I've had "blog tours" on my brain even before I published Bryony.
I loved the concept, a virtual book tour. Instead of driving from bookstore to bookstore, you post on other blogger's blogs.
I feel both types of tours are useful, but that's for another post.
My research into blog tours turned up lots of places that charge for touring and one that asked for donations only. For my series, I did not find them useful, for two reasons.
One: I don't have the money to spend (and, frankly, I didn't want to spend the money to post on someone's blog).
Two: None of the blogs I found had anything to do with my genre. True, my series crosses genres, and one reader thinks I've invented a whole new genre. It was her comment that led me to create my own tour. A custom genre deserves a custom tour, right?
Writers often hear, "Write what you know." Well, I reasoned, I'll start with WHO I know.
This is how I created a tour in ten easy, but time-consuming, steps. I have not seen another tour quite like it on the internet, so maybe I've created something new here, too.
Note: Don't let "time-consuming" frighten you away. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Including write your book, marketing your book, and ESPECIALLY asking people to give you real estate on their personal blogs.
And here we go.
1) Decide your tour length.
A week? A month? Whatever you decided, schedule your tour several months in advance. You'll need the time to properly plan.
I picked May/June because I made a commitment this past year to schedule one marketing event a month. Events in May and June, I figured, would have low turnouts, due to weddings, graduations, Memorial Day, First Communions, etc. But everyone (it seems) is on their phones these days. (I myself am guilty at reading marketing posts through dreary graduation speeches). So be strategic in your timing.
2) Make a list of bloggers you know.
Don't worry if they are in your genre or not. (This contradicts an earlier paragraph but just follow the rabbit trail, please). Make it a long list, about twice as long as your tour length. Not everyone will say yes. Don't take it personally.
3) Spend some time reading their posts.
Get a feel for the tone of the blog and what each particular bloggers likes to post. Bookmark the ones you really like. You'll need them later.
4) Brainstorm some topic ideas for each blogger that reflect both the tone of your book and the tone of their blog.
A blog tour should be mutually beneficial. I don't care if you're pitching your cousin. You should not ask for space on someone's page unless you're offering to give free content that could potentially benefit that blogger. Period. No one owes you anything.
5) Politely contact prospective blogging partners.
Explain what you're setting up and pitch your ideas.
6) Make a blogging schedule.
And let your blogging partners know the day you're linking back to their pages, so they know what day to post your content.
7) Write your posts in advance and submit to each of your partners for approval.
They may suggest some editing. Don't balk at this. Again, if they're posting submitted content on their pages, they should be thrilled with the content and excited to post and promote it. If not, you're wasting everyone's time (including your own), and you won't meet your tour goals, either.
8) Promote the heck out of your tour, before and during.
Not in a spammy way, of course. But the average tweet has a 15-minute life. The average Facebook post has a three-hour life. The average reader will recall your post only until he scrolls through his feed to someone else's. Gentle reminders in advance bring the focus back to your tour.
9) No bait and switch.
Make sure any loyal readers you have don't feel sold out when you redirect them to another's page. Make sure they know well in advance (read No. 8) that the tour is coming. Assure them the content they will read on someone else's site is the type of content they expect to read (and with an unspoken understanding you are redirecting them to a safe and reputable site). Encourage them to explore the other site. Readers are always looking for great new things to read. They may find it in one of your hosting sites, good for one, good for your blogging partners.
10) I added an element to my blog tour I've not seen elsewhere: a TurnAbout Tour.
This was an extra "free" tour as my "thank you" for all my tour hosts did for me. I reintroduced the hosts and provided links to three posts I really enjoyed. And I promoted these posts with the same gusto as I did mine. It continued the fun and extended the promotion for my hosts with zero work on their part. That's the "free" part. They received additional promotion by linking back to three blogs they'd already written and posted.
And BTW, if any of your tour hosts wants to run his/her own tour and is looking for hosting sites, please raise your hand.
Now, was such a tour useful?
Ah, the numbers. We always want to know the numbers.
Here's what I gained from the tour:
1) I stretched my creativity in new ways and learned to promote my series in new ways. I wrote my first poem. And I connected vampires to social justice (who'd have thunk, seriously). I wrote a post in baseball terminology (And I know nothing about baseball. Except you need a ball. And a bat).
2) My blog stats for May and June shot up by thousands. I've retained those numbers into July. I averaged nearly 15,000 for each month.
3) My website stats also shot up, over 600 percent in June, according to Google, most of them through readers directly accessing the site (i.e. not through social media). I had 2,600 visitors in June and 2,800 pages viewed. Meaning, a few people stuck around to check out the other pages.
4) I sold five Kindles: two Bryony, one Visage and one Staked!. I have not checked Nook and Smashwords, so I may have a few sales there, too.
5) Last, and certainly not least, not one tour host has expressed displeasure or disillusionment at the experience. That's eight blogging partners and me. One blogger said she intends to re-promote my post at a later date.
All in all, a successful tour, especially for a first time.
I intend to make this an annual event. In the meantime, I'm going to archive the entire tour onto its own page on my website and promote it from time to time. That's the great thing about a virtual tour. It can be perpetuated long after the tour has ended.
In the meantime, you can "meet" the tour hosts at https://www.bryonyseries.com/promotions
(Do you see what I did here)?
Want to run your own tour? Got questions? Email me at bryonyseries@gmail.com.
Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."
