Moonlight Romance Authors: Tips to ensure a painless blog tour

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tips to ensure a painless blog tour

Tips to ensure a painless blog tour

By Natalie-Nicole Bates

Nearly two years ago, I had no idea what a blog tour was. I had signed two contracts in the space of one week, one for my short story Antique Charming, the other for my contemporary romance, Change of Address. I was caught up in the exuberance at the thought of finally being published. I had a blog designed, and started looking at promotion.

This is when I found out about the relatively new concept of a blog tour. Simply put, a blog tour is an organized selection of blogs that an author will visit and promote her books. The blog tour may be organized by a promotion company, or for the more ambitious author, may be organized by the author herself.

For the sake of this writing, I’m going to concentrate on blog tours arranged by a promotional company.

So, where do you begin?

My advice is to thoroughly research each company who offers blog tours and find out which will offer you the closest to what you are hoping to accomplish. Do internet searches, take advice from the experiences of other authors, and most important—ASK QUESTIONS before you commit to a tour. Does the tour company cater to your specific genre? Do they have bloggers with a wide range of readers or are they more genre-specific? By asking questions up front, you will be much happier in the end.

When do you begin?

Most blog tour companies need as much notice as possible to arrange the best bloggers for your tour. In a perfect world, we would love to have our blog tours begin the same day our book is released, but this is not always realistic. Currently, an 8-12 week lead in time is not unrealistic.

You will need to provide up front your cover art, your links, a blurb, an EDITED excerpt, your bio, and an EDITED pdf of your book if you are requesting reviews.

A word here about edited excerpts. ALWAYS wait until you have your final edits from your editor before submitting excerpts, or you have the publisher’s permission.

Be Realistic

Before you book a tour, be realistic with what you want to accomplish. Like me, you have a life outside of writing. Perhaps you have a partner, children, and quite possibly a job and hobbies. A blog tour is a commitment.

How long do you want to tour? A short story or short novella requires usually a week –long tour, a novella, two weeks. Tours can last one month, or even longer.

Do you like to write guest posts? Guest posts done right can be time consuming. If you do a month long tour, can you realistically write maybe twenty guest posts that are relatively unique and relevant? Do you like to do interviews? What about reviews? Will you be offering any giveaways?

Be honest with yourself about what you can handle. Be up front with the person arranging your tour. They will help you to tailor your tour to fit your needs.

A quick word here about reviews. Reviewing is a subjective business. We love our writing like our children and it hurts us deeply when we get a bad review. I know it’s been said that you need to develop a thick skin in this business, and it’s true. My attitude is, If you like my work, great. If you don’t, keep walking. There are simply things in this life that we cannot control, and the reviews we receive are among these. My advice is to bite your lower lip and thank the reviewer for their time. NEVER react to bad reviews. It’s not worth your time or reputation. This is just one person’s opinion, and they are entitled to that opinion. If you feel you're being unfairly bashed, contact the tour arranger and let her act on your behalf.

So now, we have our materials, our dates selected, we’ve toughened up emotionally, and are ready to start our tour.

Now what?

Have fun! This is a joyous occasion in your life! People are talking about YOUR book, and YOU are the star of your blog tour!

Each day of your tour, visit the blog who is hosting you. If you do not see your tour there right away, give it some time before you contact the company who arranged your tour. A lot of bloggers host authors each day and need to give each author their fair share of time. Only contact the tour arranger if you don’t see your information after mid-day.

Be gracious and thank the blogger who is hosting you. This is a MUST. She is taking her time to host you, possibly interview or review you, as a courtesy.

Make a comment at the blog. A lot of readers are a bit skittish when it comes to making comments. Be friendly and approachable, and the readers will react to this. If the readers don’t comment, don’t fret! They are still reading the blog! Check back a few times to see if there are any comments you need to respond to.

Promote! Promote! Promote! Let readers know where you are appearing. Post on Facebook, Twitter, and any place that allows promotion.

At the end of your tour I hope you are feeling satisfied with the results. If you’ve experienced any problems, do share them with the company who arranged your tour. Thank them. It is a long process to arrange a tour and coordinate information as well as a wide range of bloggers.

I wish you the best of luck if you are planning a blog tour. I hope some of my tips will be useful on your road to blog tour success.

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Regina Paul

Natalie-Nicole Bates

Natalie-Nicole Bates may be new to the world of publishing, but she’s always been a fan of books and is an active book reviewer. Now she gets to see what’s it’s like on the other side of the book fence when her paranormal romance, Antique Charming, is released through Books To Go Now Publishing this fall and her contemporary romance, Change of Address, will be published in January 2012 by Secret Cravings Publishing.

