Is a Blog Tour Worth It?

Last month I did a blog tour with Pump Up Your Book. This is the sort of thing that you could arrange yourself, contacting book bloggers and asking them for reviews. I was daunted by the time involved and opted to pay for a tour instead. There are different levels of tours that come with different price tags. I chose the $199 version.

Here's How It Works: You provide the tour company (in my case, Pump Up Your Book) with your cover art, first chapter, bio, media links, and maybe a short interview or guest blog. The more expensive, longer tours will require more posts and information. You are then given a tour page and schedule. Here's mine. As you can see, the tour ran from April 7th to 30th with links each day to the site where my work was featured. To get the most out of the tour, each day you see where you are featured and share the link through your various social media outlets.

The Good: 

• Most of the reviews were positive and some of the bloggers go the extra mile to post their reviews on Amazon, not just on their own site. 
• Pump Up Your Book made some phenomenal ad graphics that went out on Twitter during the tour. 
• Internet buzz, meaning increased mentions of my name and book titles, translates to better internet rankings for both my books and my site. 

The Not-So-Good:

• That buzz doesn't necessarily translate to an increase in sales. 
• Some tour stops are identical, meaning on Thursday, a blog features my bio, cover and synopsis. Then on Friday, a different blog features my bio, cover and synopsis. It's hard to promote these stops to followers if you're showing them the same thing you showed them yesterday.
• Some (but not all) of the blogs (ie tour stops) are very amateurish sites which make you question whether you really want them to "feature" you.

So, the big question... was it worth it? Yes. I gained genuine fans along the way, a few critical and insightful reviews, and I'm a firm believer in trying everything (when it comes to marketing) at least once. Will I do it again? Probably not, but PUYB was fun to work with and I'm glad I had the experience.

Guest Post at Lori's Reading Corner

As part of my recent blog tour, I wrote a guest post for Lori's Reading Corner which you can read HERE. It's about banning bullies from the page and the evolution of humor in writing. Because if you haven't heard, bullies are no longer the in thing. If you write humor, I hope you'll take a look and share your thoughts.

In my next blog I'm going to recap the blog tour from the writer's perspective. Was it worth it? Did it translate to sales? Let me crunch some numbers and I'll report back. In the meantime, don't forget to wish your mom a Happy Mother's Day!

Trips Down Imagination Road

As part of my blog tour, Sylvie and the Spark was recently reviewed by Trips Down Imagination Road. Here's what they had to say:

I received a copy of Sylvie and the Spark in exchange for my review.

Sylvie broke up with her boyfriend Dave because there was no real spark between them outside of the bedroom. Shortly after a pair of twins move into the hall opposite, though Brent and Jonathon couldn't be more different. At first Sylvie goes for Brent, classically handsome and seemingly interested, though it turned out to not just be in her. Slowly she gets to know Jonathon and discovers that the brother she should be with was right there all along.

Sylvie and the Spark is a novella that captures the every day love life of Sylvie, and it is every day, which is what I loved about it. Firstly there was her mediocre relationship, then the perfect one that wasn't perfect, and finally the one that should have been all along.

It wasn't just Sylvie's relationships that worked on an every day (and awesome level). She works at a diner, because she wants to (something that I can most definitely relate to!), and her relationships with her mother and co-workers all seemed like normal interactions. To be honest it was refreshing to have such a normal heroine as opposed to the perfect girl who has the perfect life.

Also the author got the awkwardness of first time sex with a new partner spot on. A lot of books have the smoothest run up to sex every time, even if it is the character's first time. But in Sylvie and the Spark there's the awkwardness of having a new partner, and yet with a realistic way of it working.

There were funny moments in this book, oh my God moments and all out sass, everything that makes a good and realistic romance! 

Blog Tour Coming Soon

I’m gearing up for a blog tour. This is a way for indie authors to get the word out about their work. You prey on the generosity of book bloggers, those dedicated readers and reviewers to whom many of us owe our success.

A blog tour involves getting the attention of bloggers to gain greater exposure through their sites. Hopefully, those bloggers specialize in the genre in which you write. A writer or publisher will also offer giveaways during the blog tour. Any writer can set up a blog tour on her own by doing a little research of blogs relevant to her work. You can also hire a company that specializes in this type of PR.

A blog tour for Sylvie and the Spark will take place in March or April. If you have an erotic blog and would like a review copy, please email me at giannadaybooks@gmail.com.

Happy blogging, happy reading. 

Reviews Rule the World

It’s true. And I think it’s for the better. Because that’s the culture of commerce we now live in, it can be hard to get a new product or voice off the ground. So, I’m asking for help. I would love to provide free content of my work to ten people who agree to give it an honest review. If you can carve out a few minutes of your day, please, help a girl out.

I’ll send you a pdf of Sylvie and the Spark. Take a look (it's short, a novella around 27K) and review it on Amazon. I’m only asking for honest, genuine feedback. Here’s the catch, Sylvie is an erotic comedy, so you have to be okay with a few graphic scenes and four-letter words. If that sounds like your kind of pleasure reading, please email me at giannadaybooks@gmail.com. If you write something along similar lines, I’d be happy to provide an honest review of your work, as well.