Monday, June 23, 2008

Blog Book Tours – How to Do One

Last year I started having authors stop by Straight From Hel to post either a column about writing or a Q&A. Having authors post seemed like a good idea – readers seemed to enjoy the posts and so did I. That evolved into me hosting one Featured Author a month. That stretched into once in a while also having a shorter post by an author.

It all started back when Susan Wittig Albert asked if I’d host her on her blog book tour. (She’s since stopped by on her second tour for another book.) I have learned so much from her. On her first stop she let me know she would ask for stats after her post. I wasn’t keeping stats. I quickly added two different behind-the-scenes stat counters. On the next stop, she had pictures to go with her post. I had never put up pictures in a post. I figured out how to do that.

Just by seeing what she posted and how she worked with me as a host – and what she did before and after the post, I learned. And I’m really in awe of her. I can’t imagine anyone doing a more professional job of coordinating and pulling off a successful blog book tour than Susan Wittig Albert. Now I’m even more amazed. I recently read a post on Dani’s Blog Book Tours blog in which she asked Susan about how much work she does when she does a blog book tour.

If you’re thinking about doing a virtual tour for your book, go read her post, Nightshade Wrap Up.

And if you’d like to hear Susan’s perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of a blog book tour, read her post on Blog Book Tours called A Blog Book Tour in Retrospect.

2 comments:

  1. Helen, thanks for the comments. Can I entice you over to the BBT Yahoo! Group to talk about being a good tour host? There are some good authors over there.

    Dani
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogbooktours

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the invite, Dani. I'll check it out.

    ReplyDelete

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