Tony Eldridge at Marketing Tips for Authors offered up a few terrific links this week at his blog:

101 Book Blogs You Need to Read This is a terrific list to add to the blogroll - and find new places for reviews, guest blogs or interviews.

Ebook Cover Service Creates Twitter Contest Book Cover Tony is pulling together a series about how to launch your very own Twitter contest. He successfully implemented one earlier this year. This was incredibly timely for myself, as I've been searching for a good service for my eBooks.

Fridays Tony always provides Marketing Tips Around the Net, a post of links to author promotions and marketing posts that will help you. Be sure to subscribe to his feed or visit his site each Friday to see what he's found.

DailyBlogTips offered up 5 Things you SHOULDN'T Do When Approaching Bloggers.

This post mainly focuses on appropriate ways to network with fellow bloggers to start raking in the search results. Authors and publicists do similar networking when going on virtual book tours, or try to get placement on review blogs.

One of the worst things authors and publicists do is constantly email me about live links to posts.

If a post has run, there is absolutely NO REASON why an author or publicist shouldn't go to our site and search for the author's name or book to get it. Emailing me for the link is sheer laziness - and a little appalling when it's a few months AFTER the post has run. This tells me those involved didn't bother to check our site the day the post ran, and likely did zero to promote it.

If a post doesn't run on the day it was schedule, sure, email me and I'll investigate - any good host will. It's possible the post was bumped for other content - which is what happens at newspapers and magazines all the time. Unfortunately, the world isn't as forgiving for bumped content on blogs as it is in print. It also isn't as forgiving for cyber glitches that delay posts.

But I digress...

When you approach bloggers for publicity, do it with the knowledge that you need to follow up with each blog and check for the content on the scheduled dates. Don't just book them and hope for the best. That is a failing formula that will not help you decipher which sites are best for genre traffic.

Recently, I've surfed through several blogs that quote news stories verbatim. I've seen this same trend with authors quoting reviews on their Web sites.

Typically, these sites write a few paragraphs about what they think of the news story, or a thank you for the great review, then they put the publication name, date it posted and byline, followed by the entire story. Sometimes they link directly to it, but many times they do not.

As a former journalist, I want to scream with the wrongness of it. You never, ever quote an entire review or article for a blog post - even if you are writing specifically about it and even if you are crediting the publication.

Reposting an article or review verbatim is like someone republishing your book on their blog because they are writing a review about it.

You can quote from articles and reviews - with proper attribution:

• When you get a great review, share maybe a quote or short paragraph from it, then give readers the link so they can see the full review. DO NOT post the full review. While you may love it, the writer will NOT. Those links are just as crucial to the reviewer as they are to you, not just for hits, but for publication credit.
• When you use a direct quote, section it off using indentations, customized quote marks, or italicize it so it stands out from the rest of the text. You want your readers to know those words are from someone else, not you.
• Be clear who you are quoting. If it is a blog, use the blog name. If it is a newspaper, use that newspaper name. Some bloggers even use the reporter's name: Joe Public of AuthorNews reported that...
• Never take a quote out of context. If you have questions about it, ask someone else to read it to be sure you've got it right. Better yet, track down the author and ask them.
  
• Check the Web site to see if it requires special permission to reprint an article in full. Some sites even ask that you request permission to use quote.

I've had a few emails from authors who want to quote from this blog. I'm great with that - as long as I get proper attribution. I'm not a publicity hog; I just want credit for what I write - like any author.

Exceptions to the rule:

Quoting Tweets. It's 140 characters or less. You will likely need the whole phrase or a portion of a hashtag string for it to make sense. Be sure to link to the entire search string with your post.
Quoting comments. Unless the comment is an article itself, you will typically need to quote the entire text - with a link back to the article.
Quoting government notices. Cities and counties are now posting hearing notifications and rules online. For the most part, these general public notices can be reprinted verbatim. However, if you have a question, contact the agency that sent out the notice.

I found an interesting site today for The Self-Publishing Review, a magazine devoted to reviews and interviews with self published authors.

In this blog post, the site offers up top sites where you should list your books. The list is comprehensive, and includes sites like Shelfari, Author Tree, Published.com, BookTour and Author Bookshop.

This is a great resource of authors in all genres and published in any way. Be sure to check it out.

 Recently, several authors asked me for links in advance of posting their virtual book tours. I am reluctant to provide advance links for a variety of reasons:

1. I could change a title or a tag that creates a different live link.
2. The posting system could change the link to something else.
3. The post could be lost, need to be reposted and, again, the link would change.
4. My editor could change something, without my knowledge, and change the link.
5. A page redesign could configure the links differently.

See a pattern here?

The fact is, virtual book tour hosts can never be 100 percent about what the live link title will be. There are too many unknowns in cyberspace. When touring, you should take the time to visit the sites to pull correct links. 

Some authors say they want the links in advance for advanced promotions. Here is what I say: In the Web world, we have short attention spans. Web surfers will not remember to visit a site for a tour you announced a week in advance. Your best bet to catch fans in cyberspace is to pull links the day you tour, and publicize them on your social networks and via e-mail that day. People are more likely to click and view if they know it is new.

Visiting the sites on your tour date also ensures that your host did, in fact, post your items at the appropriated time. You will know right away if your items are not up, and be able to correct that immediately.

HOT TIP: When promoting, send your readers directly to your virtual book tour page, not just to a general site. Some people could get your announcement well after your tour. They do not want to have to search a site to find you. In fact, most won't. Be as specific as you can. Also, ask your virtual book tour hosts if the address will be the same when the post archives. If not, find out how you can get the updated address and when it will archive.

Links are the bane of my existence. As a virtual book tour host, I receive documents with embedded links, links in parenthesis, in bold face type, surrounded by quotation marks... the list goes on and on.

First, ask your host how they want you to send hyperlinks. If they don't have a policy, make one of your own. When sending links to your VBT host, keep them consistent and easy-to-read. Here is one good way to send a link:

 If you have several sites to share, do not put them in paragraph form. Share them as a list. For example:

Do NOT make your VBT host run out and find links for your posts. This is time-consuming and not at all fun. Plus, you know what you need links to. Your host may pick the wrong link, not realizing your intent until your post is already live.