The Successful Blog Tour: Doing It!

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photo: Drew Coffman, creative commons license

Authors often take part in a blog tour to promote their new books. Yesterday guest poster F.M. Meredith described the planning stage; today, she describes what happens after you hit the “send” button. She starts with a piece of advice that will bring painful memories to many of us, me included!

Be sure to proofread each one of your blog posts before you send it to the blog host. Send it ahead of time with a mention of the date it’s supposed to appear, and ask the host to let you know whether they received everything.

Your work is not done once you have the tour set up and your posts on their way. You’ll want to make sure the post is up on the prearranged date. Sometimes there are problems. Though most blog hosts set up the post ahead of time to appear on the right day, one or two might not. Send a polite email reminder.

Every day of your tour, you must promote the blog you’ll be visiting. Send announcements to your friends, the lists that you’re on, and to all your social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Facebook groups, etc.

Visit the blog and leave a thank-you. A few times during the day, check and see whether anyone has left a comment, and thank each one for visiting. If someone asks a question, be sure to answer it. This is important. It will make the difference if you ever want to do another guest spot on that particular blog. If you’re having a contest, keep track of commenters’ names and how many times they leave comments.

Does a Blog Tour Work?

I’m sure your biggest question is, does a blog tour work? If you mean, does it result in sales, it’s kind of hard to determine, but I do know whenever I’ve been on a tour, my sales ranking on Amazon has improved—which is a good thing.

One last remark about blog tours, I think they are fun. To me, it’s a challenge to come up with new topics to write about for each blog. I also love going back to see who has visited. And remember, for all those who leave comments, there are many, many more who merely read the blog and didn’t write anything.

Blog tours are another way to get your name and information about your book in front of the public. And isn’t that what we are all trying to do?

The most recent novels of guest blogger—and blog tour maven—F.M. aka Marilyn Meredith, are Unresolved, thirteenth in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, and Seldom Traveled, sixteenth in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series. Find her at http://fictionforyou.com or http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com.

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