The Bloggin’ BUZZ

2 Tip Tuesday

This is part 2 of Hosting a Blog Tour. Part 1 is available here.

Today, I’m going to continue in the series about Hosting a Blog Tour. Blog Tours for books are becoming more and more popular as book stores are pulling back their efforts for in-store signings and the internet (combined with social media awareness) has awakened new marketing ideas!

Here are two more tips to get plans started for your blog tour!

To reiterate, the following tips are based on the assumption that you are already blogging about your book. This assumption is in place because a blog tour assumes that in exchange for your book being reviewed on numerous blog sites across the country (and potentially, the world), that you will blog about your tour and help to direct traffic to the blogs that you are touring. This can be done in one simple blog post, but should have a link to each blog as well as the focus of your visit!

Tip #3:
When deciding which blogs to have on your tour, keep in mind that looking at comments on a blog isn’t necessarily an indication of the popularity of a blog. Some blogs get a lot of traffic and the readers just aren’t commenters. To get a better idea of the popularity of a blog, use Alexa to compare blogs. It’s important to not just look at the ranking, but the amount of time that people spend on the site. If the average amount of time on the site is less than a minute, odds are this is not the site for you!

Be sure to approach the blogger with a certain level of respect. Some bloggers hold the power to launch your book in popularity and with a “you should be grateful that I’m sending you a free copy of my book” attitude, you won’t get very far. Some of the more popular bloggers are being sent 2-3 books per week…getting your book isn’t special unless you help it to be special!

1. Read the bloggers blog.
2. Comment on the blog.
3. Send an email or snail mail to the blogger, tell them you’ve read their blog and believe that your book may be a great fit for a review on their blog.
4. Once the blogger agrees, send a signed copy of your book to the blogger.

Tip #4:
Be sure to put a reasonable budget in place for your tour. It’s going to cost you time and money. The upfront cost is in sending a copy of your book to the appropriate bloggers for their review. The cost during the tour is your time. While you won’t be driving to any locations, you will be answering interview questions and writing blog posts. To ensure that the blog tour is a smashing success, it is advisable that each blog post is a little different. you can ensure that the interviews are different by coming up with a list of questions and dividing them between the bloggers whose format is an interview review.

Come back next week for more tips about putting your blog tour together AND, building a BUZZ about your book!!

Please leave any comments below!!

Deidre Hughey

Did you enjoy this post? You might want to check these out!
Hosting a Blog Tour – Part 1 #authorhelp
Get Your Book Noticed! #authorhelp
Speakers & Authors: Get Attention Before You Need It!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 4:45 am and is filed under Is There An Author In The House?, To Blog Or Not To Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.