Blogs and Blog Tours. Are they worth the effort?

[Jean Henry Mead]

Most of us have at least one blog site and know how much work it takes. But is it worth the effort? How often do you post and do you receive many comments? Blog tours take a tremendous amount of time, networking and writing. Do they pay off in larger books sales? Please share your successes and failures with the rest of us. And if you have any tips to help the process along, please add those too.

[Christopher Valen]

Jean,
I write a weekly blog entitled Probable Cause. I post it on my website and on CrimeSpot and CrimeSpace. I just posted my latest blog on CrimeSpace a few minutes ago. I get more comments on CrimeSpace than anywhere else. It takes time to build an audience just like it takes time to write the blog, but I find that it's a nice break from fiction writing. I'm not sure if my blog has created more book sales, but I believe it has created more traffic to my website. I think it's important to have something relevant and interesting to say in a blog and that's what I attempt to do. Whether I'm always successful is up for debate.

[Jean Henry Mead]

I agree with your assessment of blogging. I'm a member of the Murderous Musings blog team with five other writers and we've seen our articles posted on the web and quoted by a few news services. We range from Ben Small's comedic posts about planning to murder his neighbor to my own serious postings about female serial killers. Our traffic counter seems to be growing steadily and it gets out names out there as well as our work. I'm currently planning a blog tour to advertise my latest book and find that it's a very daunting task. I was hoping for some advice from other writers who have completed a successful one, but the tours seem to be a fairly new advertising tool. Thanks for posting here, Christopher. I look forward to reading your articles.

[I. J. Parker]

What exactly is a blog tour? Do you visit other people's blogs and post? Or do you ask for invitations to post on their blogs? My guess is that simply talking about your new book isn't going to do it.

[Jean Henry Mead]

A blog tour means posting to host bloggers' sites and having your photo and book cover on display as well as talking about the book and/or a related subject. Interviews are also part of the process as well as giveaways (books, gift certificates, etc.).You have to plan the schedule of one blog post per day for up to three weeks. That's the basics, anyway. I have one planned for the last week in September.

[I. J. Parker]

I see. So you do have to ask for an invitation.

[Jean Henry Mead]

Yes, and I've been told that it's a good idea to comment on the prospective host's blog site for a while before you ask. :-)

[I. J. Parker]

Hmm, one could wish to invited for one's sparkling wit. :)

Thanks, Jean.

[Johnny Ostentatious]

I used to blog once a week, but I recently stopped because it was taking too much time away from my fiction-writing.

[Tory Richards]

I believe with what Christopher had to say. It takes time. You have to be patient and stick with it, too. I've often asked myself, is it worth it? And not just with blogging but maintaining websites and posting to various yahoo groups. I have to hope that it is. I look at it as promotion. And even if you only get a handful of readers, if they like you and you build a relationship of sorts with them, all it takes is word of mouth. They drop your name here, mention your book there, you get the idea.

I post several times a week on my blog and can receive quite a few comments depending on the subject matter. Does it help with larger book sales? Time will tell.

[Carola Dunn]

I'm blogging this week, Monday through Friday, on the St Martin's site: www.momentsincrime.com. Do any other publishers offer this service to their authors?

Do drop in to say hi!
Carola