The 2015 AW erotica authors blog hop - Cancelled!

Heya all,

It's with a heavy heart that I have decided to cancel this year's event due to lack of participation. Thanks to everyone who's shown support these last 3 years.

That's a good idea, Gypsy.

Should we think of doing a "Grand Prize" type giveaway for the scavenger hunt at the end of the hop, or single giveaways on our separate blogs?

Reformed Gypsy said:

And it's just dawning on me that I should ask what the goal of the blog hop is? Duh me.

Gyps

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The goal of the hop is, like any blog hop, to make ourselves known. It's marketing, really. And the hop has had some participants who are well known authors, so having your name listed on their blogs for the hop is also good for exposure.
And, of course, vice versa.

I like your idea. I'll have to think about it more when my brain isn't fried from being sick.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Reformed Gypsy said:

Did you give prizes in the past? The individual authors that participated in the FB release party I attended each gave individual gifts - signed books (I did not know you could do that digitally), gift baskets, erotica toys, etc. Of course, shipping costs can be more than the value of the item when you give physical items. Some gave $5 Amazon or B&N gift certificates. The grand prize was $250 gift car to the bookseller of your choice.

Gyps

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Yes, we did give "prizes". Each single author gave away something to a random person who commented on their blog. So with 14 participants in the blog hop, readers had 14 different opportunities to win something - as long as they visited each blog.

I figure the hop will run sometime during the summer.

Anyone else interested? It's best to have at least 10+ participants! Come on, don't be shy. If you're not published yet, that's okay! This is a fantastic opportunity for you to market yourself and what you write.

The lack of replies on this thread makes me nervous.

Anyone else interested in joining the annual blog hop? If you're interested in trying a different time of year, let me know. We don't have to stick to running it through the summer.

Awesome @Maenid and @Laurasaurus!

New authors are absolutely welcome to participate. I'll add your names to the list.

Filigree. We'll miss you. Awesome, Tucker! I'll add you to the list.

The grand prize, if we chose to have one, would probably be handled via a raffle website like Rafflecopter.

I'll give everyone a little more time to get used to AW's new forum. If anyone else is interested or have questions, please comment on this thread. Or message me.

A quick count: We have 7 authors interested in the blog hop.

Any more? Any other suggestions? Summer or Fall for the blog hop?

It doesn't matter.

TuckerMcCallahan said:

A lot of "Halloween" blog hops run in October. I'd personally like to see something before that, either an end of summer or maybe something in September for Harvest/Mabon?

Seven isn't enough to really do justice to a hop though, is it? Maybe the hops I've participated in have been unusually large, but they usually had 20 or more participants. Are we looking for AW-ers only, or would this be open to anyone?

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I'd also like to run it maybe mid/late summer, if possible. And yes, this hop is open to AW'ers only, but they don't necessarily have to be frequent posters or regulars to participate. If anyone is new, lurking, or otherwise, we're more than happy to have you aboard.

In the past, we've had around 20 participants. Things change from year to year, so for unknown reasons, I haven't had as many people this year jump in on the idea. "Registration" will be open pretty much until last minute, though, so this gives more time for people to see this thread.

And awesome BeeGem and Ginger. I'll email you when it gets closer.

I think we're pushing for a run in August.

Update! Here is a list of those participating so far. Some of these names are pending based on time of blog hop run.

Reformed Gypsy
Beachgirl
elindsen
c.m.n.
DancingMaenid
Laurasaurus
TuckerMcCallahan
BeeGem
gingerwoman

And one more (just waiting for a PM).

Also, I believe we will have the blog hop in August, sometime. So this so-called "registration" will be open until August first. Lurkers, you have 2 months left!

Now I don't think we've figured out exactly what we're going to do for the blog hop yet. Here are some ideas:

* chain story
* character interviews (instead of author interviews)
* a scavenger hunt (this would also work with prizes)
* the usual author interviews...

Also, as for the prizes, should we:
* have 1 grand prize
* have a grand prize and individual author prizes on our blogs
or
* have just individual author prizes

Or if you have other suggests, please chime in!