The key to a successful blog tour

[Irina Shapiro]

So, I am in the middle of my second blog tour, and unfortunately, I am not having a very positive experience.  So far I've had bloggers who committed to a certain day and failed to post, bloggers who posted, but made so many spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that I was embarassed to share the links on my sites, and bloggers who asked for a PDF, but obviously never read a word and just cut and pasted what was sent to them by the tour organizer.  So, I would appreciate some words of wisdom from the bloggers and the authors.  Have I made a mistake by not choosing the bloggers and organizers more carefully, or is this the norm?  What is the key to having a successful blog tour and can anyone recommend people that they've gotten better results with?

Irina

www.irinashapiro.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irina-Shapiro/307374895948375

[Tamelia Tumlin]

Thank you. :) You have a very nice site as well. I liked you on Facebook.. :)  Your books sound very interesting. I think you'll do well. :) Good luck on your tour too!

[Irina Shapiro]

Thank you so much.  Do you have a FB page?  I'll like you as well.  It's always nice to talk to other authors and exchange information. 

[Tamelia Tumlin]

Yes, please like my author page on facebook. :)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Romance-Author-Tamelia-Tumlin/136280...

[Darryl Erentzen]

Although you never know what will attract someone's attention, you can know what DID attract it. If your site is hosted on WordPress, the Jetpack plugin has a nice little stats app.

If you've got access to web server logs you can get even more details using awstats or a similar log analyzer.

Even without those, Google Webmaster Tools/Analytics is free, easy to set up, and gives you detailed information about what people are doing on your site.

You can take that information and see what's working, then do more of it.

LOL maybe I'll do a blog post or a video tutorial on it...

[Irina Shapiro]

You should, because I feel as if you just uttered something in a foreign language.  It sounds great, but I have no idea what it really means or how to go about it.  I'll have to consult my computer genius.  LOL

Irina

[C.B. Haight]

I think Trailers are a great idea, not because a person runs out and buy a copy the minute they see it, but because it gives you an extra point of exposure. Remember that it take the average person to have 5-7 points of exposure before they buy something.  Case in point, I have never read Hunger Games, the premise did not appeal to me, however after having several friends read it and seeing the repetitive trailers for the movie I finally caved and decided to dig in. I am adding a link here for you to see a trailer I made for a fellow author and one I am still working on for myself (mine is still in progress). The Pirate heir , The Powers of Influence They were built using Adobe After Effects, and though they take time they are stimulating. If you do a trailer I would advise not making it wordy. Consider movie Trailers and how they grab at you quickly. I even made two trailers for children's Authors you can see on my channel if you want too. The truth is anyone who has After effects can buy templates to make it even easier. I know that when I put up the trailer for The Pirate Heir, it did generate a few extra sales which in turn generates more people talking. Good Luck :)

[C.B. Haight]

I want to make it clear that I am only showing you these links so you can get an idea of something you may like, or how you could build your own trailer. I am not trying to promote these examples.

[Stormi Johnson]

You know I think it is very hit and miss with blog tours and bloggers. I have had pretty good success with the bloggers I have picked to host for the tours I set up. I can't say that I haven't had bloggers fail to post, but as a tour organizer I must be on them and make sure they post, its part of the job. I know sometimes it's just they forget because we all have busy lives and sometimes life gets in the way. I have never felt that they have cut and pasted just the info I give them as I don't give them much information to use, they must come up with the review and the way the organize it on their blogs themselves. 

Every author  that has toured with me has not complained about how the tour when so I would say they are all successful but I have to say that we can show the book to the readers but we can't make them purchase. 

I try very hard with my tours getting good bloggers to host and do a whirlwind of promoting on social networks and try very hard to help the author promote. 

I think the best thing a  blog tour does is help get some reviews faster than just asking a reviewer to review the book. Most bloggers are pretty booked up on reviews books and will push your novel to the bottom and it could be months before it gets read, but a tour makes the reviewer have to take it from the bottom and read it by a certain time. 

This is just my opinion and what I have seen while organizing tours, and participating in them as a review myself.

Stormi

Lightning Book Promotions

[Jennifer Patterson Prada]

I think you might want to spend some time reviewing other book tours. I recently conducted an author interview as part of a book tour and had some success with it. I invite you to visit my blog www.thewitchesbrew.biz/blog Good luck with the tour!

Jennifer

[Irina Shapiro]

Hi.  I will check it out.  I LOVE the name of your blog.  Very creative.

[Celise Winters]

You could try touring with Incandescent Enchantments:
http://incandescentenchantments.blogspot.com/p/book-tours_12.html

I have a 5 stop package for $20. You could get a feel for my tours and then come back if you like them. But, I only tour Young Adult and fiction.

But, if your bookis fiction, try touring getting on the waiting list at Enchanting Book Tours. I'll tour anything fiction. Those tours are free. Http://enchantingbooktours.blogspot.com

[Sage Adderley]

Hi Irina,

I'm sorry you haven't had the best experience. I run Sage's Blog Tours, and two important things I do when choosing bloggers to join an author's tour is to make sure they have an active blog with well-written book reviews and that the bloggers enjoy the genre of the book.

I have been extremely pleased with the bloggers on my team. There was one instance where I wasn't thrilled with a tour host, so I made a point to remove her from my list and not contact her for upcoming tours. I feel it is my responsibility as the owner and operator of a tour service to moderate who I choose to work with the tours. 

I want the most successful tour for the authors because they are my clients and word of mouth is very important.

Feel free to contact me further if you have any questions. [e-mail]

Best,

Sage

Sage's Blog Tours