Blog Tours

[doug anderson]

My editor mentioned that I should get on a blog tour. She didn't tell me how it's done. Unfortunately my editor died last year and I can't ask her. Does anybody know how a blog tour works? I'd like to hustle my memoir.

[Jon Loomis]

Blog tours sound interesting in theory, and maybe they sell books--I don't know. Can you talk to your publisher's publicist about setting one up?

Your editor wasn't CHS, by any chance?

[Beth Groundwater]

Go to: http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com/ for tips on conducting blog book tours. I did one in May for my TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET release and it was a HUGE amount of work. It did result in some sales, but most importantly in a lot of name recognition. You can see a list of the guest blog posts I made at: http://bethgroundwater.com/Blog_Book_Tour.html

[doug anderson]

Thanks, Beth.

[minervaK]

This whole concept makes no sense to me whatsoever. I need a definition even simpler than Beth's link. Is it where you go and blog on other people's blogs? Or travel around the country with your laptop? What? Anyone...?

[doug anderson]

Minerva, one "travels" electronically from blog to blog. There are interview formats, Q & A's, chats about the book. My publicist tells me blog tours only work for certain types of books. I'm trying to figure out if my memoir is one of them.

[Christine Duncan]

The simplest way to do a blog tour is to go to blogs you like and ask if you can guest. You want blogs who write to your audience and who have a fair amount of readers. You don't want blogs that have only one post since last Christmas. Schedule enough guest blogs in a row and you have a tour.
You have to advertise your tour though on your blog, Post a schedule on your website, post a daily "I'm guesting on ChattyWriter'sBlog" update on facebook and here on Crimespace--Goodreads, anywhere and everywhere you can think of.
It's a simple process-can be fun. Some blogs will suggest themes you wouldn't have thought about writing on, others will do the interviews you talk about (that, amazingly enough, seemed like more work to me because you really can't just answer off the top of your head.)
If your memoirs have a news type angle then you might try blogs that deal with that angle.
Work? Uh huh. Yes, it is. Time consuming? Sure, probably. But free! What other promo can say that?