Blog Tours

It’s Thursday and I’m still looking for input on what makes a great blog tour host (those people who have blogs and host author visits).

I hope I’m a good host, but, heck, who knows. No one’s spit on me yet.

Here are some of the things I do as a host:

1. If I have the book, I’ll read it ahead of time.
Sometimes the authors will send me the book – bless them.

2. I let the author decide whether he wants to do a post that he writes or a Q&A.
I do ask her to write about writing, since that’s what my blog is about and if it’s a Q&A, I try to ask questions about their books or their writing process or something related to the writing.

3. I ask the author to send me jpgs of herself and of her book covers.
I cut these down to the size needed for posting on the blog.

4. I ask the author to send me links and a bio.
I can embed the links in the post so people stopping by can get to the author’s site/blog/publisher’s page easily. And I use the bio to write intros and closings.

5. I don’t ask, but I do suggest, that the author do a giveaway, like a book or a t-shirt.
This draws in readers and makes the stop more fun for them. It’s also a plus for the author, since he can gather email addresses from those who enter the drawing.

6. Once the author sends me her post or the answers to my questions, I create four posts.

a. I do two posts that will go up the week before the actual visit (one for my newsletter, Doing It Write, and one for this blog). Each one is different; each one has its own intro and close. These are “promo” pieces to let readers know the author is coming to visit.

b. Then I do two more posts. One, a snippet from the actual post, for the newsletter that runs on the same day as the final post. And then the final, full, post on the blog which also includes the drawing and pictures. Each one of those has its own intro and wrap.

c. All four of these posts are put up on a website page for the author to review before publication.

7. The night before or the day of the visit, I drop a note announcing the visit to friends, family, listservs I belong to, anyone I can think of.

8. On the day of the visit, I post it on Straight From Hel.
Then I monitor the site during the day in case there are comments. Hopefully, the author is also monitoring and answering questions. I try to answer questions and respond to comments, as well.

9. The day after the post, if the author has asked, I send him/her stats for the day of their visit.

That’s what I do as a host. Here’s what I’m thinking of adding to my list:

10. If I can figure out how to add a clickable way for readers to go buy the author’s book, I would add that to the final post.

11. If I can find the time – and time is always in short supply – I would go do brief reviews of the author’s book on Amazon, GoodReads, and other places. I admit I feel compelled to do this more for the authors who send me their book, but there’s no guarantee on what I would say.

Okay, all you authors out there who do blog tours and blogger who host authors, what am I missing? I’m still compiling information for the survey I talked about on Monday.