I've told you already, I’m giving away a Kindle on May 15th to a lucky follower of the REUNION blog tour. You can get the details about the book, the tour, and the contest at jeffbennington.com. Good Luck!
All About Blog Tours
Now, I’d like to talk blog smack. Bridget asked if I’d write a guest post about what I think about blog tours. I said “yes” and here we are.
Today marks the seventeenth day of the REUNION Blog Tour and I’ve made a few observations, a quality essential to any author. From what I’ve experienced, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve met a lot of really cool book bloggers, made new friends and have had a blast sharing my book with readers that I would have never met otherwise. But those aren’t the only reasons I like blog tours.
I did a book signing a couple years back at a Borders and the way they set it up felt so cold and impersonal. It was a group signing (all local authors) and we were all supposed to sit behind this table and wait for the busy folks shopping for books to come to us! Blaaachhhth! I hated that. I couldn’t sit still. Are you kidding me? After a few minutes of sitting behind the table, pressing out a smile as folks avoided making contact with all of us, I stood up and started walking through the store, meeting and greeting the customers and some of my friends who came to see me. We shook hands and hugged and chatted about each other’s lives. Big Difference!
Blog tours are similar to that type of experience because as an author, a blog tour brings you into your audience’s territory, where you’re sort of a guest of honor. There’s no room for sitting behind the table. You get to read their comments and reply and get to know the folks who express interest in your work. And that, to me, is a lot of fun. Here are a few of things I like about blog tours…
Let me break down the blog-tour phenomenon into my top ten reasons why I think blog tours are the way to go if you’re a writer.
You get to talk with the nice folks who plan to read your book.
Readers get a chance to ask questions, making their reading experience more personal.
You’ll make lots of friends!
You’ll get to write fun and interesting material about your book!
You get the opportunity to give something back to your readers!
You’ll discover how intriguing or not your book really is.
Many of the blog hosts will review your book.
Blog tours are free content for the hosts and free publicity for the author. It’s a perfect win-win situation.
Your guest spot (including links) will be permanently embedded into your host’s blog history (unless they delete it).
Blog tours are much cheaper than a traditional book tour.
As far as measurable results, I really haven’t seen any yet. I scheduled my launch date 15 days into the tour and I’ve had a Goodreads giveaway, and frankly I believe some of my Goodreads followers are waiting for the freebie! Also, my family and twitter and facebook friends have all been holding out for my launch date. I can’t really tell if there is a direct link with sales via the blog tour, which I’m sure is the question the writers reading this are asking. In my opinion, blog tours have more to do with building trust and forming relationships. So if it’s all about the sales to you… you better stick with Kindle Nation. If it’s about finding loyal fans, go blogging!
I do know that there’s nothing like walking through a bookstore visiting and hugging my new friends. Sitting behind a table hoping someone stops to ask about my book is not my idea of a good time. Getting to know the good people who read my work is.
That’s what I like about blog tours. So thank you Bridget for having me! And to all of the nice folks who’ve been following and commenting over the last sixteen days, I want to send a special shout out your way.
As far as measurable results, I really haven’t seen any yet. I scheduled my launch date 15 days into the tour and I’ve had a Goodreads giveaway, and frankly I believe some of my Goodreads followers are waiting for the freebie! Also, my family and twitter and facebook friends have all been holding out for my launch date. I can’t really tell if there is a direct link with sales via the blog tour, which I’m sure is the question the writers reading this are asking. In my opinion, blog tours have more to do with building trust and forming relationships. So if it’s all about the sales to you… you better stick with Kindle Nation. If it’s about finding loyal fans, go blogging!
I do know that there’s nothing like walking through a bookstore visiting and hugging my new friends. Sitting behind a table hoping someone stops to ask about my book is not my idea of a good time. Getting to know the good people who read my work is.
That’s what I like about blog tours. So thank you Bridget for having me! And to all of the nice folks who’ve been following and commenting over the last sixteen days, I want to send a special shout out your way.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to “follow” The Readaholic Blog and then go to jeffbennington.com to learn more about the book and the tour. And most importantly, be sure to show your support by purchasing REUNION on April 15th so it can shoot up the rankings through buying en masse.
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