Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thank You! And a teary goodbye...

Hi Everyone,

It's been a bit crazy around the grill lately. People walking off with the ketchup packets. Soda spills and mustard stains on just about every patron. Even weiners under the table! (Who does that?) It hasn't been easy raising everyone's cholesterol levels and weight.

So it is with heavy and clogged-artery hearts that we must bid goodbye.

We want to thank each and every person who has dropped by the Book Roast. I can't emphasize enough how enjoyable it has been getting to know authors and writers from around the world. Look at our sidebar! We've been able to meet and hob-nob with truly wonderful people! And everyone who has participated in the roasts and has kept the energy level positive and upbeat--many special thanks to all of you! Without you, an interactive blog such as this would have fizzled out quickly.

The reasons for our having to say goodbye are primarily economic ones. We're all working longer and harder hours at real-life jobs than we did when we opened the blog. Plus, did I mention the table manners? :-)

But there are a couple of marketing reasons as well. The traffic on this blog fluctuates month by month. It has been a valuable learning experience seeing which months are better for marketing via blogs (February and March), and which months are the worst (July, August, November, December). Of course this is highly unscientific, but interesting to take note nonetheless.

We'd like to leave the comments open for discussion about online marketing for books. If you have an experience or information you'd like to share, please leave a comment! I think with all of our combined knowledge, we could help each other in this facet of the publishing industry.

Before we leave you, we'd like to give you two parting gifts!

The first one is a behind-the-scenes video (we've posted before) about the Grill. Enjoy.

The second is an invitation to go visit Ms. Spitfire at Nathan's blog! We were so lucky and happy to pull her into our venture, and we'd like to give her a very special thank you for all of her letters. It wasn't easy for her to do this on a weekly basis given everything that has been happening in the publishing industry, so we'd really like to acknowledge her and her efforts (Though she's still anonymous. Only we know who she is... Let's say she got out just in time. I saw her drinking ketchup from the bottle last week.)

Go visit Nathan and Ms. Spitfire today!!!! Her post will be up sometime mid-morning, New York time. (Or early morning, California time.)

And be sure to leave your thoughts about online marketing in the comments section.

THANK YOU!!!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's been a great run. I salute you Book Roast!!

Any last orders from the grill? We have some sausages left.

Thanks for all of your mentorship, Chris. :)

Chris Eldin said...

Jason, Thank *you*!!!!
:-)

Oh, those sausages have been there a while. You sure you want to serve them?

Sarah Laurenson said...

Serve them hot and juicy. We'll take care of the food poisoning tomorrow. Um, if any of you get food poisoning, be sure to come back tomorrow and we'll hold your head while you worship the porcelain god.

It's been an awesome run and I'm very grateful to be a small part of this marketing tool. *sticks grill tools in back packet*

Thanks for the ride!

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Oh, my!
I feel like I just met y'all and now you are going. Was it something I said? Kidding, of course.
I have had so much fun and learned stuff (like important things) by visiting this site, so I am chagrined that you must shut down the grill.
May we meet again, and thank you, thank you, thank you for your great efforts with this. Pat (aka Tricia) O'Brien

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Happy grills to you! Thanks.

fairyhedgehog said...

The mustard stains are nothing to do with me. (So glad you didn't ask about ketchup stains though.)

I am sorry to see you go. It's been a great run. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

Stephen Parrish said...

Thanks for the roast, and thanks for letting me be a roastmaster for a few months. I met some wonderful people. I can only imagine how poignant this day must be for the people who've been on board from the beginning.

Anonymous said...

I almost thought it was April Fool's - say it ain't so! - but I understand the reasoning. All good things must come to an end; and so, adieu, adieu -

---wait, are there any beers left?

Charles Gramlich said...

You all did a wonderful job and I for one appreciate how much work you must have put in to make things run smoothly. I've really enjoyed my experiences at the book roast, and much enjoyed learning about a wide variety of books, many that I might not have been exposed to otherwise.

Well done!

Jen P said...

Sad to see the grill is being switched off. I did enjoy the drop-by after work atmosphere and Ms. Spitfire especially.

Thanks for all the hard work, features, interviews and fun.

And I loved the sides too!

Bonne chance in all other ventures to the team!

Dave Fragments said...

I liked reading these, even if I didn't comment.

BTW - "Repeat After Me" arrived in fine condition today.

Thanks for all the effort and fun.

Anonymous said...

It was a great idea and a lot of fun. I hope some authors got some sales because of it because in the end that's what it's all about, right?

Pissenlit said...

Awww... :(
Thanks for the good times! Take care! *waves bye*

elysabeth said...

Maybe in the future, the book roast will start up again. I enjoyed my visit here and wish you all the best to come. Something will give and you will see that the readers are here and will miss this place. Thankfully, no one got "burned" too badly - lol -

Chris, you and your wonderful folks did a great job having this blog and having kept it going. See you all in the postings and if you want to start back up in the future, let me know, I'll be happy to do what I can to promote the blog and may even come back for another visit.

See you all in the postings - E :)
--------------
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series

STATE OF WILDERNESS, Book 1 of 50 now available.
STATE OF QUARRIES, book 2 of 50 now available
STATE OF RESERVATIONS, book 3 of 50 coming 2009

WHERE WILL THE ADVENTURE TAKE YOU NEXT?

http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com
http://junior-geography-detective-squad.weebly.com/
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jgdsseries/ (series newsletter forum)

Shona Snowden said...

*sniff sniff*

*pours another glass of farewell champagne*

*more sniffing*

(btw, the wieners under the table? I'm sure that was The Dishwasher...)

Sarah Hina said...

A warm congratulations to all of the Roast Masters, and especially you, Chris, for making this an informative, fun site that I always enjoyed dropping by.

One last burger for the road...

Queen of the Road said...

I shall really miss you, extra poundage and all.

sweetmelissa818 said...

You will be missed!

Whirlochre said...

I've had a fun time participating in what has been a fun thing.

Thanks to all the hosts on the Roast.

Hywela Lyn said...

I've loved being 'grilled' this was such a wonderful facility for authors and I enjoyed popping in now and then as a reader as well.

Thank you for featuring all three of my books, and thank you Chris and the crew for setting this all up in the first place. It's sad to see it closing but it certianly won't be forgotten.

All the luck in the world for your future ventures and thanks again.

laughingwolf said...

not original, but: a rare medium well done, is appropriate here... thanks all :)

Therese Walsh said...

I'm super late to the farewell party, but I just wanted to say thank you for all you brought to the blogosphere over the course of a year. It was fun!

Now where will we go when hungry?

sanjeet said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dani said...

I just stopped by to see if you wanted to rhoast Susan Wittig Albert on her next blog book tour. I've always though you all did a fabulous job. I don't suppose revolving bloggers would work to keep things going? It's a lot of work, I know. Hope to see you back sometime.

Dani
http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com