And so, my friends, the blog tour for The General’s Wife has come to an end. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some relief in that. A blog tour is a great thing, don’t get me wrong. But it’s also a lot of work! There are some key reasons to do one:
The Visibility of the Book
This is probably the number one reason I do these tours. It puts my book in front of audiences that would not have otherwise seen it. Readers I don’t have ready access to. Readers who would enjoy my book. So it is a benefit to both of us that we are matched up through these other blogs. They find new material to read and I find an audience.
The Exposure in General
The book tour leads to a general exposure of my name and helps connect those that wish to be with my social media outlets. Then, its up to me to continue to provide valuable content (as they see it, not just valuable according to me). That’s no easy task, but I have a heart for helping the newbie writer and I just love to entertain in general.
It Allows People to Get to Know Me
Through the numerous guest posts I have written and interview questions I responded to, the readers get a chance to “look behind the curtain” if you will. They can peek into my world and get to know me a little. Or a lot. I tend to be an open book. This creates connection.
Some of these things will lead to sales…
These things, in the long run will often result in sales increases. I put this last because it is the least important for me. It is not my number one goal for doing a blog tour. My primary concern is to connect, to get my book some exposure so that readers can find and enjoy it.
What was that you said about WORK?
Yes, the tour is a lot of work. Some of it more fun than other parts of it. And other authors may enjoy the parts I find the least enjoyable more than I and struggle with my favorite parts.
Providing the material
A bit of this work is done on the front end. The interviews, the guest posts, pulling the excerpts, etc. So, that part of the heavy lifting, though intense, is completed, for the most part, before the tour begins (depending on who is running/coordinating/organizing your tour).
During the Tour
While the tour is in progress, it’s important to monitor the tour comments and respond to those who took the time to say something about your work. It’s also a good idea to retweet, tweet, post, and advertise about the blogs and posts yourself. Doing that takes only a few minutes, but it’s a few minutes here, a few there, all day long. But, it is totally worth it! Because in the end what you have is something to look back on and be proud of.
All in all, I loved this tour. And I appreciated Goddess Fish Promotions and everything they did to make it happen and run so smoothly. They made this as seamless for me as possible. The communication was thorough and delivered before I knew it was needed (i.e. I was informed of any challenges before I became aware of them).
I will absolutely use them again!