Online Marketing Symposium (Creating Epic Blog Tours), a Bit of Romance, and a Fest!

I don't often talk about my writing journey, unless it's behind the scenes through personal emails to help other authors. BUT recently my debut novel, MOONLESS, was published, and as a part of that effort, I hosted an EPIC blog tour. I learned so much from it, and as knowledge is power, today I'd like to share that knowledge with all my wonderful writerly pals. (If you're not a writerly pal, feel free to jump down to the other bits at the end of this post.) 

HOW TO RUN A POWERFUL BOOK BLOG TOUR

I've heard chatter that blog tours are a waste of time. My blog tour was the single most successful advertising campaign to date with significant exposure, response, awareness, and visibility. Advantages of blog tours:

1. Getting the word out. You might think you've tired everyone's ears to death by screaming about your amazing future release, but you probably haven't even reached a tenth of the people in your circles. A year later people you know may be hearing it for the first time. From my experience, even people who are likely to buy your book will have to see/hear about it approximately 3 times before they make the investment.

2. SEO. The more links back to your site (especially on blogger or google+), the easier you are to find. This is a long term investment.

3. Sales. The reality is, for every 200 people you reach, you'll probably make 1 sale. BUT in a TARGETED blog tour, you are speaking to your soft audience. Some posts/locations were more effective for me, but typically I saw 3 to 5 purchases or adds on Goodreads per post. Remember, this is coming from a debut author who had no track record. Sales are easier when you have a track record. The high traffic blogs boosted that # to 10, and some gave me only 1. 

Now, there are a number of blog tour services out there. I haven't used one, but for reaching a wider audience, I think they can be a great resource. You're limited by your budget and their resources. Do your research. Find someone who SPECIALIZES in your genre and definitely price compare. Check out their other tours. BE IN THE KNOW. Typically they utilize between 20 and 40 stops, and those stops may not be high traffic locations. Do they take bloggers by volunteer, or do they have a long-standing roster of proven helpers? Do they tailor the tours to blogs that really hit your niche? 

I'm a bit of a control freak, plus I've got this amazing network of bloggies whom I LOVE to death, so what did I do? I organized my tour solo. But first, I did my... 

Homework. 

Study what has worked for others. There are a HUNDRED ways to launch a tour. Keep in mind, an effective tour is FUN for you, those who host you, and readers. Pick a theme. Get creative. Do something tailored directly to your book or writing. While you're brainstorming, let me give you some ideas.

Features. These depend on your theme. A warning. DO NOT PREPARE THE EXACT SAME FEATURE and then feed it to multiple people. You will have people who follow your entire tour and get ecstatic, even fanatical about your book. (Then they're even more likely to shout about it and start some word of mouth.) Every post should be unique.

• Everyone and their dog is willing to interview you--and while I love author interviews, my eyes glaze over after the second lengthy paragraph. In a world where tumblr, twitter and facebook rule, keep in mind attention spans are shrinking. SHORT interviews (we're talking 5 or less questions) and a really focused theme can be SUPER effective. See a couple amazing examples HERE.
• Character Interviews: Handle with caution. If you're an actor, you probably have this in the bag. These really have to be some of your most focused and creative writing. For these I suggest getting questions from beta readers, critique partners, and advanced reviewers who are already acquainted with your characters. (And don't be afraid to ask these people to host!) An effective interview looks something like THIS.
• Excerpts are powerful things. Readers loves stories. (That should be obvious, right?) Remember to keep them short: no more than 500 words and preferably less than 300 (or a single page of print). Before my tour, I selected 15 different excerpts and asked a number of people to read and rate them from most engaging to least. I did this for a couple reasons. 
• To figure out which were the best. 
• To get others excited along with me. From that original 15 we selected 8, and they are bits I use with confidence now in all promotions. 
• Reviews. I highly advise rounding up reviewers, but be sure you give them adequate notice. Two months was sufficient for some, but others require 6 months. If you're firm on your dates and you want REALLY HIGH TRAFFIC reviewers, I advise scheduling book blog reviewers 6 months out. (With a well timed reminder email. Or two.) How do you find these reviewers? There are online directories--just do a quick google search (and be sure to include your genre). 
• Guest Posts. Be careful on these. Remember the focus is to share your book. I did some top ten lists that were just great fun, but they didn't end up contributing much to my bottom line. THIS ONE did. (You'll see why.) Here's an example of a guest post that was VERY effective: Moonless in Clips.
• Games. Remember what I said about having fun? I hosted my Truth or Lie game across the blogosphere as well as a Mystery Sentence Game with hidden words in the excerpts. I've seen choose your own adventures, book blasts where the story continues in a chain of blogs, and so many others. This is where you get creative, but remember your readers have lives. If it's too invested, they're probably not going to play. Make it simple, quick and easy to be involved AND to share.

Giveaways. I suggest using Rafflecopter and posting an image of your prizes ABOVE the widget. A word on cash prizes... They're great and will attract a TON of attention (IF ADVERTISED RIGHT), but you really want to attract readers, not just people looking for handouts. Keep that in mind as you set reasonable amounts and offer more books/swag than cash. I suggest offering multiple prizes, and inviting other genre-centric authors to join your giveaway. Remember, they'll also help you spread the word. Also keep in mind, some potential buyers will hold off purchasing your book until the raffle ends. 

