Tui Snider - author & speaker

blog book tour

Unexpected Texas Update: Prize Winners & #1 on Amazon

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Unexpected Texas is an Amazon Best Seller! (photo by Tui Snider)
Unexpected Texas is an Amazon Best Seller! (photo by Tui Snider)

My Row80 & Unexpected Texas Update

On March 2, 2014 I officially released my quirky travel guide Unexpected Texas on Amazon as both a paperback and Kindle version.

For the next 8 days, Unexpected Texas toured the web on a whirlwind book release blog tour. A variety of interviews and reviews appeared on the following blogs to help promote my book. It was so much fun!

#UnexTex Blog Tour Prize Winners

The book blog tour for Unexpected Texas was a blast! I learned a lot, had fun, and made some great contacts.
Today, I’m pleased to announce the winners for the prizes featured at each stop along my virtual book release tour. *drum roll please*

The following lucky folks are all winners:

1. Mark Oxner is the Grand Prize Winner. He wins: a paperback copy of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a $25 Amazon gift card to support his reading habit.
2. Scott Shetler a.k.a. “The Quirky Travel Guy” wins: a paperback copy of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook for him to record anomalous events, a video of “Cowboys and Aliens,” and a packet of Yoda Post-It notes (because there is no try, there are only to-do lists!)
3. Leigh Reinert wins: a paperback version of my book, Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a snazzy, laminated folding map of Texas (which I was so tempted to keep for myself!)
4. Gale Langley wins: a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and a bag of sea salt caramel dark chocolates. Yum! The sea salt is a nod to the ancient sea which provides North Texas with high-quality salt reserves which are mined by the Morton Salt Company today, and from which the Salt Palace in the town of Grand Saline was built.
5.Katherine Boyer wins: a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and the latest issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife. This ties in with the Athens, Texas chapter of Unexpected Texas in which I describe a visit to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. Not only do they have aquariums and a well-stocked pond, but they will loan you a rod and reel and teach you how to fish!
6. Pam Roberts wins: a paperback of Unexpected Texas, an Unexpected Texas notebook, and some really cute road trip stickers for scrapbooking.
7. Patricia Lynne wins: One Aunt Jemima apron, a zebra striped mani/pedi kit, a mini Texas Hold ‘Em game, & a paperback copy of Unexpected Texas. Each item in this quirky assortment references a woman mentioned in Unexpected Texas.

Once I have everyone’s snail mail addresses, I will send off all the loot.

A Successful Book Blog Tour

Everyone defines success differently, but I am happy with what I achieved with the #UnexTex Unexpected Texas Book Release Blog Tour.

Specifically, I’ve gained nearly 100 new Twitter followers, I’ve made new friends on Facebook, I’ve strengthened friendships with bloggers who inspire me, I’ve doubled the number of subscribers to my newsletter, I’ve doubled my blog traffic, and I’ve made connections that led to offline book-signings and speaking engagments (more on those in upcoming posts!)

I’ve also inspired at least 2 of my friends to get serious about their own book projects! That makes me feel great!

My Book is #1 on Amazon

Another goal I had going into this virtual book release blog tour was to hit #1 in the Amazon Best Sellers list for Dallas – Fort Worth Travel Books.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, Unexpected Texas is now officially an Amazon Best Seller! Yee haw! Rather than go on about how this makes me feel, I’d like to have the room for a moment:

What is ROW80?

ROW80 is short for A Round of Words in 80 Days. It was created by the author, Kait Nolan, who describes it as, “an online writing challenge that knows you have a life.”

Basically, ROW80 is a way for writers to connect online and share progress on their writing goals. Click on the aforementioned link for more information. To join in and cheer on other ROW80 writers, check out the A Round of Words in 80 Days website. You may also simply click on any of the blog in the following list:

Unexpected Texas Book Release Blog Tour Coming Soon!

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Flags in Texas (photo by Tui Snider)
Flags in Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

Book Release Blog Tour

After formatting, setting up the Unexpected Texas Book Release Blog Tour was the next big thing on my self-publishing to-do list. I’m happy to report that virtual book tour is shaping up just fine.

It’s gonna be fun, too: I’m giving away free copies of my book along with other prizes every single day of the tour. Then, on the final blog tour day ( Monday, March 10, 2014) the eBook version of Unexpected Texas will be free on Amazon.

Talented Bloggers & Fun Prizes

Here’s a linky list arranged “Brady Bunch” style so you can check out all the fabulous places I’ll be stopping on this virtual blog tour:



What’s the #UnexTex hash tag for?

After brainstorming with friends, two of them suggested using #UnexTex as a hashtag for talking about my quirky travel/trivia guide Unexpected Texas. So if you like to tweet, feel free to join in on the conversation. As you can see, I even added an area on the sidebar of this blog where you can see recent tweets using the #UnexTex hashtag.

My Amazon author page

Yes, I finally made an author page on Amazon for me and Unexpected Texas. To view it, click: Tui Snider’s author page on Amazon

The Rest of my Row80 check-in:

Get my paperback formatted perfectly by Friday, February 21, 2014.

Done! With these proofs in hand, I can already see several tweaks that need to be made.<

Order Paperbacks to sell:

Order 100 paperbacks by Friday, February 21, 2014. Done! As of this writing, they have not been shipped yet. Fingers crossed that they arrive in time for my book launch on Sunday. *gulp*

Re-do my Self-Publishing To-Do List:

I’ve actually got 3 to-do lists going at the moment. I re-do my main action list every morning before anything else!

Blog 3X per week:

Done. Phew!

Reply to all comments, visit all commenter’s blogs & comment on them:

I’ve replied to all comments & will visit their blogs after I post this. :)

Visit at least 10 other ROW80 blogs & retweet their posts, too:

Not yet, but I will do this as soon as this post is up.

Daily writing check-in via email:

Morgan Dragonwillow and I still check in with each other every night – and sometimes during the day – via text and email.

What is ROW80?

ROW80 is short for A Round of Words in 80 Days. It was created by the author, Kait Nolan, who describes it as, “an online writing challenge that knows you have a life.” Basically, ROW80 is a way for writers to connect online and share progress on their writing goals. Click on the aforementioned link for more information.

To join in and cheer on other ROW80 writers, check out the A Round of Words in 80 Days website. You may also simply click on any of the blogs in the following list: