The Next Blog Book Tours Class

We're having another one, and this one will include a few of my new blog book tours clients. Yes, I'm finally offering to arrange a few tours for authors. But more on the book genres I'm taking on later.

If you haven't taken a class on how to arrange your own blog book tour, now is the time to sign up. As always, it's without charge, and we start with critiquing and improving your own blogs which is where a good blog book tour begins. Sign up here:

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

You must give your name and book title so I know you're not a spammer - oh, gee, that would never happen in this world, right?

The doors open on July 3rd. Class starts July 5th. Be prepared to work hard!

First read The Quickest Blog Book Tour Guide Ever so you get a sense of what we'll be covering.

The Drill Sergeant is back!

Or maybe I'll just be a cheerleader... we'll see how I feel after the holiday. :)

Blog Tips to Consider

Recently, in a discussion on the BBT Cafe group, I made this comment and felt it was worth sharing here:

I've probably spent more time in the last four years following blog book tours than about anyone else I can think of for the simple reason that I needed to do it in order to teach the classes. I know what a good blog tour is and I know what it takes to complete the ones that are well-crafted and might actually sell some books in the long run.

Two weaknesses in thinking that continue to persist among authors and publishers:

1. That your friends and fellow author blogs are good hosts. Yes, they can be especially if many of your friends are popular authors, but make sure they get at least 100 hits a day. 1,000 would be better. This one issue causes more ire than anything in the entire concept of blog book tours. You have to think in
business terms about this. It is not true that three interested people reading the blog are better than none. When you factor in the time it takes to just craft good blog posts, you might well spend the time doing something else - like writing your next book.

2. That Twitter and Facebook will magically drive readers to your blog for added content about your books and you. Patter on Twitter and Facebook all day long (and if you want people to see you, once a day doesn't cut it), but unless you leave enticements and meaningful links and actually get friends and followers to click, you're not marketing your book well. Simple as that. Your blog is still one of your most powerful marketing tools, but people have to be reading it.

So if you don't have a great blog and your friends blogs are just okay... you might be better off just paying someone who has a collection of good blog hosts to sponsor you on a blog book tour. The tour may not be as personal as if the author crafts it, but it will get more interested readers who might buy your title.

That said, prices for professional tours are all over the map. Before you spend money to have someone else put together a blog book tour for you, follow the tours of at least three services, get their prices for various packages, and by all means, get private referrals from other authors. Shop and compare and ask yourself these questions:

If you're paying $500 for ten blog spots, what are you really getting for that? The same canned book review at each blog? Or are you able to write your own varied blog posts for each host? Will the tour service work with you to design the tour you want for your book? These are just some of the questions to consider and get answers to before you spend any money.

News from BEA and why you should blog

I've long proclaimed that blogs are one of the cheapest and most effective ways for writers to stay in regular contact with their readers. It's one of your best promotion platforms. More and more, book publishing specialists agree with that view. This comment is from a recent Writers Market eletter:

One thing that seemed obvious this year (at BEA) is that publishers don't think it's a big deal if potential authors have a blog, but they do think it's a big deal if potential authors do not have a blog or e-mail list or some other direct reach to their target audience. If you want to publish a book, you need a great hook or idea, but it's becoming increasingly important to also have an audience—before the book deal.

It's important to have a good blog. That means posting several times a week. The more you post relevant information, the more readership you'll build as is demonstrated by another blog I've been spending lots of time building, the Blood-Red Pencil. It's a group blog with daily posts, and the growth of readership has been excellent, thanks to the quality of the information provided by our blogging members.

Stay tuned for some tips and inspiration to keep you blogging over the summer, and by the time you're ready for your next book promotion, you'll have a blog that supports your efforts in a dynamic way.

Blog Critiques

Before you choose blog hosts for your tour, you need a good blog of your own. Do you have one?

Here's the list of criteria that we consider in judging a good blog:

Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and url cohesive?
Consistency and clarity?
Loading speed?
Blogrolls?
Sitemeter?
Bookmarking in place?
Linking effective?
Quality of overall posts?
Comments section working?
Too many/too few gadgets?
What's great?
What can be improved?
Is it ready for a blog tour?

Look at your own blog with those aspects in mind. Is there anything on your blog that could use improvement?

Promotion Strength

When you're promoting your new book online, you must gauge the strength of your promotions in a realistic way. Hoping that readers will notice you is not enough.

I may be repeating myself, but it bears repeating. You must have a good blog of your own on which you post relevant articles 2-3 times a week. You must then make noise about your new blog posts at social sites like Twitter and Facebook so you drive traffic to your blog. Your blog is then a good platform for launching a blog book tour or other online promotion. Check your statistics regularly - anything over 100 hits per day is okay. More is better.

I can hear you grumbling now. Stop that and just do the work.

Next, pick blog hosts for reviews or tour stops that mimic all that I've mentioned above. Even if a blog doesn't have a hit counter that you can see, there are clues to the popularity of the blog. Does the host post 2-3 times a week? How long has the blog been in existence? Is the host getting comments on a regular basis? Do they have Twitter and Facebook links, and when you go there, can you see they are promoting their own posts and driving traffic to the potential review of your book?

Finally, do all the blogs we're talking about have clear links and instructions to a sales point? It's astounding to me how many promotions don't have a buy button or a suggestion to the customer to purchase the title in review.

Next we'll talk about Twitter and Facebook and how to build your viewership at those sites. You need a serious fan club to sell your books, and you can't just sit around waiting for people to discover you. Following and (be)friending in a regular though non-aggressive way is the method you need to develop.

Royalty Statement Realities

Just picked up on Facebook and you'll likely see this post again. The author had the courage to talk real numbers about her NYTimes bestselling books. You can see the royalty statements and get a sense of the timeline in getting paid for book sales. It takes a long time for an author to get paid for sales, especially when there is little or no advance. I fully understand why authors have to write three books a year to make any kind of a living at writing. You'll also see why gauging the results of a blog book tour to actual sales is virtually impossible. Click here to read the article.

Bookmark the Genreality blog - there is lots of good writing information there. Today's post talks about the daily routine of writing.

The Numbers Game

It's all about numbers and how to read them - this is how you gauge the success of your book promotions. I'm not talking about your royalty statement and check, which is the final and ultimate success determiner. I'm talking about statistics. Here are a few you need to get to know:

Your blog's hit counter is important, because it measures who is visiting the very foundation of your blog book tour - your blog. There are several free counters you can use. I like Sitemeter, others use Statcounter, and still more swear by Google Analytics. Get into the habit of using your hit counter daily. Read the reports that each offers. Your first goal is to create a blog that gets at least 100 hits per day. Then you're set up to use your blog as a launching pad for your impending blog book tour. A hit counter is how you track your own progress when building your blog.

Also track your amazon rating, from the time the book is listed with them, throughout your tour, and for months after. The numbers are not accurate, but the change is what indicates whether your promotions are effective. For example, if your title rates in the top two million, but moves to a ranking of 57,000 during your blog book tour, clearly the tour is having an impact at least in the world of amazon. com. Try Title Z for an easy way to track your title's ranking.

Next, we'll talk about another statistic - the visitors at your host blogs, and why this is all-important to the success of your tour.