Do Blog Tours Sell Books?

So as most of you know, I've just wrapped up a blog tour for CRASH INTO YOU.  It was roughly 35 stops and spanned about six weeks. It was fun...and freaking exhausting. Writing that many posts about that many different topics and answering comments all while keeping my own two blogs afloat, doing other promo stuff, and trying to draft a novel that's due soon was a bit overwhelming. And that was with hiring Goddess Fish Promotions to do the organizational piece of the blog tour for me--scheduling the stops, giving me the topics, and getting the posts to the right people. (They were fabulous, btw. Very affordable and there's no way I would've been able to manage it all without that help.)

But even with outside help, I found myself having writer's block both for posts and for my WIP. I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado and I couldn't quite get anything done well.  (See last week's post on the 5 Emotional Stages of a Book Launch for more on that.) So now that it's over and I have two more titles to launch this year, I'm left asking the question--was all that work worth it? Is the amount of time the blog tour consumes proportionate to what you get out of it?

I honestly don't know. It obviously doesn't hurt, but it's hard to tell what has an impact on your sales and what doesn't. My gut instinct tells me a review on a book blog is worth much more than a guest post or interview on one. I'm not sure hearing me talk about my writing journey or my family life compels new people to try my book.

I know for me as a reader, if I read a guest blog by an author it doesn't necessarily make me want to buy their book. It may expose me to a book I haven't heard of and if it's something I might like, I may buy. But if the book had been reviewed instead of the author interviewed, it would have the same effect--exposure. And maybe would've have been even more effective because I'm hearing about the book and if the reader/reviewer liked it.

The same goes for blog tour giveaways in my opinion. We're so bombarded with "Free book!" and "Win!" now that it becomes white noise. Yes, there are some people who click and enter every giveaway, but those are often people who aren't going to buy your book if they don't win. They just enjoy the chance to win. And if you give away your own book you're promoting, there are times when people will delay buying to see if they won. That delay could mean you risk them forgetting to buy it when they don't win.

2016 Update:

I continue to do blog tours for each release, but I have pared it down greatly. I do a handful of interviews and maybe 1-2 guests posts. The rest are either book features (info about the book is shared) or book reviews (reviewer was provided with an ARC and asked to give an honest review.) I think the exposure is good and having your book out there and mentioned on social media is important, but there are ways to do it without making yourself insane.

Here are my tips:

1. Hire someone to help - If you can afford it (and prices are usually super reasonable), hire someone who specializes in setting up tours in your genre. They will automatically have more connections to book bloggers than you do and they can do the legwork of getting everything set up. Money well spent. 

2. Focus on getting copies out for reviews. Only commit to a few interviews and guest posts, which can be very time intensive.

3. Focus on sites with good traffic - It's okay to stop by some smaller blogs, but research where readers hang out the most in your genre and work toward getting a post on those sites. And if it's a big site, maybe you do a more extensive post.

4. Be POLITE and PROFESSIONAL - Book bloggers are doing all that work for free and they are under no obligation to help you. And even if you give them an ARC, they are under no obligation to review. Don't be a jerk. And follow their submission guidelines if you're approaching them yourself.

5. Do a giveaway but not for the book you're promoting. - This is a good time to giveaway a backlist book or something that's related to your book. I like doing one big tour wide prize. For my book CALL ON ME, I gave away gourmet brownies because there's a fun scene with brownies in the book.

6. On the day of the posts, promote them on your social media. Help the bloggers hosting you by bringing them traffic. And if there's interaction in the comments, stop by and say hi. (If it's a review post, stay out of the comments though.)

7. Don't stress about sales. - Easier said then done but a blog tour is part of a bigger, cumulative effect of promotion and getting your book in front of people. 

8. Pace yourself - Don't sign up to do 100 stop tour. You'll wear yourself out and people will get sick of hearing about you. I usually do a two week launch tour with 1-2 stops a day.

9. Have a press kit and excerpts ready to go. - Every blogger will want similar things: your cover, headshot, book blurb, bio, excerpts. Have all those ready to go and easily accessible. And be sure to hold a few excerpts aside for "exclusive excerpts." Bigger sites often like to have an exclusive.

What are your thoughts? Do you think guest posts and interviews sell books? Or do you think a review has more impact? How do you feel about giveaways? What kind of post compels you to buy someone's book?

