Zip over to Blog Book Tours. A class started yesterday. You might not be able to get in since it began May 1st, but then again, maybe you can. But even if you can’t, follow along with the bloggers who are learning and you’ll learn something along the way.
Dani Greer leads the class. She’s the kind of teacher you want. She tells you exactly what you need to do – and she doesn’t let you skip a lesson or slip. You may even think she’s a taskmaster, but by the end of the class, you will know how to do a blog tour and what’s expected of you by the hosts. You’ll have built up visitors to your blog and you will have found potential hosts for your tour.
Right now the class has started their first lesson. They must blog every day this month. Every day. No skipping days. And they must visit the blogs of their fellow students – as many of them as each person can get to, each day. I didn’t say the class would be easy, just beneficial.
So, if you want to know how to do a successful blog book tour, go over to Blog Book Tours and check it out.
Good shout out for a great class and course. Participating also has the fringe benefit of forging some wonderful friendships - like running into "Straight From Hel!" (smile)
ReplyDeleteHey also thanks for the reminder - I promised Dani I'd follow along during the challenge and visit the participants.
Marvin D Wilson
http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/
See ya over there Marvin. I'm trying to do the same.
ReplyDeleteEvery visit counts, Karen! Hope to see you again.
ReplyDeleteYep, that class was an interesting ride. Hope other folks learn as much from it as I did!
ReplyDelete--Lisa
http://authorlisalogan.blogspot.com
I agree. Blog Book Tours is a great class. I'll be there as well.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
Not ready to blog tour yet, but I enjoy visiting them. So much great info--check out Beth's tour for example.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing, Conda, to see how much work goes into a tour. For every stop the author sets up he/she has to come up with something new to talk about and that fits with the blog they're visiting. That is not easy. Those of us following along can learn a lot in what they way and by what they do.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bethgroundwater.com for her tour links - she has put some awesome effort into this. Marv, you did on your tour also. Really we've had some good tours the past year.
ReplyDeletePicked this up on Twitter, Helen! I wondered why I was still getting sign-ups. I should mention that I'll still let folks into the class until Sunday at 5PM, but only if they have a book coming out in the next few months that they need to promote. Must give the title. This group is really only for active students, not just the casually interested. For that, we have the BBT Cafe, which is a social site to talk about tours and about anything else related to books and writing. Link below. Thanks Helen! Oh, and don't miss Helen's guide to being a good blog book tour host in her right column.
Dani
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BBTCafe
Okay! Now I've finally learnt what a blog book tour means! :) pretty tough task to blog every day. Good luck to the participants!
ReplyDeleteHi Ann and Dani.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. And thanks, Dani, for giving the link to the Blog Book Tour Cafe - another great group to get involved in if you've done a tour already or are not quite ready for the intense blog book tour class.
Good to see a class on it. A class will give some pointers to those just starting out and to some think they know how but don't really. Online promotion is a bit more difficult than many authors realize. It's consistency and using what time they do have available, wisely.
ReplyDeleteI do host tours of authors and while most are easy to work with, there are those few that aren't. One of the things that is hard to get through to authors is heavy handed hard sell with THE BOOK, doesn't work.
Promotion needs to be creative and fun for the readers. Each blog is different and if you're a creative writer to begin with, it shouldn't be that difficult to come up with a list of interesting articles in advance that can be tweaked slightly to fit a blog. I've had authors want to use the same articles that was on their last blog stop. Those get ho-hum and old very quickly. Plus, there is the factor of having a network set up, that takes time for an author to build and hopefully they've been working on building that network months before they're published.
Several friends of mine are doing a blog tour and having to come up with 30 different articles and styles for 30 different blogs. Daunting, to be sure.
I'm glad I stopped by Helen. Been out of it the past couple of weeks with knee surgery and rehab. No fun.
Really great advice, Sia.
ReplyDeleteI have one knee that's been bothering me, and you made it scream just talking about knee surgery. I'm so glad you're feeling good enough to get back into the cyberworld.