Links All Over

I'm sure some authors have all their work with one publisher, but many are like me with multiple publishers or venues featuring their books. Along with multiple publishers come numerous 'author' pages.

Hopefully, if you're published, you have an author's page on Amazon. That page should have all your works carried by Amazon. I have my fantasy books and my romance novels on that page.

Smashwords lets you have an author's page and easy connect to all your work, though those of us who use Smashwords to self-publish suffer our share of frustrations with that platform.

I'm lucky enough to have the wonderful romance publisher, New Concepts Publishing, have an extensive author page for me on their site.

Crescent Moon Press has contracted the first book in my next epic fantasy series, and though it's months away, they already have set an author page for me.

Again, like most of you, I have a facebook presence, twitter, goodreads and even a neglected author's den persona. And many of these places make it possible to link to each other and to our blog or website. Links everywhere. Our name everywhere. It's difficult to keep up with all of them, but it is great to have all those connections to so many places and people in the business of writing and reading.

And just to add a few, my friend, Stephen Tremp, is busy finishing up his third novel and is offering his first book free on Kindle until Thursday night. You will really enjoy Breakthrough.Breakthrough

Another writer I've met in the blogosphere, Donna Martin, is having a contest to celebrate her blog anniversary. She's done an amazing job building a large following in a short period of time.

Are you linked up all over? Do you have a sure count of how many author pages you have on different sites?

Game Plan

Excitement is slowly growing.  The countdown is starting in my head.  Beyond the Gate, Book #2 in The Futhark Chronicles, will be released January 1st.  There is so much to do.  This week I'm doing a final read through and kudos to my publisher.  I'm a third of the way through and have found only one typo. 
I had a little phone conference last week about promotion with the Paul and Bridgett from Medallion.  They gave me some great ideas and answered tons of questions for me.  I put some things together already and am working on a few more.

One of the first things I'm working on is a blog tour.  I've never done one though I've visited the blogs of many fellow writers in support of their tours.  One of my questions was when to start it.  Right before the release of my book?  Right after?  How many blogs?

Another thing I've finally set up was my author page on Amazon.  I'm still working on my page for Barnes and Noble online store and Goodreads.  I wonder if anyone ever visits those.  Will it bring me more readers, more sales?

I also have a few short stories in the works I'll be offering for free in various places.  I'm rather excited about the two I've started.  Both are prequels to The Keepers of Sulbreth and will delve deeper into the events that shaped a few of the secondary characters in The Futhark Chronicles.  I know people who've read the first book in the series will be interested in the short stories but will such things draw in new readers?

I'm also compiling a list of reviewers and hoping I can place this second book with more of the fantastic bloggers who regularly review books.  Many of them have hundreds of followers.

I read every blog I find on promotion and networking.  I've read the posts of many talented authors and agents but I'm still unsure if anything I'm doing is reaching prospective readers or only other authors.  Have you found any of the above mentioned promotional plans particularly successful as an author?  Have you discovered or investigated a new author from any of the promotional gambits mentioned?