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Named to "Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites," this #SharingwithWriters blog is a way to connect with my readers and fellow writers, a way to give the teaching genes that populate my DNA free rein. Please join the conversation using the very tiny "comment" link. For those interested in editing and grammar, go to http://thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Gillian Felix Shares Top 10 Things Learned from Do-It-Yourself Book Tour

I’ve been doing my own modified online book tour for the release of the second edition of The Frugal Editor and was intrigued by Twitter Pal’s mentions on what she’s learned about the process.  Hope you enjoy it!

 
Top 10 things I’ve learned from arranging my own blog tour
 By Gillian Felix


I guess I should start by introducing myself. Hello everybody my name is Gillian Felix and I am a citizen of the world, daughter, big sister, entrepreneur, and author of 2 novels; Changes and The Banovic Siblings, both make up the Family Portrait series of novels.

 
I published Changes back in October of 2013 and The Banovic Siblings on December 3, 2013. As you can see I am new to this business, and I’m sure if you ask me ten years from now, I’ll still say I’m new to the business because I am learning new things everyday.

 
What I’m about to share with you are things that I have learned from putting together 2 book blitzes and my current full blog tour.


  1. Research your prospects. Before sending out a query to a blogger, be sure to check their review policies. Some may not be accepting reviews or tours at the moment. Bloggers have lives outside of the internet and sometimes they need to catch up. Also make sure their blog is suitable for your book. If they mostly post erotica, it makes no sense if you send them a query for a self help non-fiction book, unless they state that they are open to that in their policy.
 
  1. Addressing your query letter. In your query letter I suggest addressing the blogger by name. I usually tailor my letter to the individual blogger. By learning who your prospect is you can find common ground, that blogger may even turn into a reader or friend. I’ve developed friendships with a lot of bloggers based on common interest. I’ve had many instances where a blogger didn’t have time during my tour to read my book, contact me to read it after the tour.

  1. Be flexible. If you are putting together your own tour you have the option of tailoring the dates of your tour. That is a HUGE advantage over doing it through a tour company. Sometimes a blogger may be booked and cannot do it on your dates, in that case, give them to option of scheduling it at a later date. I’d rather have a blog post months after my tour have ended, than not at all (think about the benefits of that for a moment) ;-)

  1. Give smaller blogs a chance. The thing that I have found with large blogs is that they host multiple tours a day. They have a bigger audience BUT your post will get lost in the shuffle. With smaller blogs you have a better chance of being the top post for a longer time. To me smaller blogs are niche marketing opportunities.

  1. Time and work. Understand that hosting your own tour takes a lot of time and is a lot of work. If you don’t have the time to plan your blog tour, I suggest hiring a tour company. If you have the time, begin planning your tour at least a month in advance (I’ve already started planning my tour for my third book).

  1. Be organized. I use Excel to create a spreadsheet of all the bloggers who participate in my tour. The first time you do a tour it is the hardest and takes the most time because of all the research. It gets much easier as you do more tours; I’ve used some of the same bloggers from my blitzes for the tour. Some bloggers have asked to be included in my next tour. To me that’s equivalent to a 5 star review!

  1. Make it easy for bloggers. Make it as easy as possible for bloggers to sign up for your tour. I’ve started using Google forms and embedding it into my email to potential bloggers. Google wonderfully compiles the signups in a handy dandy spreadsheet which can be incorporated into Excel. This saves so much time!

  1. Be prepared. Prepare all your materials before hand, (hence point 5). Some of the materials that you will need are guest posts, jpgs, a banner, biography and anything else you want to include. If you are doing a review tour, have your manuscript converted into 3 formats: .pdf, .mobi, .epub.

  1. Links. Do not forget to include all your links; purchase, newsletters, blog etc. I also hosts tours on my site, and you will not believe how many authors send me their post info without the all important PURCHASE link. It takes time to track down their book on Amazon (I’d rather be doing something else). It’s the same for bloggers.

  1. Drop box. Utilize drop box. It is free, easy to use and saves you the time of having to upload the same information over and over to different bloggers.

So there you have it. Top 10 things I’ve learned from putting together my own book tour. Like I said I am still learning and figuring out quicker and more efficient ways of doing things. My hope is that this information helps another person just like the many teachers on the web who have helped me. “When the student is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.” This rings true to me because I am always ready to learn and teachers have always appeared.

 
More about Gillian Felix:
Contact links:
Plain Talk Book Marketing blog: http://Plaintalkbm.com

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

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