How to run your own blog tour and a question as to whether it’s really worth it
Posted on Feb 22, 2012 | 25 commentsThis is a post by Pavarti K Tyler
103 Blog Stops in one month sounds like an insane thing to do. But that’s what I did during November for my blog tour for Two Moons of Sera. Guest posts, interviews, reviews, giveaways, all kinds of things all over the blogosphere – but that’s not even the hard part!
What? You may ask. How exactly is that not the hard part?
Oh dear reader, let me tell you, the hard part is always that which you don’t see: behind the scenes, in the trenches.
The Two Moons of Sera blog tour began on November 1st, 2011. I began sending out ARCs to reviewers on September 23rd, but I was cutting it close. My hope was that because 2MOS is under 20k words, it wouldn’t be a huge time investment for reviewers. My bet paid off but if I’d had a full length book I would have needed to start sending those requests in August. But sending those emails wasn’t even the beginning of the process. I started planning for this blog tour all the way back in May.
Here’s what I did:
Creating a Blog List
In May, I began compiling my master list. This list has 1217 Blogs on it including information about:
- Contact Name
- Blog Link
- Genre Reviewed
- Request Requirements (form? Paperback only?)
- Other promotions the blog offers (Giveaways, Interviews, etc)
- Twitter Name (and yes, I’m following ALL of them)
- Personal Notes (How I know them, who through, point of reference)
- Email Address or Submission Form link
As I built this, I added all of these blogs to my Google Reader as RSS feeds and try to check in with them at least once a week. This isn’t always feasible and I don’t always comment, but I try to keep up with if they have book releases or something personal announced.
Making Friends
Hi! My name is Pav and I want to be your friend!
It’s really too bad things don’t work the way they did in kindergarten. Once I had my list of contacts, I went about figuring out who was an acquaintance and who was a friend. There isn’t an easy way to do this, but I can tell you that through this process I’ve made great friends, some of whom have become BETA readers (Hi Jamie Salisbury!), some who have become confidants (Hi Carissa Elg!), some who have become business partners (Hi Emlyn!) and many, many others.
I mention this because it’s not all some cold calculated attempt to take over the world, although that is my ultimate goal. None of this works without the people you surround yourself with–every single one of them has the potential to change your life. Maybe you don’t hit it off and that’s ok too, but maintaining relationships and being open to the possibilities takes an investment of time.
Reviewing Books
Not every author wants to review books. I understand that, you write, you don’t want to critique. But I learned more about how to run a book tour by being a reviewer for one then I did from any article or blog I read. Reviewing books is hard work. It takes a tremendous investment of time and mental resources. I didn’t realize that when I started, thinking: Hey I like to read books, how hard can this be?
Now I understand how much goes into writing a quality review and how to manage relationships with bloggers in a tour. Plus it’s a great way to get to know more authors, deepen those relationships and maybe learn something.
Fine Tuning the List
As the completion of Two Moons of Sera loomed, I began going through my list. I wasn’t going to submit a request to all 1217 of them! I needed to go through and select the ones I thought would be of maximum value. Some I picked because of my personal relationship with them, some because I’d read previous reviews, some just because I liked their blog name. I went through the genre list and removed anyone who said they disliked Fantasy or Romance. I removed all of the genre specific sites that didn’t fit into the 2MOS audience (i.e. horror). I picked through the list until I had a final compilation of 229 blogs.
Deciding on a Giveaway
Before I started contacting bloggers, I had to get all my ducks in a row. Was I doing a giveaway? Was it for readers or bloggers too? What were the rules? What were the prizes? Did I have swag? Did I need to order anything? How was I going to organize/run/select winners? In the end, I had a mega giveaway for bloggers (two won), and a giveaway for readers that went on the entire month of November.
Sending Requests
How to send a request to a blogger is something we’ve been talking about a lot on Novel Publicity (see this post from a publicist’s perspective, and this post from a blogger’s perspective). I can tell you, finding the balance between being personal and getting all the information conveyed isn’t easy. It took quite a while. I limited myself to sending 20 emails a day so I could make them personal instead of mass emailing. So for 229 bloggers that took a week and a half. Many bloggers also had requirements or forms that needed to be filled out, which added to the time this took.
Tracking Emails/Responses/Dates/Requirements
Now here’s where the astronomical commitment came in. After all the time I’d already put in I thought I was pretty organized. I had a nice big organized spreadsheet and a Google calendar all set up and ready to enter all those YES responses I was going to get. But then the emails started rolling in. Out of 229 emails only 47 didn’t respond at all. That means that 182 people responded to my email request to either pass or set up something on their blog. Folks who passed I always responded to, and some turned into advance scheduled blogs for January when Pt 2 of Two Moons of Sera will be released.