"Revved up and red-hot sexy, CRASH INTO YOU, delivers a riveting romance!" --Lorelei James, NY Times Bestselling author of the ROUGH RIDERS series

CRASH INTO YOU is now available!

Read an excerpt here.

All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2012 |Copyright Statement|

The 5 Emotional Stages of a Book Launch

I've almost made it through month one of my debut release. The month has been an exciting, exhausting, and emotional whirlwind. I have lots of blog post ideas spinning through my head about the experience, what I've learned, and what I'd do differently.

But first I thought I'd give you a brief overview of what my debut month looked like.

2016 Update: I'm more than ten books into this journey now and these stages still apply, though I have gotten better at managing them. :)

The Five Emotional Stages of a Book Launch

really happy in #carlton

Week One: Book Release Euphoria

You're so damn happy, you can't feel your face anymore because you're smiling so much. Your book is out there! People are talking about it, blogging about it, authors you're a fangirl of are tweeting congrats to you. You walk into your local bookstore and there it is--your book on the freaking shelf! You vacillate widely between wanting to cry and wanting to break out into song in public. You're so busy, you're lucky if you remember to eat and sleep. But who needs those silly things?

oy in #cat

Week Two: Obsession

You're guest blogging like a madwoman, responding to comments, tweeting about your blog tour, and trying to do you normal writing too. But that's not why you're at your computer. Nope, you're there because now you're obsessed. What's my Amazon ranking this hour? What are reviewers saying? How many ratings do I have on Goodreads? Ooh, is that a new review? What are people saying about me and my book? I need to google myself again. Must. Check. One. More. Time. 

Tired of waiting in #tired

Week Three: Burning Out

This is when the flip side of weeks one and two rears its ugly head. In all your obsession, you've realized not everyone thinks you're made of awesome and sugar cookies. It's inevitable. We anticipate that. Hell, we're writers. We're built on rejection. How much did we see to get to this point? But anticipating it and seeing it on the interwebs are two different things. Rejection up to this point hasn't felt personal. It's been more like structured feedback or the general "no thanks" from the agent. But online, people have no qualms about making it personal, saying mean things, or even making assumptions about what kind of person you are. For some people that stuff rolls right off. For others, it can affect your mood and distract you from whatever you're supposed to be working on. That's why you hear many authors say they don't read reviews. Reviews are for readers not for you. But it's admittedly hard not to look, especially if it's your debut book. If you know you're going to be affected by bad reviews, skip looking or have a friend screen them for you.

sleepy in #sleepy

Week Four: Collapsing in Exhaustion and Cocooning

You're tired. Really bone tired, but also creatively and emotionally drained. You crave to get back to your routine and your life. For me, this meant a bit of cocooning or insulating myself. I stepped away from the week two obsession. If someone brings my attention to something great, I'll read it. Otherwise, I don't need to go out and see everything anyone has ever said about me or the book. And I don't need to say yes to everything. And I don't need to be everywhere at once.

Bruce is a typing boss - Bruce Almighty in #boss

Week Five: Finding Balance and Re-Focusing on Why You're Doing This In the First Place

You realize the reason why you're doing all this stuff is because you love to write. This is the job you want. So you back away from all the hoopla and get back to your keyboard and your story. Then, when your next book come out, this cycle will start again!

So those are my thoughts after four weeks, about 50 blog posts (counting guest posts and my own blogs), comment answering, completing copy edits on two books, plus trying to draft another with a tight deadline. *downs a shot of tequila* 

So what do you think? If you're published, have you experienced any of this? If you're hoping to get published, what do you think will be your biggest challenge during your book release? 

"Revved up and red-hot sexy, CRASH INTO YOU, delivers a riveting romance!" --Lorelei James, NY Times Bestselling author of the ROUGH RIDERS series

Guest Blogging Etiquette 101

As most of you know, my book released last week (squee!) and I've been embarking on a promotional blog tour. That means I'm writing not only my own blogs, but also putting together another 1-2 daily. It's been a lot of fun, but is a LOT of work. I hired Goddess Fish Promotions to help me organize mine because I just couldn't juggle everything on my own, and that's been a godsend. But it still take a lot of time and effort to manage a successful tour. 

So as I go through this, I was reminded of this post I did last year about Guest Blogging Etiquette. Using these guidelines can make the guest blogging process mostly painless for everyone. Hope you find it helpful!

