The Blogging Book Tour
Many bloggers have turned to publishing to enhance the work they do on their blogs, and to share their content with the world. As we often write about books and authorship on BlogPaws, it seemed appropriate to learn more from someone who is a professional in the book publicity industry.
Sandra Beckwith has answers for anyone’s questions, on doing a blogging book tour. (if you’ve done one or participated in one, I hope you will share in the comments!)
Anyone writing a book today should be planning a virtual book tour – via blogging. It’s a proven way to get noticed. The opportunities are huge, if you do it right. Sandra Beckwith, a book marketing friend from Rochester, NY, has a guest post on The Savvy Book Marketer™, on how to plan a virtual book tour. It’s a must read.
This post has some of the details – but my advice to the serious author looking to participate or even create a book tour of your own, via blogging, is to get over to Sandra’s post to learn more.
First, Sandra offers a GREAT template for pitching your book tour. Download it here.
In the article, she mentions promotional tactics like live webinars, guest columns on other blogs, podcasts, and guest videos, to name just a few ideas. One key point is to compile a database of contacts including the topic of blogs you’re interested in and what you like about the blog.
That’s important – don’t just choose blogs you think will be influential for you. You need to like the blog and be ready to form a relationship with the blogger.
Probably the MOST important tip Sandra provides, in my opinion, is this: “What you pitch to one blog might not work for another, so you use your notes in the grid to help you decide what to offer each individual site.”
Think of it this way – you’re asking the blogger for a favor.
Yes, she gets a free book, but she has to read the book and then write about it, maybe even interview you. That’s content for her blog, yes, but it’s publicity for you and to make it worth her while, you need to show that you’ve read her blog and that your book is relevant to her readers.
Writing the book is the first half of the effort of being a published author.
Marketing your book comes next and will be the success or failure marker. A book that sits on the shelf is just taking up space. A book that gets read, is changing someone’s life, somewhere. Make sure your book gets read.
The book featured here is from Klya Duffy’s Up for Pups site and is a free download. Click the image to access it.
