Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour by Donna Huber
With so many books being completed each day and our there on the market, how do you make sure your book gets out there to your audience? You arrange a book tour, AND who better to help you out than someone who has been blogging and participating and even arranging virtual book tours! Meet Donna Huber, my friend from Girl Who Blogs.
Donna has written a short book on the secrets to being successful with a blog tour. It is a great book and a very informative one. If you have any questions, please comment and Donna will be back to answer them.
Donna was kind enough to write about blog touring. Thanks Donna!
When to Do a Blog Tour
I am part of several author groups and in all of them I’ve seen authors ask when was the best time to run a blog tour for their book. It is a good question to ask since tours can be very time consuming, particularly in the preparations, and if the author hires a company, it can be costly. In truth, a tour can be scheduled whenever.
My one rule for timing a blog tour – have a buy link available. A lot of book buyers are impulse buyers and tours do get books sold. Also, readers who follow tours are seeing a lot of books. You don’t want to rely on their memory to make sales.
While you can do a tour whenever, the type and duration of the tour may vary depending on the author’s objective. Let’s take a look at some times an author might want to do a tour and what kind of tour would work best.
Book Launch
Blog tours as part of the book’s launch is probably the most popular. For indie authors, the launch is flexible, which is great for the author who is planning their own tour. Getting a book ready for publication is a lot of work and can be stressful. If the author is handling their own formatting and submitting their book to retailers, they may not have the time to plan a tour at the same time.
For my ebook, Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour, I went with a soft launch and then followed up with a tour a month later. It gave me time to get my ebook listed at most retailers and time to write up the guest posts. Also, it gave bloggers the opportunity to read the book and get their reviews ready.
I recommend for a book launch to go big and showy. An author will want to have a great giveaway prize and line up at least a few big bloggers. A 15 – 21 stop tour works best for book launches.
Sale Events and Holidays
Pairing a tour with a holiday or special promotion can boost sales. The tour doesn’t have to be long or overly involved. If the author is short on time, an excerpt tour would be a great idea. It saves time because guest posts and interviews aren’t required, though providing a few “extra goodies” does help. For an example of an excerpt tour, check out the one I organized for Terri Morgan’s Playing the Genetic Lottery (http://www.girl-who-reads.com/2013/02/free-ebook-excerpt-tour.html)
Introducing the Next Book
For authors who write series they often go with cover reveals for introducing the next book coming out. While cover reveals are easy for the author, bloggers and readers are growing tired of them. A new angle needs to be found. I recommend a short tour for the previous books in the series that also reveals the cover of the next book. While picking up a few reviews, the tour should focus on guest posts, interviews, and excerpts. Look for bloggers who have already reviewed the book(s) to take part. A good giveaway for this kind of tour is previous books in the series.
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Filed under: Books, Media Blitz, Non-Fiction Tagged: Arts, Author, Blog, blog tours, Book, Concert, Donna Huber, E-book, Girl Who Reads, Literature, Shopping