All those emails had to be translated to my master list where I tracked who was a yes, who wanted a guest blog or interview, who was doing a giveaway and what date they were going to post.
Follow every blog every day
When the blog tour officially began I was already exhausted. Now came time for interacting with all the blogs, readers and promoting. This was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing what everyone’s impression of Two Moons has been, but in case you’ve been counting, that’s 103 blogs to watch and respond to.
In addition I need to promote all these events. But I need to do it without spamming. How the hell do you do that with 103 blogs? I’m trying to figure it out and spread announcements out between my blog, my facebook page, my facebook profile, twitter and G+, so no single stream becomes saturated.
Send Thank Yous
Every single blogger who participated in my tour got a personal thank you. I emailed them either the day of or the day after their post and make sure it’s clear that I saw what they wrote, not just that I’m sending a form thank you. Again, this is all about relationships. I know what they’ve done for me and I know it’s an essential marketing tool for me, I don’t ever want a blogger to think I don’t appreciate it.
Manage giveaways and events
With the end loomed near I needed to organize my giveaways. I had gift bags, ebooks, books and all kinds of other things to send out. I needed to remember who gets what, get them out on time and make sure I have everyone’s address. And for some reason getting to the post office has always been really, really hard for me.
Summing it all up
Are you still here? Did you read this far? If you did you’re one step closer to organizing your own blog tour. But the really important question to ask is do you want to? I work from home, but still I spent HOURS getting this together for the release of 2MOS. I don’t have a lot of money and am by nature a bit of a control freak so for me it made sense to do it myself. I have the time to invest, but if I had the money I’d much rather let someone else do it next time around.
In my day to day, I work, write, market, blog tour, parent, teach, cook and sometimes sleep. I would never suggest someone not do their own tour, but the investment you need in order to do it successfully is quite high. It’s fun, rewarding and educational. Good luck on your adventure, and let me know if you find any awesome blogs, I’ll add them to my list 
About this post’s author:
Pavarti is a member of the Novel Publicity Team as a PR Campaign Manager. She also provides content editing as a consultant or for her Novel Pub clients. Her unique experience as a dramaturge, both on and off Broadway, has provided her the opportunity to work closely with many playwrights and directors, allowing Pavarti to consider both the literary and audience perspective. Pavarti K Tyler’s novel Two Moons of Sera is a Fantasy/Romance and is being released in a serial format. Her next novel Shadow on the Wall is scheduled for release in early 2012. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or her website.
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I had to chuckle as I read this but oh can I so relate. I tell my tour coordinators we could write a book but no one would believe it. The reviewers would trash it saying “I enjoyed the book but I really can’t believe you work 24/7 on tours. Don’t you sleep?” or “I wanted to like this book but I can’t believe it’s not easy money. How hard can it be? I could do it!” Heh…little do they know what we do, like I said it would make a great book. Great post!
Dorothy Thompson recently posted..First Chapters: The Secret of the Sacred Scarab by Fiona Ingram
ikr? Man, I spent HUNDREDS of hours and that was just for my good so I can only imagine what it’s like when you do them for others, and multiple at a time! I don’t know how Em does it!
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
I may be a superhero
But seriously, we work with great bloggers here at Novel Publicity. It’s a definite blast!
Emlyn Chand recently posted..KDP Select free days: Targeted advertising is the key to success; here’s a list of resources
Never have I been more impressed by the amount of work something takes, while simultaneously being completely stricken by a desire to never ever do anything like it. I think this confirms that I have no interest in actually becoming a novelist. I thought I did. But then again, I thought I knew how much work, and how many years of toil it would take. Whole new perspective here; it’s mind-blowing and dream crushing at the same time.
Damn, just re-read that paragraph and it sounds depressed. Way to go Pavarti! Your dedication and attitude are inspirational. You have inspired me personally to go get another cup of coffee, crank out some database stuff for “work work” and then get back to short fiction and blog posts! Novels are for people who dream big and work hard. You kick ass.
Davey recently posted.."Tous les garçons et les filles"
Oh Davey! No! Just hire Emlyn to do it for you
Kidding, even when you hire someone it’s a lot of work. But its a fun and effective way to get out into the reading community!
Pav
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
This posting is very timely for me. I’ve just set up my blog tour, but I purposely kept it much smaller than yours. Thanks so much for the tips!
