There are book tour companies, so firms that “tour” a book on a particular schedule and then there are firms that pitch your book to bloggers, typically as part of a multi-faceted approach, but which one of these is included in our list of the best book marketing strategies?
Some tips for what works and what doesn’t are listed below – but keep in mind this is just a taste of what we covered on the podcast – so be sure to listen to the full episode for all our tips!
How AME Approaches Blog Tours
We actually approach this with a couple different strategies. We pitch bloggers directly, and then we have another strategy where readers go and participate in conversations on book blogs to recommend our authors and/or their books. We don’t do a calendar with a pre-set schedule of content.
Is there a benefit to having tour dates?
We think readers are too savvy for that anymore. Typically the biggest problem we see with calendar-led blog tours is that they’re really contrived and while yes, content is dedicated to the book, it’s usually not an actual recommendation or honest review. So it’s like a creative ad, and we don’t often list display ads as one of the best book marketing options for the majority of authors.
Why Typical Blog Tours Don’t Work
A lot of blogs that participate in what most people think of as blog tours are in existence just for that purpose, for featuring pre-determined content or features about a book. So yes, you get content out there, but whether or not these blogs are followed by a lot of real readers looking for recommendations really comes into question.
The book bloggers that are really dedicated to reading and reviewing books are going to be a lot harder to reach and get a yes from, but it’s usually very much worth your while.
What We Know Does Work
So you want book exposure because the more impressions a book has, the more books you’ll sell – in theory – but it needs to be the right kind of exposure which is why if you’re pitching bloggers it’s good to follow some standard rules.
A blogger that has specific review query guidelines, that’s a good sign!
This is someone who takes their role seriously, and likely because they have a following they want to continue to cater to and impress with good, honest content.
You want to get a yes from bloggers who have boundaries and rules – that’s the goal.
The Takeaway for Blog Tours
You can spend the bulk of your marketing investment on a traditional blog tour because the numbers sound impressive – wow my book will be featured on 20 blogs!
But does it end there? Are these blogs being followed by real readers? Are the blog owners real thought leaders or do they just have a pretty site to make money?
We’ve talked about this before, throwing money at something to avoid doing the real work and the real research rarely works out well, and the best book marketing strategies really do take some clever planning and prep – but they pay off.
Remember, check out our book marketing podcast to get all the tips and recommendations we covered for this topic!
Resources and Free Downloads
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