Viral blogging contest: Do We Have Hand?”

  1. 1 by CindyS August 20th, 2006 at 5:09 am Reply to this comment

    Uh, question, when I click to ‘download the code’ all I get is the preview of the blog. I copied it and pasted it into my blogger thing and when I hit preview there were no pictures or links or trackbacks.

    Am I doing something wrong or is that link not linking to the right place?

    Thanks CindyS - will put it up tomorrow if I can figure this all out.
  2. 2 by Jane August 20th, 2006 at 8:03 am Reply to this comment

    CindyS, if you click on the “download” link, it will bring up a page that has just text with html codes. That is what you want to paste into your blogger setup.
  3. 3 by Sharon August 20th, 2006 at 11:31 am Reply to this comment

    I posted the contest on my blog but wanted you to know that the last link for the excerpt doesn’t work. In the html you need to add a ‘p’ to the ‘htt’
  4. 4 by Jane August 20th, 2006 at 11:35 am Reply to this comment

    Oh, Sharon, thanks. Between you and Nicole, I should eventually have this thing figured out, right?
  5. 5 by C2 August 20th, 2006 at 1:55 pm Reply to this comment

    It’s up on my blog, too…but I don’t know about the whole “trackback” thing. I’m a new blogger (is that a better excuse than being a big dummy??). :o)
  6. 6 by Alyssa August 20th, 2006 at 3:58 pm Reply to this comment

    I just added this to my blog as well.
  7. 7 by Jennifer August 20th, 2006 at 4:22 pm Reply to this comment

    I added it to my blog as well, but can’t the picture to show.

    Jenn
  8. 8 by Erin the Innocent August 20th, 2006 at 5:01 pm Reply to this comment

    I put up an entry for this on my blog :) I hope this works. It looks like an interesting book :)
  9. 9 by Jane August 20th, 2006 at 5:39 pm Reply to this comment

    Jenn - for some reason, you are missing the code for the picture but that’s okay. I’ve got you entered.
  10. 10 by Karen S. August 20th, 2006 at 6:30 pm Reply to this comment

    I’ve blogged it here -
    http://embercase.com/wpembercase/

    Please let us know what kind of feedback and results this generates!
  11. 11 by raine August 20th, 2006 at 7:26 pm Reply to this comment

    I’ll have it posted tonight. :-)
  12. 12 by infraredherring.com August 20th, 2006 at 8:01 pm Reply to this comment

    Book Experiment…

    I am participating in a blogging experiment hosted at dearauthor.com. To enter the contest, put up this blurb, image, and trackback and you are entered to win the following prize package.

    $200 Amazon gift certificate
    Signed copy of Slave to Sen…
  13. 13 by katie g. August 20th, 2006 at 8:03 pm Reply to this comment

    I posted it on my blog this afternoon. Good Luck!
  14. 14 by Sarah August 20th, 2006 at 8:16 pm Reply to this comment

    I posted it at my book journal here:

    I wasn’t sure if I had to comment to let you know where I posted it.
  15. 15 by Bonnie Ferguson August 20th, 2006 at 9:09 pm Reply to this comment

    I put up the post on my blog :)
  16. 16 by Dance Chica August 20th, 2006 at 10:27 pm Reply to this comment

    Okay, you got me! lol. I just posted this on my blog. Good luck with your experiment! :)
  17. 17 by Angelle Trieste August 20th, 2006 at 10:35 pm Reply to this comment

    It’s up on my blog! :)

    http://www.angelletrieste.com/blog/?p=1176
  18. 18 by Angelle Trieste August 20th, 2006 at 10:40 pm Reply to this comment

    BTW — Anne Frasier’s post on print run is here.
  19. 19 by Angelle's Blog: Calliope's Faithful Servant August 20th, 2006 at 10:44 pm Reply to this comment

    Viral Blogging: Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation…

    I am participating in a blogging experiment hosted at dearauthor.com. To enter the contest, put up this blurb, image, and trackback and you are entered to win the following prize package.

    $200 Amazon gift certificate
    Signed copy of Slave to Sensati…
  20. 20 by Rosie August 20th, 2006 at 10:56 pm Reply to this comment

    Praise be I finally got the image loaded!! It’s on my blog. This is a fantastic idea and I’ll be checking to see how it goes.
  21. 21 by Alie August 20th, 2006 at 11:28 pm Reply to this comment

    It’s up on my blog/journal :)
  22. 22 by Menage a Kat August 21st, 2006 at 1:26 am Reply to this comment

    Because experiments are fun!…

    I am participating in a blogging experiment hosted at dearauthor.com. What fun!…
  23. 23 by jmc August 21st, 2006 at 7:07 am Reply to this comment