Length: I've seen tours done two ways: spread out over months (one feature a week), and run in succession (day after day for 3 days to a month). Remember marketing is a LONG TERM thing, so either one works. It comes down to how you are most comfortable. I asked for volunteers within a 3 week time frame and anticipated getting 20 to 30 people interested. I ended up with 63 stops in 18 days. Yup. Insanity. I could comfortably handle 3 posts a day, and I don't advise more than that in a single day unless you're doing a 1 day blast. Remember that as a guest, you are committing to getting the word out about each and every feature, as well as responding to comments. Be involved. It's etiquette. A word on signing people up: most bloggers will jump on board 1 to 3 months out. More than that and they're going to procrastinate making a commitment.  

Professionalism/organization. This attracts people. Remember how I said I ended up with 63 stops by passively mentioning my tour a couple places? Here's how I did it: 

Looks professional, right? It was an easy, pretty, sign up form and when people started raving about it, others stopped in to check it out and signed up. I admit, my techie did build this, but the investment was worth it. It's a form that with minor adjustments can be used again and again. I've seen other people use Google docs for sign ups. 

The biggest thing people complimented was my organization. After people signed up, I sent out an initial email with all the details of the tour, including options on different types of features and my ENTIRE media kit. If you'd like to see a copy of that email, I would be happy to share it. Just ask. In the email I set specific dates for interview questions to be sent.

I kept everything on a calendar and spreadsheet--who was hosting which feature and when, with a to-do list and deadlines. I pre-wrote several posts so I wasn't up against a deadline and tearing my hair out. One thing everyone appreciated was receiving the posts in html, so they could just cut and paste.

Communication. A week before the tour, I sent an email with the rafflecopter code and the tour schedule. Each morning of the tour I sent emails to the hosts for the following day, an opportunity to thank and remind them. 

Follow Up. At the tours' conclusion, there was another follow up email and thank you. It is nice to offer your hosts a gift for helping. I entered everyone in a raffle and gave away a few gift cards. With my rafflecopter entries, I sent people who didn't win a $1 coupon off the book on Smashwords. 

Things I would do differently next time: I would welcome volunteers, but target more blogs with high traffic and query them well in advance. Most people are flattered and more than willing to participate. The worst they can do is say no, and really, it's not a big deal if they do. I would arrange my sign up so that people can see the available dates and select from them. (Arranging them all myself was a bit of a headache.) I would pre-write tweets and facebook statuses to help announce each stop.   

And there you have it. The rest of the Symposium can be found below.

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For NON-writers, and a few writers who like romance...

It's a celebration of that little thing called love, and today I'm excited to share this little tid-bit with you from my WIP without a title that we call Faux. 

Sam looked down. “When I hit rock bottom, when things couldn’t get any worse, I decided you deserved to lose just as much as I had. I blamed you. It was the only way I could deal with them abandoning me.” Sad eyes turn on me. “I blamed you.”

I stared.

“So I came. I watched you, scheming about how to make you suffer. Finally I decided I had to meet you, to figure out what dagger I could twist in your back.” He reached for me.

I stood frozen, disgusted.

“The first time we talked, you made me laugh. I…” His eyes lowered. “I hadn’t done that since, well, I couldn’t even remember. Everything, all my plotting, I just…” His fingertip grazed mine and electrical warmth swam into my veins. He seized my hand. “We met every day after school. It was innocent. We’d catch butterflies, or swing at the park, or just talk. You showed me how to live, how to really live.” He brushed my hair behind my ear. “You gave me a reason to live.”

The rest of the hop is HERE.

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I'm STOKED to help reveal the cover for this wonderful New Adult novel by Kitsy Clare*:

Nice, right?

For Sienna, love and art are perilous games. Is she ready to take that gamble?

Sienna is a beautiful, talented artist poised on the precipice of soaring into the glamorous, yet cutthroat Manhattan art scene.

Dave Hightower is a hooked-up, handsome heir to the hippest gallery in NYC, Gallery Hightower.

Erik is the live drawing model with his sizzling green eyes fixed only on Sienna.

Three’s a crowd, so Sienna must make a choice: date Dave and ride the fast track to landing a show at Gallery Hightower and hobnobbing with the art glitterati, or follow her heart and take a chance with Erik, the stunning male model who’s stealing her heart. But Erik has some worrisome secrets, and who in their right mind would make live modeling their career?

Dare Sienna throw away her chances of hitting it big to follow her heart?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

When Kitsy Clare isn’t creating stories on her favorite Mac Air, she teaches speculative fiction and creative writing workshops. She also loves to draw, travel, read spicy romance, sci-fi and all kinds of thrillers. She divides her time between New York City and her studio in the Catskills, where she enjoys the sounds of birds, bullfrogs and the random coyote. 

*Kitsy Clare is the pen name for her new adult romance. She also writes young adult fiction using her real name, Catherine Stine. Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One won finalist spots in both YA and Science Fiction in the 2013 USA Book News International Book Awards. It was also granted an Indie Reader Approved notable stamp. Her YA Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book. Ruby’s Fire, the new companion novel to Fireseed One, is receiving high praise from reviewers. She’s a member of SFWA, SCBWI and CBIG. She can be found on www.catherinestine.com, www.catherinestine.blogspot.com, and https://twitter.com/crossoverwriter

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AND LASTLY, it's not too late to join the

Meet my AMAZING co-hosts: Pk Hrezo, Tammy Theriault, and Michael Di Gesu.

If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, who would you beg your parents to set you up with? (Literary characters and celebrities welcomed.) Who and why? Come tell us February 10th! Sign up below. Be sure to grab my button and post it on your blog, share it with everyone and let's make it a party!

What have you learned about blog tours?