In addition to her love of books, Natalie also has an uncharacteristic love of hockey which can be attributed to the fact she was born in Russia. Natalie now resides in the UK with a collection of Victorian and Edwardian era photography, her favorites being the post-mortem photographs. Visit Natalie-Nicole online at Natalie-Nicole Bates.com

Tara Fox Hall

I'm an OSHA-certified safety and health inspector at a metal fabrication shop in upstate New York. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a double minor in chemistry and biology from Binghamton University. My writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. I am the author of the paranormal action-adventure Lash series and the vampire romantic suspense Promise Me series. I also coauthored (with Eric Dietrich) the nonfiction book Forbidden Conversations. I divide my free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice. Visit me at Tara Fox Hall.com

Lindsay Townsend

Lindsay lives in Yorkshire, England, where she was born, and started writing stories at an early age. Always a voracious reader, she took a degree in medieval history and worked in a library for a while, then began to write full-time after marriage.

Her first unpublished historical found her an agent and the second got a publisher in London interested. They wanted her to write with a modern setting, which she did – several romantic thrillers set in Greece, Italy or on Dartmoor in the English West Country - and enjoyed it, but historicals are really her first love. Lindsay is currently writing medieval romance for Kensington, who published ‘A Knight’s Vow’in 2008 and are following it with ‘A Knight’s Captive’ in spring, 2009.

She is also fascinated by the ancient world, especially Rome, Egypt and the Bronze Age. ‘Flavia’s Secret’, set in Roman Britain, came out from Bookstrand in 2008, and two more historicals, ‘Blue Gold’, set in ancient Egypt, and ‘Bronze Lightning’, set in Bronze Age Greece and the Britain of Stonehenge, have also just been released early in 2009.

Please visit Lindsay's blog.

Linda Sole

Linda writes as herself and under several other names. As Linda Sole she iscurrently published by Severn House of UK and USA. She also writes as Anne Herries for Harlequin Mills & Boon. She is happily married and lives in England with her husband. Linda enjoys visiting Spain where she loves to walk, swim and lie in the sun. Writing is her passion and she manages a few words every day, but she also loves animals and especially squirrels. She is known as the squirrel lady at her local supermarket because of all the nuts she buys for them!

Visit her website for more information.

Sarah J. McNeal

I became interested in writing at a young age. My parents didn’t allow us to have a television so my sisters and I became avid readers. We read everything from Shakespeare to my mother’s True Detective Stories that, by the way, scared the hell out of me. I submitted my first story and received my first rejection when I was thirteen years old.

I am particularly drawn to writing fantasy and time travel and have created a magical place called Valmora where winged people with various magical abilities are in constant struggle against the evil forces of the Dark Isle. Two of the books in this series are presently available at New Concepts Publishing: THE DARK ISLE and LAKE OF SORROWS. I am writing the third now: THE LIGHT OF VALMORA. I have written a time travel novel in which a woman goes back to the 1920’s to save a man from dying in THE VIOLIN that has been submitted to New Concepts Publishing. I intend to write a series of musical instrument stories including THE PIANO and one that I intend to start in the near future titled, HARMONICA JOE’S RELUCTANT BRIDE.

Until recent years, I wrote short stories, two of which were the early inspiration for the Valmora series and three other stories that were sci-fi and paranormal.

I have also written nonfiction including an article in The Charlotte Observer and a monthly newsletter from the emergency department of CMC Mercy Hospital that, unfortunately, I no longer have time to write.

Writing brings me a joy and fulfillment that nothing else can. I love creating magical worlds and people who want to make a difference. I hope that anyone who reads them will love them, too.

Please visit her website for more information.

Patricia Richardson

My desire to write began at a young age; my mind was always filled with great stories. However, my dreams, and aspirations were put on the back burner and even at times forgotten after I became married with children. Later the divorce came, which meant I had to become both mother and father to my children. I worked overtime and weekends just to support my family. The struggle to survive and give my children a healthy, loving home lasted until they were grown. Late author, Gracie Cornish, Ph.D. inspired me to follow my destiny. I met her at a place of employment, "just sit down and start writing," she told me and I did just that. I wrote every chance I got; at work, on the subway, and in my spare time at home. This all started in the latter part of 1998. That very same year God impressed upon my heart to relocate from New York to Maryland. I was obedient and moved.

The move meant that once again I had to put my writing on hold to become familiar with my new environment and learn to cope with the conditions of a highly stressful job. Most evenings when I arrived home the only thing I wanted to do was turn the ringer off the telephone and sleep. I seldom picked up my manuscript, which was kept under my bed just waiting for me not to be too tired and stressed to write. The time for writing again did not come until late in 2001 when I finally came to the realization I would always be stressed and tired from working and if I did not use the gift God gave me I would never achieve the independent financial freedom I wanted. After this epiphany I set a goal for myself; to have the manuscript completed and sent to my editor in March of 2002. Finally, in March of 2003 the book cover for my first novel, "A Place for Ida," was approved and I was published! This of course came with a price. I lost work, I cried, and I virtually had no social life. I was on a personal lockdown. I was on a mission. Most of my spare time was spent researching publishers, cover letters, and anything else I felt was pertinent to my success. Since then I established Leap of Faith Publishing and republished "A Place for Ida" and soon after published the sequel, "A Time for Jonathan."

Visit her website for more information.

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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tips to ensure a painless blog tour

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