Friday, May 31, 2013

Conclusion of the Love's Miracles Blog Tour!

What a fun experience this has been! I've loved being a part of it - seeing the success of the book's freebie promotion, reading readers' reviews, enjoying Sandra's interview responses. It's all been a blast, and I so appreciate the participating bloggers' enthusiasm, as well as the excitement of Sandra's author friends and her new readers!

It's bittersweet to see the blog tour come to an end. But we have happy news: winners' names! And I'll share some of the results of the blog tour, as well!

Winners!

In addition to the big prize pack, Sandra also offered some giveaways in conjunction with a couple of interviews. Did you catch them? Sandra offered a copy of The Price of Victory on Carolyn's blog, and winner's choice of The Price of Victory or Current of Love on Kara's blog. 

Carolyn's winner: Sherida!

Kara's winner: Karen and Gerard (one blogger name)!

Congrats, Sherida and Karen & Gerard! Be looking for my e-mail! Sandra noted that she can sign the winner's book to whomever the winner wants, so if you already have a copy, you can share one with a friend. =)

And now for the winner of the blog tour prize pack (three books, gift card, bookmark, and tote - see more detailed descriptions in this post)! Can we get a drumroll please?

And the winner is...

Kamila Moe Borkowska!

Congratulations!! Be on the lookout for my e-mail, and enjoy all of your goodies!

Acknowledgements

A blog tour is definitely a community thing, and Sandra and I are so grateful for the following people...
  • All of the participating bloggers: Carolyn, Vince, Kara, Kav, Renee, Tammy, Sherida, Julie, and Virginia. (If you missed any of their posts, do be sure to check out these links!) There would be no blog tour without bloggers, so thank you for all you do!! We appreciate your time, your thoughtfulness, and your enthusiasm tremendously!
  • Christy of Belle on a Budget, for making such a beautiful bookmark especially for our giveaway! 
  • Friends of Seekerville and other readers who shared the blog button, visited the blog posts, downloaded the book, and spread the word in various ways. Word of mouth is crucial, and you all have been such a big help!
  • Green Beans Coffee. I doubt anyone at your company has any idea about this blog tour, but I'm grateful for your Cup of Joe for a Joe program, and I hope that including one of your totes in our giveaway might help others learn of it. =) Keep supporting troops and doing what you do!
  • Sandra, for taking a chance on me and letting me share this journey with you. It has been a wonderful experience so far, my friend, and I look forward to our future projects!
Results

Before I sign off and officially say goodbye to the tour, I wanted to let you all know a few stats:
  • Over 2600 copies of Love's Miracles were downloaded during the Memorial Day weekend freebie promotion.
  • Love's Miracles made it onto the "Top 100 Free" Kindle books list for two genres: "Historical Romance" and "Thrillers."
  • The stats change hourly on Amazon, and Love's Miracles lingered between the 20s and 40s on those two lists during the weekend. But on the last night of the promotion - before it went back to $2.99 - Love's Miracles made #15 on the "Top 100 Free" list for "Historical Romance" and  #9 for the "Top 100 Free" list for "Thrillers."
  • The blog tour Rafflecopter giveaway garnered over 200 entries (not all from different people, but all for different types of entries). This caused Sandra to gain more fans on Goodreads, more followers on Twitter, etc.
  • There are 5 reviews up on Amazon so far (4 and 5-star reviews).
Beyond numbers, though, I believe the success of the blog tour is also shown in the reviews that shared how the book impacted the reviewers, in comments of support and eagerness, and in the general enthusiasm with which Sandra's book was received. Freebies can possibly lead to negative reviews by those who were expecting something different, and it's hard to say how far the freebies go in building up sales. And yet, I think Love's Miracles' re-entry into the world has been quite a happy one so far, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of it and to watch all of you show Sandra such love and support. Book bloggers rock! And that is all she wrote. ;)

11 comments:

Julie said...

Hey Amber! I think you both did a great job on the blog tour! It was enjoyable and informative. Congratulations to all of the winners!!

Sandra Leesmith said...

Amber needs to take most of the credit for the success of this blog tour. And the rest goes to the individual bloggers (Carolyn, Vince, Kara, Kav, Renee, Tammy, Sherida, Julie and Virginia) who featured Love's Miracles. What a wonderful and fun tour this has been.

Without you I would never have been able to do it. You folks really ROCKk!!!!

Thank you for all of your efforts and thanks to all the bloggers who logged in and participated with us.

Congratulations to the winners. I hope you enjoy your prizes. We sure had fun giving them out.

Sherida Stewart said...

Carolyn, I'm so pleased to learn I am the winner of The Price of Victory! Thank you!

And congratulations to Karen & Gerard and Kamila!

Thanks to Sandra and Amber for the Love's Miracles blog tour. It's been FUN!

Sandra, my husband is retiring this summer, so we will be heading out in our truck camper RV. I hope to do RV writing as you do! See you in camp! :) Thanks again for writing a story of love and hope!

Sandra Leesmith said...

Hi Sherida, Carolyn is heading out in an RV also. We need to have a writer's roundup in an RV park somewhere. Wouldn't that be a kick?

Happy writing and safe travels.

Amber Holcomb said...

Julie,

Aww, thank you - I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Loved having you be a part of it. :)

~Amber

Amber Holcomb said...

Sandra,

Thank you so much! And didn't the bloggers do such a great job?? I loved their reviews and interview questions and general enthusiasm! They made my job easy. :)

I'm so happy this tour was fun for you!

~Amber

Amber Holcomb said...

Sherida,

You're most welcome - thank YOU for all you did! So glad you had fun. :)

Have a great time traveling and writing this summer!

~Amber

Kara said...

Those stats are awesome!

Congrats Sandra! I'm so happy you had a successful blog tour. I'm not an author, but I can well imagine that there may have been some wondering how things would go involved. So happy for you!

And Amber. You are beyond amazing! I know, even in just the short time we've known one another, that you worked tirelessly to take care of everything. And you even took a road trip during it all! You were so sweet to answer all my questions and help out whenever I needed it. Thank you so much for making my first blog tour easy and so much fun!

Here's to many more successes in the future for both of you! :)

Amber Holcomb said...

Kara,

Awwww!! Thank you so much for all of the encouraging words - so grateful for your friendship and thoughtfulness! :) I'm happy that I could help, and I'm happy that you were willing to be a part of this blog tour! Hope to work with you on many more. :)

And, if I could speak a bit for Sandra, I know there was a bit of concern about how this book would be received...not just on her part, really, but also on mine, as I was hoping that the way I edited the content would be keeping with the theme and intent of the book, while still not being too much for the target audience. So I know we're both pleased and grateful that it's garnering positive feedback. :)

Thank you, Kara!

~Amber

Unknown said...

Amber,

So glad that the tour was a smashing success for you and Sandra! Cannot wait for the start of your own! :o)

Amber Holcomb said...

Christy,

That is so sweet!! I'm very glad, too. :) And I love the bookmarks you made to match the book - I really hope it was OK for me to snatch up the second one, LOL! :)

Thank you for the encouraging words, as well!! Blog tour is a little ways off, and I have a lot to get done before then, but I'm excited, too. ;) And eager for the cover reveal on Monday!! Love that you work together with authors to make their giveaways special. :)

~Amber