Friday Blog Feature ~ Stacy Juba:Mysteries, Murder & More

Friday Features give us a great opportunity to meet new people and fabulous blogs.

Stacy Juba: Mysteries, Murder & More
I named the blog “Mysteries, Murder & More” as I wanted to brand myself as a mystery writer. I took an on-line marketing class shortly before launching my blog, and one of my classmates helped me to brainstorm that name. It also makes a nice tag-line for my web site.

Since summer 2010

My blog appeals to book lovers as the main emphasis is books and authors.

As a tie-in to my novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, I invite authors (or their characters) to blog about the question “What were you doing 25 years ago?” This is a fun feature as it provides a fresh subject for authors to write about and allows readers to get a glimpse into the writer’s past. In some cases, authors answer the question from the perspective of a character from one of their books, which gives  readers the opportunity to enjoy a short “pre-quel” to the published book and learn more about what motivates this character.

I also recently launched the Sink or Swim 6 as a tie-in to my mystery novel Sink or Swim.  Authors are invited to answer a six-question interview from the point of view of a character from their book. This interview is actually a contestant application for the fictional reality game show Sink or Swim.  Authors are encouraged to ask their friends and readers to comment on the post. The three characters that brought in the highest number of unique commenters to their posts at the end of the year will be declared the winners of Sink or Swim.

I also sometimes participate in blog hops and other fun events as I enjoy networking with other book bloggers.

In addition, my guest authors frequently give away books and e-books to commenters.   

If you enjoy books, come by and check it out. It’s a good place to discover new authors and books for your to-read list. Also, most of my regular giveaways have been very low entry. My guest authors tend to get comments on their posts, but few, if any, entrants for their book giveaways.  In many cases, it’s because the readers or friends who are commenting have already read the book. Don’t be shy about being the first to enter a giveaway – you might just win!

I’m a former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, and I equate blogging to having my very own magazine. I love receiving great posts from guest authors and being able to share the articles or interviews with my readers. I also enjoy introducing people to new writers that they might not have otherwise heard of. I also get a kick out of hosting giveaways and helping people to receive a free book – a little thing like that can make someone’s day.

I would advise having your follower options clearly presented on the blog, such as Google Friend Connect and Networked Blogs. I also recommend offering some sort of Add This button so that readers can easily share blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other networks. It’s a good idea to have a Facebook Like button for your site. If you’re active with a social network such as Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads, be sure to include links in your sidebar so that readers can follow you. Also be certain that your blog posts feed through Twitter.

Try not to overextend yourself as you don’t want to burn out. For example, I am closing guest blog submissions for a few months as I am swamped with posts, and need to catch up on editing these before I can schedule new ones for the rest of the year.  Know and respect your time constraints.

 I’d love to reach 500 followers by June and 1,000 by the end of the year. I’d like to see more comments on the posts and to have more entrants for the giveaways.

Be sure to check out  Stacy Juba:Mysteries, Murder & More

at  http://stacyjuba.com/blog/blog/