With the growing number of self-published writers and the dwindling marketing dollars for traditionally published books, authors have to be creative if they want to grab the attention of potential readers. This is probably how blog tours first came to be. The problem is everyone jumped on the idea. Each week at least two hit my dashboard full force.
Here are some blogging tips to get your book (or a book you love) talked about:
Targeting Blogs
The first bloggers to ask are your friends. But don’t feel bad if they say no. Not everyone wants to host a blog tour. If you approach someone who isn’t a good friend, please make sure you send them a personalized email. One author sent me a link to a form to fill-in if I wanted to participate in her tour. That’s all that was sent and it wasn’t personalized. It was instantly deleted. #blogtourfail.
Face it, most of us recognize each other’s names and avatars from the blogs we most commonly visit. Reach out and go beyond this group. Only then will more people find out about your book and won’t suffer from blog tour fatigue (especially since not everyone is a fan of them). This is why it’s vital to start growing your network early and not just before your book launch.
Look for blogs that deal with topics approached in your book. Maybe someone has a special interest in horses and would be interested in your novel situated on a ranch. And this means the blogger’s followers might be interested in the story, too.
Be Unique
Try to come up with something that hasn’t been done before. Okay, you can stop laughing. I know this is challenging. Everyone can do the same old thing, but that won’t necessarily grab bloggers’ attention as the market becomes saturated with traditionally and self-published books. Maybe you can tie it into the theme of your book. Lisa and Laura Roecker had great success with their launch because everyone knew about the pink-hair theme they had going, which was inspired by the cover of The Liar Society. The theme even ended up on Twitter.
Timing
We can all appreciate how much work blog tours are for the author. My suggestion is to not cram your tour into one week (maybe spread out over a month) and to save some posts for a few months AFTER your book is launched.
Repetition
The books I tend to buy are the ones I hear about again and again, over the several months (but not in the same week as with the typical blog tour). This is why I loved Christina Lee’s spotlight on debut authors last week. It was a chance for those who participated to remind you about the debut books we loved this year. Books you might have forgotten about since their launch.
Does anyone else have any suggestion as to how to make a blog tour rock or to create interest in a book months after it’s been launched? What has made you want to read a book (and actually do so) after seeing it mentioned on a blog?
(note: Wow, who knew my sales and marketing background as a pharmaceutical sales rep would be so useful?)