I should be excited, I mean trembling with the excitement of launching my second book, dreaming of making it big and swimming in dosh. But what am I actually doing? I am cowering in the corner, trying desperately not to look at the long list of websites that claim to know exactly which Blog Tour I should hire to promote my launch.
This psychological condition has an origin, of course, and that would be my first Blog Tour. OK, I was a complete ignoramus on the subject – still, I read all the articles, followed the tips, did it all, except maybe check out the provider’s past success, contact other authors that had contracted the same service. Duh….? OK, I admit it; mistake!!!
So here I am, one year later thinking, is it actually worth it? I know a lot of writers don’t do Blog Tours but I suspect they are the ones with the time and/or knowhow to do it themselves, you know, painstakingly select and then approach the blogs they want to appear on. Sorry mate, that’s just not my forte unfortunately. So off I go, in search of even more lists on the top Blog Tour providers, blogs with the biggest readerships, best blogs in the fantasy genre …. funny though, because the service I used last year keeps popping up, recommended. Eh… ? You know I didn’t get one ‘like’, not one ‘comment’; no Facebook follows or likes, no Twitter likes or follows – what?? Is that even possible?
So now, some of you might be thinking, ‘yeah, that’s because your book is sh^?”$%&!’, right? Of course I’m going to say no way. OK, I am not a promo geek but I have 16 humble reviews on Amazon, most of which are 5 star (verified, yes), and 30 ratings on Goodreads with an average of 4.63. So what went wrong with the first tour? Fake blogs created simply for publicity purposes (not the client’s obviously), blogs with no followers like mine?
So, Google searching is not helping because most ‘help’ sights are just selling their buddies’ or clients’ services and I just can’t seem to find the nitty gritty place that actually rates Blog Tours based on customer reviews. Does that even exist? I would pay to see that.
So, I am wondering, do any of you guys have a recommendation? A place you know works for the fantasy genre? I know I am not going to get mega sales with a book tour; all I want is to get the book out there, get some interaction, some follows, sign ups for my mailing list, Facebook likes, a sign that someone out there is seeing my book – is that asking too much?
Please leave your comments. Even if you don’t have a recommendation, tell me about your own experience with blog tours. I’d be really interested to compare.
OK, back to the research – I really hate this.
R.K.’s audiobooks are also available at all major retailers.
readandreels.com is another blogger who does tours might want to check her out, heard good things.
Thanks for that. I’ll check it out!
A very good question, RK. I used Enchanted Book Promotions and would not recommend it. In fact, it’s turned me off doing book tours altogether. I don’t think the tour operators really care enough to vet their bloggers or to even properly communicate the genre of the book. As a result, I got my worst review from this book tour. Two stars, and they thoroughly trashed my book, mostly because they didn’t realize it was a romance before deciding to read it. Getting a bad review is never fun, but it’s doubly painful when you’ve paid for it yourself.
The other thing I didn’t like about this tour was I spent so much time writing guest posts and answering interview questions, and they were mostly posted to blogs on which no one commented. I mean zero comments. I think the problem is paying someone to do this service, they will not really care about your books, so the results are a crap shoot. I’d prefer to do a more “organic” blog tour by simply asking individual bloggers whether they’d like to feature my books. That way, I know they’re truly interested.
But overall, I much prefer doing paid ads. At around $5-15 you can advertise your discounted/free book with sites like eBook Bandit or BookScream.
Well isn’t that a coincidence!! Yes I know exactly what you mean about EBP. The problem with site ads though is that the book is neither free nor discounted. I would do that for book one which will be free a few weeks before book 2 launches, but with a new and full-priced book that’s not an option. I am going to look into approaching specific blogs and see what they think although this is going to be incredibly time consuming
!!