Blog Tours are EVERYWHERE! The good Blog Tour organisers get booked up six months in advance AT LEAST, so, if you are a new writer and have your first book out, then make sure you organise yours AS SOON AS YOU HAVE A PUBLISHING DATE.

Over the last 3 years I have made a point of getting to know a good number of Book bloggers in all genres. As authors we NEED Bloggers – they sell our books for us.

If you are published by a mainstream publisher, they will usually arrange your blog tour for you. If, like me, you are with one of the newer smaller publishers you will have to arrange your own.  Do bear in mind, the good ones are professionals and there is a charge. It is up to you to decide if it’s a good return on the investment required. Personally, I think it is essential.

You CAN have a blog tour lasting up to a month, but there is a strong feeling among reviewers and bloggers that this is too long. You are putting the same story out day after day, and people get bored. The bloggers hope to expand their own readership through a blog tour, and in the third or fourth week of a tour, apparently very few people will “click through” and check out the blog of the day. My blog tour ran for a 5-day week, over Launch Day, and for that 5 days, Heart of Stone was ALL OVER both Twitter and Facebook.

Some people, when arranging their tours, try to specify “5* reviews only”. No tour organiser can guarantee that, and you do need to take the rough with the smooth. It is also part of YOUR learning experience. However, always bear in mind that a review is only ONE person’s opinion. My reviews ranged from 3 to 5 star, and mostly 5.  This post will have an addendum with the reviews and interviews I did. Enjoy them, I certainly did.

Your tour organiser will put together the best schedule she can for you. Some reviewers won’t be able to fit you in, but will give you a Shout-out. Some bloggers use an “Interview Format” Whatever they can arrange, TAKE IT! In this context, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Personally, whenever I do written interviews, I always try to avoid “cutting and pasting” the same old stuff. Try and keep it fresh. I suppose, like most things, the more you put in, the more you get out.

My blog tour faced one or two additional challenges. As a first-time author, from a small publishing house that publishes across most genres, some bloggers and reviewers were reluctant to commit to reading a book they might not enjoy. Many others were unbelievably booked up and had NO room in their schedule to read ANY additional books. Also remember, if someone is bringing out, say, a Mills and Boon type of romance, (a “category romance”) the bloggers know what they are going to get and how quickly they can read it. They also know the publishing house may be looking for ANOTHER tour in a month’s time. Such is the nature of the beast.

Suffice it to say that I am very appreciative of the Bloggers and Reviewers who wrote about, reviewed or otherwise promoted Heart of Stone, and especially so to Debbie who masterminded it all for me.

Now it’s on to the next book.

Note: I’m going to put an addendum up to this post with the Reviews, Shout-outs and Interviews I did for my tour.

And now for some links and hashtags!

My publisher: Crooked Cat Books, Crooked Cat on Facebook and on Twitter

Heart of Stone on Amazon

And my Blogger Hosts

Brook Cottage Books   

The Blonde Plotters

Vanessa Couchman

Books in my Handbag Blog

Jo Lambert @ Brook Cottage Books

Jennifer C. Wilson Historical Fiction With Spirit

Rhoda Baxter

Being Anne

Between the Lines

Linda’s Book Bag

Hywella Lyn 

#histfic #crookedcat #fiction #historicalfiction #historicalromance #ireland #romance