As a new book blogger or even a seasoned book blogger, you probably get emails all the time from authors and/or publishing companies wanting you to read their book or join one of their blog tours. At first this sounds amazing, each blurb sounds great and you happily agree to read & review that book. The next day you do the same & before you know it you’ve agreed to reading more books than you could ever finish.
Have you ever had someone angry with you when you’ve agreed to help them voluntarily out of your own time? Have you ever felt you had to read a book because you agreed to reading it a while back rather than getting on with the book you are already reading or want to read?
What is a Blog Tour?
A Virtual Blog Tour is similar to a bricks & motor book tour where an author stops at various blogs/facebook pages over a certain period of time (usually 1-3 weeks). A blog tour is not only usually reviews, there are many other options a blogger can choose to post without necessarily having to have read the book.
Other options include:
- Author Q&A
- Excerpt
- Promo Post/Blast
- Author profile
- Musical Soundtrack
- Trailer/Music Video/Character Casting and pretty much anything you can think of.
Why I DON’T do Blog Tours
- Broken Images – have just spent the last few days going through old blog posts that I may have done a blog tour for and fixing up those posts. Those images the blog tour companies supply? Unless you’ve added it to your own website, forget it, it’s gone 6 months later.
- Broken Links –
- Pressure to read (not pleasure to read)
- Tight deadlines for posting – For a while there back in 2013 – 2014 I was joining so many blog tours I had to hire an assistant as well and keep a full diary. It was crazy. Even though you agree to post on a certain day (normally about 1-2 months away) that day just creeps up on you like there is no tomorrow.
- Readers can tell if you just copy/paste blog tour code.
- Google can tell if you’ve copied and pasted blog tour code and you lose ranking.
- My big thing at the moment is audio books. I read probably double or more in audio format rather than ebook or paperback. If there is no audio optionthen it will be harder for me to join at this stage.
Why I DO Blog Tours
- Special graphics & links
- Meet amazing authors
- Can check out other blogs on the tour
- Free Book
- Sponsored contests for readers
So what I’m saying is that while these days I probably do 1 blog tour every 2 months or so, I mainly choose a book that is already available because once it’s available, I want to read it. Yes, I have a TBR pile a mile long but it’s like a living organism, always changing based on mood mainly.
Some tips to manage your reading life:
- If you don’t love the blurb don’t sign up for the tour. The blurb should grab you right away.
- When signing up for a blog tour make sure you can commit, if you can’t, don’t sign up.
- If the book really grabs you but you don’t have enough time to comitt to reading, try an author Q&A or Book Excerpt instead.
If you are an author and/or publishing company and you have a blog tour coming up. Leave your details or signup form in the comments and we can all consider joining your tour!
More Books about Blog Tours
