Blog Tours

[Renee Stevens]

You’ve done it! You’ve written your story and had it accepted for publication, or you’ve decided to self-publish. You’ve done more edits than you ever thought you’d had to, you’ve done proof reads, cover creation, blurb creation, and everything else you can think of. Your release date is set, so that means you’re done now, right? Wrong. There is still more work to be done. In an ideal writing world, you’d release your hard work into the world and everyone would find it. That’s really not how it works. You have to get the word out there, and there’s a majority of ways to do it.   For this topic, let’s discuss blog tours. What they are, how you set them up, and everything that goes along with them.

There are numerous blogs out there dedicated to helping get the word out about new books. You can go about setting up your blog tour in two ways.

Hire Someone

You can hire someone to do most of the legwork for you. There are people out there that have lists of the majority of blogs that are willing to host authors to get the word out about your books. For a first time published author, this is the route I’d suggest, because there may be a lot of blogs out there that you don’t know about, but they do. Many of them have a few options, but some of them are:

• Blog Tour:
  Generally a blog tour will span a length of time. We’ll say two weeks. The person/company you hired sends out an email to their list of blogs with a list of dates. The blogs then sign up to host you on that date, and says what kind of post they want to do. These can include: book review, spot light, exclusive excerpt, exclusive blog post, interview, etc.
  
  Some promotion companies charge by how many blogs you want to visit. You look at their prices and tell them the maximum you want to visit. Others just have a set fee. Either way, they coordinate your blog tour. So you’re done, right? Wrong again. We’ll go into what you have to do next here in a minute.
   
• Cover Reveal:
  Sometimes, you want to get the word out before the release day. You’ve held that beautifully created cover close to your heart and now it’s time to share it with the world. Just don’t do this too early. Sharing the cover of your story is a good way to get the buzz started. Typically you might do a cover reveal just a couple weeks, and up to a month, before release day. It all depends on if/when your story is available for Pre-Order. If your story will be available for pre-order, that’s typically when you’d do your cover reveal. If it’s not, then a couple weeks before the release date is usually good. A cover reveal typically will include: the cover, the blurb, author information, and sometimes where they will be able to purchase it.
   
• Release Day Tour:
  A release day tour is just like a blog tour, only it only spans one day. The official release day of your book.

Do it Yourself

Essentially, you’ll need to contact all the blogs you wish to appear on and request for them to host you. Some blogs only really take requests from promotion companies, while others also accept requests from the authors themselves. Blogs that accept author requests will generally have a form you can fill out. They’ll want to know:

• Details about your book to decide whether or not they want to host you.
• The date you would like to be hosted. Many have you pick multiple days and they’ll pick which one works best for them
• The type of blog post you’d like them to post: cover reveal, excerpt, book review
• Contact info

Which is better, a blog tour or a release day tour? It’s personal preference, but I prefer a regular blog tour. If you go with a release day tour, then you flood all the blogs on the same day, whereas a regular blog tour, your name and book get attention over a longer period of time. With a release day tour, you get that one day and that’s it. What if someone missed the blog post that day? I personally think you reach more readers by doing, say, a two week blog tour.

So, now that your blog tour dates are decided on and the blogs have all signed up for their day? What do you do next?

It’s time to see what all those blogs want and deliver the information to either the blog itself or the person coordinating your blog tour.  If you’ve hired someone, you’ll send them any graphics you want included in the blog tour. This will always include a cover, but might also include banners, an author photo, or other graphics you’ve created to go with your book. You’ll also look at each blog and provide the specific info they want, some of which are:

• Interviews - Some sites will send interview questions, either to you or your coordinating person, with a date that they need it back by. You go through and supply the required answers and return it.
• Exclusive Excerpt - You’ll have to go through your book and decide what excerpt you want to be exclusive to that blog and provide that in a word document
• Excerpt - Provide a decent sized excerpt, but be careful not to give all the blogs the exact same excerpt. I usually create at least 4 excerpts and then vary which one I send to each blog.
• Blog Post - You’ll need to pick some topics for blog posts. No two blogs should have the exact same blog post, so you’ll need a variety. It might be what inspired you for that book. Or if your book setting is in a bar, you might include a list of some of the specialty drinks in your book and how they’re made. Make these fun, but they should showcase something about your book.
• Book Review - You’ll have to provide these blogs with an ARC (Advanced Review Copy) of your book. Blogs will tell you which format they require in order to do a book review. Generally you want to have available a .pdf file, a .mobi file, and a .epub file. If you are going through a publisher, you will have to contact them for the ARC’s.

A key note is to make sure you have a good variety. Here’s a few examples for book tours of either my books, or tours I’ve participated in:

Cover Reveal: Cover Reveal: On Fire by Alicia Nordwell

Interview: Blog Tour: Swift for the Sun by Karen Bovenmyer

Blog Tour: Blog Tour: Separation by Louise Lyons

Review: Review: No More Hiding by Renee Stevens | Joyfully Jay

 

It's been a while since I've participated in any blog tours, so if I've forgotten anything, I'll update when I remember!