I would love to hear any ideas you might have on running an online contest. What were your rules, how did you coordinate entries, etc . . .
Definitely a good idea to start small! As for online contests, man, I have tons of ideas from tons of trials. I bet Emlyn even has a blog post about it somewhere. If not I’ll try to write one up
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
First, I totally empathize with your plans to take over the world. That’s on my to-do list too! Second, great post. I didn’t do nearly as much as you did when I launched Forbidden Mind. I just contacted bloggers for reviews… and still that was very, very time consuming. But thanks for laying it out in a clear way. This is a GREAT post!
Kimberly Kinrade recently posted..The launch of Bella World and a major book sale!!
103 stops?! No way. I’d probably be pulling my hair out!!
Good tips, especially about sending the Thank You afterward. It’s the little things…I’m organizing a blog tour now, but I hired an admin to do it for me. It’s only for a week and 6 stops, because that’s all I can handle. If it’s successful, I’ll definitely do it this way again.
Delaney Diamond recently posted..SPECIAL GUEST Author Eugenia O’Neal
Haha, yeah, it was mind numbing but I’d do it again. For my next book I’m doing a combination of my own thing and paying tour companies. Hopefully it will be successful and a little less stressful!
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
Fantastic post! Sometimes people ask me if I think people can organise their own tour and the first thing I say is that it’s sometimes exhausting following a tour, let alone setting it up from scratch. So, yes, it can be done but say goodbye to sleep and sanity for a while!
This lays it out beautifully.
Donna Brown recently posted..Review: The Undertaker – William F. Brown
Thanks Donna! Yeah, I’ve had people ask me to do their tours and I’m like, dude, you would have to pay me a million bucks. It’s a lot of work!
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
What I’m not sure of is if it is worth the tremendous work involved to do it properly.
JR Tomlin recently posted..Interview with Fantasy Author J. Dean
The return on investment is slow but it’s there. You aren’t going to instantly sell books from a tour but the relationships, reputation and name recognition you get has real value and will increase the usefulness of future endeavours. I think it was worth it, but I’m a little insane
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
Fab post Pav. It IS exhausting, and you have to be super organized and diligent to keep on top of it all. I’d love to read a follow up post – how it worked out for you/ the results you saw. I know it’s hard to track direct results from marketing but any patterns you did notice would be great!
Laura Pep Wu recently posted..Pinnacles and Pitfalls of Writers Groups
This post is so timely as I’ve just started (read: last night) arranging my own little blog tour for my novel: Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure. While my goal is to get my book to as many readers as possible, I wonder if it has any effect on Amazon rankings or sales?
Can you share what you believe were the results of your large book tour?
BTW, your blog has now become my ‘must read’! You do great work!
Thank you!!!!
Suzanne recently posted..Slow CookerBeef Ribs and Beautiful Table-scapes
I have not been nearly as organized as I should have been in promoting Searching for My Wand. I have done several interviews and probably a dozen or more guest posts, but I’ve lost all track as to with who. I still have the emails and will have to do better with my next release. I was sure to thank everyone though.
bridgetstraub.com recently posted..Happiness Tuesday # 31
Haha, open excell and just keep lists, it’s saved my live!
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Introductin to Larry Peterson – Author
Thanks for the marvelous post, Pavarti. This is really helpful information as I start to consider how best to promote my new novel. I’m wondering what you think about doing a slow motion blog tour. Rather than mass up on hundreds of blogs at once, what about doing a couple at a time? Even if the overall time spent is the same (albeit spread over months), do you think the overall impact would be hugely diminished?
I do think there’s something to be said for market saturation and having a big bump all at once. But honestly, doing anything of quality, whether fast or slow, is better than a hack job, so do what you can and work with people who have a good reputation.
Good Luck
Pav
Pavarti K Tyler recently posted..Breaking Dawn – A Wolf Girl Reviews
Excellent post and advice. Writing is actually pretty easy compared to marketing. My mind runneth over with ideas for stories but getting the word out is problematic. Your post provides an good structure to follow, thank you!
What a great, detailed and generous post. It all sounds daunting and overwhelming, but I am so grateful to benefit from your knowledge.
Marta
Thanks Marta! So glad it helped!
Boy, can I relate. This was nearly step-by-step what I did for the release of Between. I was a limp noodle by the time it was over. I decided not to do the same for the sequel and I don’t know that I’ll ever have as much focus to put toward a book release as I did my debut.
Good luck with your book!
Cyndi Tefft
Cyndi Tefft recently posted..Casting Aiden MacRae! Pick Your Hottie Scottie!
PARTY OVER HERE !