Reflections on the April 2014 A-Z Tour

The 2014 April A to Z Challenge, had over 2000 bloggers taking part this year it was an awesome tour to get involved in. If you’ve not heard about it, nip over to the April AtoZ Challenge website after you’ve read this post.

Firstly I want to thank Arlee Bird for continuing to organise the annual tour. Secondly A REALLY BIG THANK-YOU to all the authors who let me use their books for my challenge, without you and all your support sharing the posts it just wouldn’t be the same.

So how has it all gone? For me it’s all about planning. I began my journey at the end of January, I knew it would takes weeks to gather all the authors and the information I would need for the tour. I contacted friends and fellow authors and I sent out Tweets about my tour offering FREE advertising of work for authors. I even ended up stalking authors and inviting them to take part.

So what did we all get from the tour? Well hopefully readers were introduced to new books and new authors, TBR piles are now groaning under the weight of all the books on readers bookshelves. I’m hoping that the authors got some new sales and I, made some new blogging friends and supporters. At the bottom of this post I’ve highlighted bloggers that I’ve been particularly impressed by with their own tour. If you’ve not visited their blogs yet do take a moment if you can. I’ve been all over the world visiting bloggers taking part in the challenge. Each day I made a point of promoting up to 5 bloggers from the sign up sheet, some days I found they were no longer able to do the challenge, but people seemed to have had great fun. There really are some amazing bloggers out there.

On April 16th, this day in the tour also coincided with the end of a year long challenge which began this time last year. During last years challenge I set about reading a book called “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly. This wonderful lady spent a whole year doing good deeds. I decided to try it for myself. An enormous challenge I began with tiny steps, if I could make it to the end of April, then I would carry on. My deeds may not have been as great as Judith’s but I have made it, I’ve collected my small change, donated money, given books and clothes to charity, I volunteer at a local school, I pick up litter, bake cakes, send gifts and thank-you notes and letters to friends plus I’ve done a whole host of other deeds. AND I’m going to do it all again! YES I’ve decided to carry on, you can follow my challenge on Sunday’s when I blog about my latest weeks.

My own April A-Z tour was set around the theme of books, here are a list of books and authors who featured on this tour.

Top posts during the tour which had everyone talking were letter B – Boot Camp Bride by Lizzie Lamb, letter G – The Georgie Connelly series by E.L.Lindley, letter N – Nobody’s Fault by Terry Tyler and letter T The 20’s Girl, the Ghost and All That Jazz by June Kearns.

A – A World Apart by Camelia Miron Skiba http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yA

B –  Boot Camp Bride by Lizzie Lanb http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yy

C – Coronado’s Treasure by Randy Mixter http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yw

D – Derek’s Revenge and the Derek series by Mac Black http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yq

E – Everlasting by Candace Knoebel. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yn

F – Finding the Right Time by Stephanie Hurt http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yl

G – The Georgie Connelly Series by E.L. Lindley http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yi

H – Hidden Heart by Camelia Miron Skiba http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yg

I – The Imdaland Series by Rebecca Etherington http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4ye

J – Jaded by Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4yb

K – The Bench by Sue Koenig http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4xb

L – Legends of Windemere – Family of the Tri – Rune by Charles E Yallowitz http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4×9

M – My GLR by John W Howell http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4×6

N – Nobody’s Fault by Terry Tyler http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4×4

O – The Orphan and The Thief by M. L. LeGette http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4×2

P – The Potter’s Daughter by Daniel A Smith http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4×0

Q – Quentins by Maeve Binchy http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wY

R- Red Clay and Roses by S. K. Nicholls http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wW

S – Silk, Spice and Furry Dice by Andy N Robinson http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wU

T – The 20’s Girl, The Ghost and All That Jazz by June Kearns http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wS

U – Unforgiven by Barbara J Hancock http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wQ

V – Victoria by Stephanie Hurt http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wO

W – What it Takes by Terry Tyler http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wM

X – X by Jack Croxall http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wK

Y – Over Odyssey – Yellow by Tony Carnival http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wH

Z – Zen Master Next Door by Edward Kardos http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-4wF

During the tour I met so many great bloggers, here are some of the blogs which really impressed me.

Susan Scott at The Garden of Eden blog http://www.gardenofedenblog.com/

Vikki Thompson at The View Outside http://the-view-outside.com/

Hilary Melton-Butcher at Positive letters  Hilary  http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/

Co-host Damyanti at Daily (w)rite http://damyantiwrites.wordpress.com/

So it’s with a little sadness that I wave Goodbye to another year of the A -Z, but not without thanking, once more, all the hard working hosts and co-hosts who helped make it all happen.

 

All through the tour we’re asking readers to leave as many comments as possible on blogs, all supportive comments are much appreciated, thank you.