Blog Tour~How many authors are really doing this?

[melissa love]

My new book is due to come out soon. I was thinking about doing a blog tour, but finding that there are not many out there in my price range(Some start from $250-$1,000). I am thinking do I really find this necessary. I decided to do it the way I have been doing it and that is by asking author and show host to host me. I was just wondering if any authors are doing this and if it really worth the money.

[Christine Rice]

Why don't you organize a blog tour yourself? Paying for a blog tour is not necessary.

[melissa love]

I was think the same thing. I wasn't sure if it was something I could do myself. Thanks Christine.

[Sarah E.]

What you are doing is basically arranging your own blog tour. That being said, there are different blog tour companies whose prices started more along the line of $20. I arrange blog tours and my price range is about $20-$30. If you're interested here's a link to my page Lace and Lavender Hints, I have a page on my blog that deals specifically with blog tours.

-Sarah

 

[melissa love]

I will check it out and I have heard of your site. I have seen a couple of authors that you have feature.

[Nathan Gottlieb]

I left you an email on your Lace and Lavender Hints site. I'm curious.

[Rachel Marks]

Hey!

I organize book blog tours for YA authors.  It is a great way for promotion.  Blog tours help increase your reviews and help get the word out there about your book.  My tours range from $10-$100 depending on the size of tours.  It is also more beneficial for you to use a blog tour group or an organize to book your tour because we know bloggers, have relationships with them and most importantly stay on top of them to post.  Take a look at my page Young Adult Novel Reader for more information about tours. 

[melissa love]

this is basicly one of  my problem because my book do not target YA. My books are adult fiction.

[Rachel Marks]

There are a lot of blog tours out there that aren't specifically YA.  I do have several bloggers on my tours that read other genres besides YA.  You can message me about your book and I will let you know if I think it will fit with some of my bloggers. 

Thanks!

[Vanessa Booke]

Yeah I would just organize it myself. Just find reviewers to be part of the tour. :)

If you go with a blog tour find out what they offer as far as part of the tour package. If they just offer reviewers you can save your money and find them on your own. I see far too many blog tour sites scamming authors. Some are legit but far too many are rip offs.

[melissa love]

great idea. Thanks for the feed back. I never thought of asking reviewers for a blogtour. I know of couple of reviewers and blogger that are will to do an interview, but never thought of them becoming a blog tour!

[Christine Rice]

That's what a blog tour is all about, Melissa - bloggers reviewing your book, interviewing you, posting your guest posts, and hosting your giveaways. All you have to do is ask them. They do it for free, because it helps their blog with the extra postings and viewers.

What you need to do to organize a blog tour is to look at the book blogs and writing blogs you already follow, and if they review or interview for books like yours, tell them about your book and ask them if they would review it for a free copy.

Then look at the blog sites here, especially in the groups, where there are posts for bloggers looking to review, interview, host giveaways, and participate in blog tours, and contact each individually for a better response. Make sure you check out their blog first, not only to find their contact information, but also to see if they review your book's genre. Only contact the bloggers who review your book's genre or else you'll be wasting your time. Also, replying to their post in the discussion will not be effective because not everyone continues to follow the discussions with the number of posts there are, so they likely will not read your reply.

I recommend only trying to contact the blogger once, unless they respond. If they don't respond, they're not interested. But for the ones who do respond, stay in touch and email twice if you need to, because they might just be busy. Be clear that you are having a blog tour and start scheduling the dates as soon as you know when your blog tour will be. It is important to be assertive and direct so that there is effective communication between you and the bloggers and to make sure your blog tour runs smoothly.

It is also very important to keep a list of the bloggers by name, blog address, email address, type of post they will be doing, ebook format they prefer, and the date they are scheduled for the tour.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Good luck!

[Christine Rice]

I also think that by organizing my blog tour myself it will be a more personal experience and will allow for a better connection with my readers and the bloggers who host me.

If you have a lot of time to dedicate to locating people who will be willing to review your book, interview you, or host a guest post or giveaway, it's actually a fun experience. I love DIY. Just make sure to start asking bloggers way ahead of time (at least one month before when you want your blog tour to start), because it is not possible for everyone to communicate effectively all the time. Plus, some people will say no, when you ask them to review your book, for a number of reasons. So don't plan on getting yes responses for all the people you contact. You will need to ask almost double the amount of people to compensate for the no responses and when people don't respond at all.

I'm just saying that it requires a lot of time and effort. But having the experience of doing it yourself and saving money makes it all good.