Crimson & Cream Blog Tour, with bonus DIY Tips!

As you may know, I released a second edition of Crimson & Cream last week and also kicked off a blog tour in conjunction with the e-book launch. If you somehow avoided my deluge of gratuitous self-promotion thus far, Crimson & Cream is a classic swords and sorcery coming-of-age adventure set in a traditional fantasy world.

This is where you can find me on the interwebs the rest of the month:
Now, as promised, my simple tips for blog hopping (from a rank amateur, admittedly):
  • Plan in Advance - Two months before your target date is not too early. Blog spaces fill up quickly. If you don't give yourself enough time to pull everything together, you've painted yourself into a corner before your tour is off the ground. Not the way you want to start.
  • Consider a Blog Tour Service - Most of these services are fee-charging, since they are doing the work of contacting and scheduling instead of you. Shop around--make sure the service you select has a track record of successful tours, has bloggers that cater to your genre, and has prices within your budget. If you do it yourself, study other blog tours for books in your genre and solicit the blogs that impress you with their presentation and readership.
  • Prepare your Materials - At a minimum, have the following polished and ready to e-mail to bloggers: book cover image, author bio, book blurb/summary, author photo image, a selection of book excerpts (vary the lengths, as some blogs have word count limits), a collection of your internet links (social media pages, your website, blog, sites where your book can be purchased, and your author pages - Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, etc.), and giveaway information (Smashwords coupon codes, KDP select days, etc.).
  • Get Organized - Keep track of what you send and who you send it to. The requests for promotional materials and guest posts will add up quickly. Don't lose a blog opportunity because an e-mail got lost in the shuffle or you missed a deadline. 
  • Follow-up - Don't just e-mail your promo materials and then forget about it. Follow up with your blog tour promoter and bloggers. Ask if all of the attachments worked for them. Ask if they need anything else. Offer to do an interview, guest post, or other feature they may be interested in hosting. Thank them. 
  • Co-Promote - Bloggers love readers, too. Don't leave all the promotional work up to them. Use all your social media platforms to co-promote their blogs on the days you're featured. It's a win-win.
  • Keep Track of Everyone for Next Time - This will make your next blog tour much easier. Seriously.
Did I forget anything? Do you have any questions? Please let me know. And go buy a copy of Crimson & Cream. I know you want to.

Comments

Post a Comment