The topic of authors and bloggers and how they get along came up several times in multiple panels although I think Suzanne Young and Sara Gundell likely had the most fun with it. (They talked swag at one point which turned out to be way more interesting and helpful then you would expect.) I have been on the receiving end of hundreds of poorly crafted emails by authors over the years asking that I review their book. The worst are those which don't know my name, or spell it wrong, or simply refer to me as "Ray" thinking, I suppose, that "Chasing" implies I'm looking for myself. (I have no idea how they miss my name but they do.) The most cringe-worthy are the ones where authors invite me to join a blog tour for a book I've never heard of written by someone I do not know. The implication is always - always - that I am lucky to receive this invitation and this is, I think, the crux of the blogger/author problem. In the beginning a lot of bloggers were thrilled to pieces to do anything for an author and now, after being out here for so long, it is authors who need to consider themselves grateful for any blog attention.

I'm an author too, remember. I get how unfair this constantly moving teeter-totter game is.

As publishers look around more and more for how to work with the blogs and online reviewers, authors are finding themselves more and more having to reach out to bloggers themselves. Holly & Shiraz Cupala had an excellent presentation on the many things authors could do themselves to promote their books that included a lot of outreach and Suzanne & Sara talked about authors and bloggers teaming up to support each other and spread the word about books that had several fun ideas. But at the end of the day, the biggest thing is that the authors have got to know the bloggers - it's really hard to bond with someone online when they don't know you and even tougher when you are a debut author so they have never heard of anything you've written. Bottom line, you can't start thinking about how to promote your book online when it is a month away from coming out; you need to think about this a year before at least.

The one buzzword I kept hearing again and again from attendees when they talked about authors and bloggers was "relationships". You have to build relationships and if you want them to last you have to be willing to put time into them. That means you have to find bloggers you connect with, blogs you enjoy, online events you want to participate in. You have to comment and/or tweet and/or email. You have to show that you aren't just showing up to see what you can get ("Promote my book!!!") but what you can give to the greater literary conversation. You have to be in it for the long haul and that means, and you need to commit to this, do not just blog or tweet about your own book.

Ever.

If all you want to say is what you're selling and where you're selling it then don't be surprised when your requests to bloggers fall on deaf ears. I certainly told plenty of folks at the Con about my book and enjoyed hearing from authors about their titles. But when you start the conversation with "I'm looking for bloggers to be in my blog tour" or "Here is some swag for you about my book", the implication is that you think I should be grateful to receive your attention and that is where things tend to go awry. It's something authors need to think about a lot more than bloggers do - how to initiate these conversations. Publishers are not going to tell you how to do it (or honestly aren't going to know how to do it well - if they tell you just to blindly email bloggers then trust me they don't know what they are talking about), and there is no list of directions anywhere to follow. You have to make your own way and from the conversations I had this weekend, it is clear that a lot of folks are nervous about this (and I don't blame them). The thing is though, the answer these authors do not want to hear is that participation in the blogosphere is an investment in their future. It's the long game authors have to play (again, as Shiraz mentioned). You really need to be blogging and tweeting for years before you ask favors and the sooner you get this, the easier life will be.

But still - knowing and doing are two different things.

The funny thing is that even though I've been blogging and online reviewing for a long time, I still feel weird about asking fellow bloggers to review my book. I don't know what I'm going to do as I get closer to the release of MAP in November and I'm struggling a lot with crafting any sort of online rollout. These people are my friends - it seems awkward to suddenly shift and ask them to do something for me. So I'm in a similar boat as my fellow authors when it comes to online promotion. The only difference (and it's a big one) is that I know what doesn't work and that, trust me, is more than half the battle.