    Done! I’ve got this one preordered :)

    http://jmcarr2001.livejournal.com/88905.html
  24. 24 by Kirsten August 21st, 2006 at 7:42 am Reply to this comment

    When is the experiment officially concluded? I.e. do you have a timeframe at which point you’ll tally results?
  25. 25 by Jane August 21st, 2006 at 7:46 am Reply to this comment

    [quote comment="3308"]When is the experiment officially concluded? I.e. do you have a timeframe at which point you’ll tally results?[/quote]

    Yes, I should have posted that. We’ll end the contest on September 5 - that’s the official release date of the book.
  26. 26 by Valeen August 21st, 2006 at 9:12 am Reply to this comment

    Put it up on my site! No idea how I trackback though. ??
  27. 27 by Nienke August 21st, 2006 at 9:17 am Reply to this comment

    It’s up and running at The Writing Life!
  28. 28 by ag August 21st, 2006 at 9:23 am Reply to this comment

    I’m lending a hand too! Here’s mine:

    Go, bloggers, go!
  29. 29 by Nephele Tempest August 21st, 2006 at 11:34 am Reply to this comment

    I just wanted to drop in and say that I think this is a wonderful experiment, but then of course I’m a bit biased as I’m Nalini’s agent. Thank you so much for choosing to use SLAVE TO SENSATION as the promotional book for this event.

    I’m happy to participate and have passed the word about the contest, but please take me out of the running for the prize. (It’s kind of like being inelligible if you work for the sponsoring company, right?) Can’t wait to see the end results of the experiment.

    All best,
    Nephele
  30. 30 by Shannon McKelden August 21st, 2006 at 12:16 pm Reply to this comment

    I posted it on my blog also, but don’t know how to do trackbacks! Sorry! Does it still count? Here’s where it’s posted.

    Good luck, Nalini!
  31. 31 by LorelieLong August 21st, 2006 at 12:32 pm Reply to this comment

    I’m on blogger so I’m not sure how to track back but here’s my permalink
  32. 32 by Michelle M Pillow August 21st, 2006 at 12:58 pm Reply to this comment

    I’m in :) I posted on my blog here

    Very cool idea!
    Michelle
  33. 33 by Julie Scharff August 21st, 2006 at 1:57 pm Reply to this comment

    I put this up on my blog at http://www.myspace.com/jas46
  34. 34 by Lynn August 21st, 2006 at 2:09 pm Reply to this comment

    I just added it to my site! I love Nalini’s work!
  35. 35 by Louis Bailey August 21st, 2006 at 5:13 pm Reply to this comment

    Sounds like a great contest
  36. 36 by Liz D August 21st, 2006 at 5:41 pm Reply to this comment

    Sounds like a great idea
    And the book sounds Wonderful
  37. 37 by Imogen Howson August 21st, 2006 at 5:51 pm Reply to this comment

    I’ve just blogged this. I read the blurb and got shivers down my spine, so I figured it was probably worth publicising! Good luck with the experiment.
    Immi
  38. 38 by Dena August 21st, 2006 at 7:57 pm Reply to this comment

    What a great experiment and prize,I hope it works. The blurb is also great and it sounds like the book is a wonderful story that I would enjoy.
  39. 39 by Natalie J. Damschroder August 21st, 2006 at 8:07 pm Reply to this comment

    I blogged it the other day, but didn’t see myself on the list so I’m posting here. Didn’t want to clutter your comments list, but since I’m not Word Press, I guess it’s not an automatic find.

    Can’t wait to see what happens!
  40. 40 by Shelley August 21st, 2006 at 8:20 pm Reply to this comment

    What a great idea! I’ve done my post. I sat next to Nalini at dinner on Saturday night at the RWNZ conference. We’re all very excited about Slave to Sensation. Go, Nalini!
  41. 41 by Charlene August 21st, 2006 at 9:04 pm Reply to this comment

    I added it to my myspace

    http://www.myspace.com/charlene_z
  42. 42 by Michele August 21st, 2006 at 9:33 pm Reply to this comment

    I posted an entry at:
    http://mmarques.vox.com/library/post/viral-blogging.html

    It was sort of tough, and perhaps doesn’t look 100% like what you’re expecting, because that site doesn’t let people post HTML code.
  43. 43 by Kelley August 21st, 2006 at 9:40 pm Reply to this comment

    I don’t see anything in the message that could be tracking back so I figured I’d post here that I loaded it to my My Space blog:
    http://www.myspace.com/shewolf0316

    I’m very curious to see how this works also!
  44. 44 by sara hantz August 21st, 2006 at 10:24 pm Reply to this comment

    I couldn’t find a link either, so copied into my blog. http://www.sarahantz.blogspot.com
  45. 45 by michelle miles August 21st, 2006 at 10:41 pm Reply to this comment

    Great idea. I’ll be playing too. It’ll be up on tomorrow’s blog entry.
  46. 46 by Natasha August 21st, 2006 at 10:46 pm Reply to this comment

    Okay, I blogged on it. Good luck on the sales! And good luck, everyone, on those fabulous prizes!

    The results of the experiment should be interesting!

    Natasha :-)
  47. 47 by Vonda August 21st, 2006 at 11:16 pm Reply to this comment

    This book sounds wonderful! Great cover too. I have posted the info on my blog but I don’t know how to backtrack. Hope I did it right.
    Best of luck!
    Vonda
    http://vondaogle.blogspot.com/
  48. 48 by Monique August 21st, 2006 at 11:19 pm Reply to this comment

    What a great idea! I posted the blurb.

    Here is the link:
    http://fireblossoms.blogspot.com/

    in case the tracking device or whatever, doesn’t work. :)
  49. 49 by kkjayne August 21st, 2006 at 11:26 pm Reply to this comment

    Ok, I’ve blogged it! It’ll be very interesting to see how this goes. Good luck to Nalini Singh with her sales :D
  50. 50 by Alan Morgan August 21st, 2006 at 11:46 pm Reply to this comment

    Posted it here.

    Sounds like a great expiriment… and I’ll have to check out the book which also sounds quite interesting :)
  51. 51 by Barbara Samuel August 21st, 2006 at 11:50 pm Reply to this comment

    How amazing…I just sent in a review of this book today, having missed it in the big smash of books last month. Excellent book, and I’ll have to go get the review to post whether or not it runs in BookPage. This is a great experiment–blogs are working to put other books on the bestseller lists, why not in romance?

    I absolutely loved this book, honestly. Excellent world building, lots of intelligence, riveting conflict and great characters. Singh is an excellent writer.

    I’ll post to my site, too. See if it helps.
  52. 52 by Barbara Samuel August 21st, 2006 at 11:52 pm Reply to this comment

    Mixed up the link info in the last post. Corrected here.
  53. 53 by Jennifer August 22nd, 2006 at 1:09 am Reply to this comment

    I posted at my MySpace profile’s blog at http://www.myspace.com/jennifehr. I’ll also post a notice about it in a promo blog I’ve begun, just to spread the word. :)
  54. 54 by Deidre Knight August 22nd, 2006 at 4:58 am Reply to this comment

    We blogged about it for obvious reasons–she’s one of our agency’s own. What an amazing idea, and thanks for choosing this awesome book to highlight! Thanks a million!
    Deidre Knight
  55. 55 by Cece August 22nd, 2006 at 8:56 am Reply to this comment

    hey I’m in too!!!!!! :)
  56. 56 by Alyssa Goodnight August 22nd, 2006 at 9:28 am Reply to this comment

    Had just recently read about Nalini on Sara Hantz’ blog… What a great idea and a great opportunity for your guinea pig! ;) I’ve posted the contest to my blog!

    Good luck, Nalini!
  57. 57 by Tilly Greene August 22nd, 2006 at 10:39 am Reply to this comment

    Hiya Ladies!

    Love the idea, can’t wait to see how it works out, and hopefully I’ll learn something from it.

    I added the details to my work blog … http://www.myspace.com/tillygreene/
  58. 58 by Louisa Edwards August 22nd, 2006 at 12:22 pm Reply to this comment

    A very interesting idea, and I look forward to the results.

    Blog
  59. 59 by Merry August 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm Reply to this comment

    I added it to my blog too! Permalink here

    Merry
  60. 60 by Carol Burnside August 22nd, 2006 at 5:44 pm Reply to this comment

    I can understand the need to limit entrants, but it would be neat if you could track how many times this gets forwarded on from blog to blog. Hope this works for Nalini and she sells a ton! Her writing is very emotional.
  61. 61 by Teagan Oliver August 22nd, 2006 at 5:48 pm Reply to this comment

    I’m very excited to be involved in this project! Authors, and especially NEW authors, are always looking for a new twist on an old theme… something to put ideas across. And besides the fact that the cover is a dream! I wish the best of luck to Christine Feehan and to Dear Author!
  62. 62 by Literanista August 22nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm Reply to this comment

    I posted at my blog.

    http://literanista.blogspot.com/
  63. 63 by H.A. Fowler August 22nd, 2006 at 5:59 pm Reply to this comment

    I blogged this on both of my blogs!

    http://hafowler.blogspot.com

    http://hafowler.livejournal.com

    Good luck–what an excellent idea!
  64. 64 by Sandra T August 22nd, 2006 at 6:02 pm Reply to this comment