GOOD NEWS ALERT!

- CRASH INTO YOU debuted at #3 on the Barnes and Nobles Trade Romance Bestsellers List!!! I'm shocked and so excited. Thank you SO much to everyone who has bought the book. You guys rock!

Now on to today's post..

Guest Blogging Etiquette 101

So if you've been blogging for any amount of time, you've probably had some experience with guest blogging--either inviting people onto your own site or doing a post on someone else's site. It's a great thing to do to cross promote and once you've got a book coming out, it's often a big piece of your marketing. Blog tours are all the rage because the internet is a great place to find readers and build word of mouth.

I get requests on a pretty regular basis both to be a guest on other sites and from people wanting to do a post here. It seems once you get past 500 or so followers, a good number of people want to hang out on your site. :) That's awesome. I love doing guests posts and I certainly love having people stop by here.

However, there is some etiquette that goes along with this process. Some people follow it and others fail miserably. So I figured I would give some quick tips I've gathered from my experience that may help you navigate the guest blogging waters.

If you are going to ask someone to be on your site...

1. Be polite when asking and give them a clear out so you don't put them on the spot. (i.e. if you're too busy, I completely understand.)

2. Give them an ample amount of time to get back to you, but it is best to give them a deadline

Don't say, "Hey, I'd love you to be a guest, can you get me a post by next week?" Give them a few weeks minimum. And you can give them an open-ended--whenever you can--kind of deadline. BUT, be warned--this may result in less success of getting that post. I am an epic failure at saying "yes" to open-ended, can you guest post for me sometime and then I never get to it.

3. Provide options.

A guest post takes a lot of time. I can whip out a daily post over here in under an hour, but when I know I'm going to be on someone else's site, I feel more pressure to get it perfect, for it to be epic. So, it takes more effort and time. Therefore, if you really want someone on your site, maybe offer to interview them instead of a guest post. This makes it easier for the person to just answer questions and not have to come up with a topic, etc.

4. If you are going to ask for a post (not an interview), provide suggestions for topics you might like to see from them (while also leaving it open for them to choose whatever topic they want.)

It is SO helpful when someone approaches me for a guest post when they say--hey, maybe you could do something on yadda yadda yadda. I may not know what topics they've already covered on their own blog, so this saves me from having to research what's already been covered on that site.

5. Once you get their post and schedule it, email the person on the day (or day before) the post is going to go live.

This a) reminds the person and b) gives them a the chance to do some promotion for you and send people there.

If you want to approach someone to be on their blog...

1. Do your research and know that blog/blogger (at least a little bit).

If someone emails me wanting to post here to promote their book and I've never had any interaction with them, their chances are way lower that I'm going to pay attention. They don't follow the blog, have never left a comment, have never talked to me on Twitter, etc. They're a complete and total stranger. I feel like they stumbled across my blog, saw I had a platform and said--ooh, ooh, let me sell stuff here! My blog isn't here as an advertisement board for anyone who wants to stick a flyer up. (2016 Update: Over the years, you'll notice that the only authors I'm promoting are ones I've read on my own time and want to share. I may occasionally share affiliate links or invite a guest, but I've gone away from doing much else.)

2. Offer the blogger a number of options--an interview, guest blog, contest/giveaway.

Show them that you can provide whatever type of post they need. And just like the reverse of the above, an interview is more work for the host blogger, so don't just offer that. It's also a lot of work to ask someone to review your book. That means they have to have time to read it, like your genre, etc. When people email me asking if I can interview them or review their book, I usually respond with--can you do a guest post instead? I just don't have time lately to come up with interview questions specific to you and your book. (2016 Update: I do not accept review requests or requests for guests posts anymore.)

3. If you get the go ahead to do the guest blog, make sure you send something with quality content, no typos, and include your bio and pic.

Don't make the blogger have to correct your work.

4. Get the post to the person on time. And do not ask them to send you a reminder. 

If they give you a deadline, keep it. And it's your job to remember when it's due--they are doing you a favor.

5. Promote that post on your own blog when it goes live. This helps you and the host blogger.

6. Offer to reciprocate. If they let you on their blog, let them know they are welcome to stop by yours

Overall: 

The key to remember with all of this is to know who is holding the power in the exchange (can you tell I write BDSM romance?) The person who benefits more from what the other person has to offer has to go out of their way to make it as convenient as possible for the other.

