Blog Tour – Services

Back in the day, when a new book came out the author went on a multi-city book tour. That is no longer financially feasible for most new (or even mid-list) authors. Now, we have blog tours. A blog tour is virtual tour where an author promotes their book on many different blogs. Book promotions companies charge $150 to $500 for a blog tour. When it came time to promote my debut novel, The Land Uncharted, I wanted to see if I could organize a blog tour myself. Here is what I learned:

It Takes Time

I visited countless blogs to try to determine whether or not they might like my book. If it looked like we had similar tastes, I’d note our commonality, read some of their reviews, and maybe subscribe to their blog.

It’s Like Querying

Just like literary agents, book bloggers are intelligent, book-loving professionals and the gatekeepers of their world. I drafted a personal email to each blogger, mentioning our commonality, telling a little (one-sentence synopsis) about my book, and asking if they would like to review it for their blog. I followed that with the book’s description, cover image, publication details, and available ARC formats, and thanked them for their consideration.

Have A Media Kit Ready

When the blogger said yes, I promptly replied with the ebook ARC (or ask for their mailing address if they want a physical copy) and my media kit. A media kit should include the book’s cover image, description, publication details, and preorder/buy links, and the author photo, short bio, and social media links.

Be Ready To Promote The Blog Posts

I provided the book for review and the blogger provided free advertising for my book, but that wasn’t the end of the deal. I wanted to develop long-term relationships as I’m currently writing my 4th book and this blog tour was for my 1st book, so I put every blog date on my calendar and was ready to tweet, share, Google+, etc. when the post went live. This drives more traffic to the blog and affirms the blogger’s worth.

Don’t Expect A Blog Tour To Immediately Convert To Sales

A blog tour is about exposure. Yes, book bloggers are influencers and I noticed a slight jump in sales after certain posts, but in general, a blog tour is about exposure.

My experience setting up a blog tour:

My cost: $0 but about 15 hours of my time

What I got: 60 blog posts about my book, potential exposure to approx. 8,000 blog subscribers, and a few immediate book sales.

Bottom line: worth the effort.

About The Author

Keely Brooke Keith, author of the Uncharted series, is a bass guitarist and resides on a hilltop south of Nashville with her husband, Marty, and their daughter, Rachel.

Keely’s debut novel, The Land Uncharted, is available at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

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