    I’ve posted the entry, and while it doesn’t link from the text of the entry, it does link from the links on my page - either the grey links arrow at the start of the entry or from my Links.
  65. 65 by Sandra T August 22nd, 2006 at 6:21 pm Reply to this comment

    [quote comment="3382"]I’ve posted the entry, and while it doesn’t link from the text of the entry, it does link from the links on my page - either the grey links arrow at the start of the entry or from my Links.[/quote]http://drasan.livejournal.com/
  66. 66 by Shawn/Emma August 22nd, 2006 at 6:29 pm Reply to this comment

    Hey! Blogged ya! here and here!
  67. 67 by Swapnil Shah August 22nd, 2006 at 7:02 pm Reply to this comment

    hello here is my permalink to the post on my blog
  68. 68 by Jane August 22nd, 2006 at 7:40 pm Reply to this comment

    [quote comment="3383"]http://drasan.livejournal.com/[/quote]

    I got you earlier and had you down as Drasan but changed it to Sandy T
  69. 69 by Jayne August 22nd, 2006 at 9:22 pm Reply to this comment

    I can understand the need to limit entrants,

    There’s no limit on entrants. We just wanted to get at least 100 bloggers. More is even better! ;)
  70. 70 by jaye August 22nd, 2006 at 9:28 pm Reply to this comment

    I just posted
  71. 71 by Christina Phillips August 22nd, 2006 at 9:45 pm Reply to this comment

    This is a great idea! I wasn’t sure how to do trackback, but have posted the blurb to my blog http://christinaphillips.blogspot.com
  72. 72 by Amanda Ashby August 23rd, 2006 at 3:47 am Reply to this comment

    Hiya

    This is such a fabulous idea and I can’t wait to read Nalini’s book. I blogged at this addy: http://amandaashby.blogspot.com/
  73. 73 by Meredith August 23rd, 2006 at 7:02 am Reply to this comment

    I’d like to be a part of the experiment.
  74. 74 by D Lange August 23rd, 2006 at 1:59 pm Reply to this comment

    Not sure how blogging works. Hope this will increase the number of great books out there that I am unaware of. Good luck with the experiment!!
  75. 75 by Crystal Stone August 23rd, 2006 at 2:48 pm Reply to this comment

    I would love to participate in the contest and I have 3 websites that I will put the contes on…These are my three blogs…They are a tribute to all the authors books that I have read…

    http://360.yahoo.com/cts_01
    http://www.myspace.com/noizemaker1
    http://noizemaker1.blogspot.com/
  76. 76 by Rosie August 23rd, 2006 at 11:03 pm Reply to this comment

    Congrats on making 100 blogs and creating a buzz…at least it seems that way to me. Most of the reader blogs I frequent posted the contest.
  77. 77 by EM Sky August 23rd, 2006 at 11:13 pm Reply to this comment

    Posted it! :)

    I found the “experiment” when Barabara Samuel picked up my last blog post, and when I saw that Ms. Singh is represented by The Knight Agency, well I just had to chime in. Can’t wait to learn the results!
  78. 78 by Donna Caubarreaux August 24th, 2006 at 8:56 am Reply to this comment

    http://donnacaubarreaux.blogspot.com/

    Wow! What fun. I had a problem inserting the photo, but managed to finally figure out how to do that.

    The book sounds fantastic.
  79. 79 by Carolyn Burns Bass August 24th, 2006 at 11:14 am Reply to this comment

    I think the link for my blog OVATIONS disappeared. There’s a blank under my MySpace blog (Carolyn’s MySpace) where it looks like it was meant to go. Here’s the link if you want to reinsert it into that space:

    http://www.ovations.blogspot.com

    Continuing good luck on the project and to Nalini (my Knight Agency sister).
  80. 80 by charity August 24th, 2006 at 3:39 pm Reply to this comment

    http://dreamerbecomesdoer.blogspot.com/

    Got it posted!! Thanks for the help!!! What fun.
  81. 81 by Linda Chaput August 24th, 2006 at 8:29 pm Reply to this comment

    great readings
  82. 82 by Marianne LaCroix August 24th, 2006 at 9:51 pm Reply to this comment

    I entered too:
    http://www.mariannelacroix.com/blog/?p=41
  83. 83 by Marianne LaCroix August 24th, 2006 at 9:52 pm Reply to this comment

    Why does it say my comment looks dirty?
  84. 84 by Jane August 24th, 2006 at 9:55 pm Reply to this comment

    [quote comment="3444"]Why does it say my comment looks dirty?[/quote]

    I think it thought you were spam for a minute. :)
  85. 85 by Rebecca Airies August 25th, 2006 at 1:31 am Reply to this comment

    Hi,

    I just added the post to my blog–rebeccaslair

    Rebecca
  86. 86