For instance, if I want my book reviewed on a big book blogger site--the power is in their hands. I'm the one who has to go out of my way. But if a brand new author who just self-published wants me to do a feature on their book here where I have a big following of potential readers, then I'm the one holding more cards. Sounds kind of snotty, but it is what it is. You'll be on both sides of the equation at some point.

So what do you think? Have you had any negative guest blogging experiences? How do you like to be approached for a guest blog?

"Revved up and red-hot sexy, CRASH INTO YOU, delivers a riveting romance!" --Lorelei James, NY Times Bestselling author of the ROUGH RIDERS seriesCRASH INTO YOU is now available!

Is Blogging Dead?

Last week I read a post by Wendy Lawton over at Books & Such Literary Agency in which she talked about "What's Not Working?" when it comes to marketing. One of the things that surprised me was that she listed blogging as the first one that is "not working." She even goes so far as to say this:

"I wouldn't recommend a writer start blogging in order to publicize his book in today's climate. It would be tough to picture a scenario where the outcome would justify the means." 

I have to admit, the statement shocked me a bit. Obviously, I'm a bit biased because I'm an avid blogger and really enjoy that part of social networking. But after I got over my initial pause, I read through the post again to think through what she was saying more rationally.

Her argument is that unless you've already built an uber-blog, then you're going to have a nearly impossible task of standing out in an over-saturated blogosphere.

Okay, I can see her point there. The blogosphere IS glutted. And when it comes to writers blogging, we're a wall-to-wall crowded room of writing advice, writer ramblings, interviews, giveaways, and randomness. After a while, click after click begins to blend together and sound the same. I know my blog reading has gone down in the past year because of lack of time and because much of it feels like reruns. It takes a great headline on Twitter at this point to get me to click over to something. My google reader goes neglected.

So how in the world do any of us stand out in that crowd?

I'm not entirely sure. My guess is that it's often like books--it comes down to the voice of the blogger, the freshness of their take on things (even if they are old things), and their engagement with their readers. And even then, many times the audience on the blog is comprised of other writers--so we're still really only reaching a niche group. A fabulous group, but a limited one a best.

Wendy also, by the way, isn't big on blog tours for the same reason. Authors put forth all this effort to write up new posts and interviews for tour stops--which takes a crapload of time--and then "tour" on sites that pretty much appeal to other writers. So you're swimming in the same pond, promoting to the same school of fish.

Believe me, that is weighing heavy on my mind as I try to formulate my plan for my book release. I am planning to do a blog tour, but now I'm wondering if my time might be better spent doing something else. I mean, there are only so many interviews people want to read. And I'm hard-pressed to think of sites that I could guest on that would expose me to a totally new group of people. I honestly think getting reviewed on the book blogger sites is probably much more effective.

So in that respect, I can see Wendy's point about blogging's effectiveness. (For the record, her exception to the "blogging doesn't work" belief is the person who has a particularly unique slant, some previous celebrity, or an already established audience.)

Does that mean I'm giving up blogging? Hell no. I love blogging. It makes me happy and I feel blessed that you guys are still reading me after two years, lol. (Thank you!) And I really do love reading others' blogs. But this post is not about me (shocking, I know.) ;) This post is for those of you reading who are in the early stages of your blogging or who are considering starting a blog or who have been blogging but kinda sorta loathe it. Here's my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

Even "If" Blogging Is Dying, You Should Blog If...

1. You just love blogging and don't care if it's promoting you as a "brand."

2. You are a published author who has or will have fans seeking you out online.

(Caveat: If you are a published author and don't like to blog, that's fine. Just find some online outlet where readers can get to know you and interact--twitter, facebook, whatever.)

3. You have a unique slant to offer (like Wendy mentions).

Meaning, you have something to offer your readers that would sustain a popular blog even if you weren't an author with a book.

4. You write non-fiction.

I'd be hard-pressed to imagine how blogging wouldn't help a non-fiction writer.

5. You're not into short-form social networking like Twitter, FB, Tumblr, etc. and feel more comfortable connecting online in long form.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that come to the top of mind for me. Number one is my reason (and hopefully number two will apply to me soon too, lol.)

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you think blogging is dying? Do you find yourself reading fewer blogs, leaving less comments, or do you see traffic on your blog trending down? How do you connect with the authors you love? What makes a blog a must-read for you even when you develop blog reading fatigue?