Since I have started organizing these tours I always send an email to both the author and the bloggers after the tours end asking for and ideas to make these tours better.
Here are some of the ideas I have received.
- Check and Double Check the Name of The Book and the Author’s name. Just recently I reviewed a book by Leigh Perry and my brain had me type Leigh Kelly. The author was quick to let me know I messed up.
- Be sure to include a picture of the book and buy links in your post. Both can be copied and pasted from the tour page or in most cases the email announcement you receive about the tour.
- Schedule your tour posts for 12:01 a.m. or early in the morning if you can so that people on the East Coast and beyond can wake up and see your post right when they sign in and go to your blog.
- Remember Authors promote the tour too. Most have sent the schedules to their publicists and posted it on the blogs and webpages. They promote on Facebook and Twitter. This gives your blog great exposure. But if they click the link to go to your blog and the book they are not looking for it not there they will be disappointed and leave and most likely will not return to see if it is up later.
- If there is an emergency that takes you away from the computer making it impossible for you to post the authors and I completely understand. Your health and your family come first. When you are able just drop me a quick email to let me know. These tours are important but I am like an old mother hen and I just want to know if you are o.k. A blog going without posts for a while and no emails from you is scary and with all the mysteries we read I always get worried.
- If your computer goes down, (I can truly relate) and you are unable to post on your assigned day. Just let me know as soon as you can. It is easier to explain to an author why the post they expected to see and had promoted is not there if I know the issue. Not posting without an explanation is what the authors get upset about.
- Try to remember that authors and publicists may be looking at your reviews to grab a quote for book praise pages and maybe even book covers or to highlight on the author’s web pages. I also grab a quote to add to the tour pages and when I promote your tour stop.
- Be honest, but tactful in your reviews. Don’t just tell us about the story but tell us why you liked the book. Give constructive criticism if there was something you didn’t like.
- When writing a review always double check your grammar and spelling. Words like “their” and “there” and “bear” and “bare” and more always seem to be tripping points.
- Please remember that if you are reviewing the book as part of a tour that it is a promotional If your review is negative (less than 3 stars) please contact me about getting content to replace your review on the tour. You are welcome to post your review outside the tour. If you aren’t comfortable posting content for the tour, I can remove you from the tour schedule (please give me some warning if possible).
- A “good” review, doesn’t mean claiming to love a book that you didn’t enjoy. Above all, we are looking for your honest opinions. By “good” review, we mean one that expresses your thoughts about what you’ve read.
- PLEASE don’t submit a review that is nothing more than a plot summary. The major book websites include a summary as part of each book’s listing. While you are welcome to include a brief description of what the book is about, omit the detailed play-by-play of the storyline.
- Instead, focus on any aspects of the story that appealed to you. Did you love the author’s detailed descriptions of the setting? Did they make you feel like you were really there? Did you enjoy the theme of the book (crafts, museums, tea, cats, books, etc.)? Did you try any of the included recipes? Were the characters well-written, intriguing, and believable? Did the plot make sense and keep you guessing until the end?
- Share your personal thoughts…your goal is to provide the potential reader with something they can’t learn from reading the Amazon blurb.
- If after receiving the book you find it isn’t your “cup of tea” let me know and we can change your stop from a review post to a spotlight. While you may not enjoy the book your followers may. A spotlight keeps the date filled and the tour going. This is better than not posting anything at all and having a missed stop with no explanation.
- Be sure to post your reviews on other sites – most authors prefer Amazon, Barnes and Noble and GoodReads. (NetGalley if the book is from there.) It is easy to do and only takes a few minutes of your time. If you have other places you post your reviews, please share them with me so I can share them with this group.
- Maintain an active blog or website with quality content – I am more concerned with the quality of writing you put out over how many followers you have.
- Share you blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other Social Media spots. In most cases this can be easily set up right from your blog so that your posts are automatically shared.
- Remember to send me your giveaway winners when your contests end on a timely basis. I usually collect them and send them to the author in a group so they can make just one trip to the post office. But I don’t want to the winners to wait too long so I generally send the authors an e-mail once a week. I have received a few notifications a month or more after the tour has ended. If your giveaway is going to run for weeks after the tour has ended please let me know so I can inform the author. Publicists and authors usually feel that they have received all the winners a month after the tour and give books remaining away in other giveaways or book signings. I do try to send out one last email requesting winner’s info before I close out a tour.
Luann at Back Porchervations shared with me a blog post she found about why bloggers should join book tours. You may want to check it out.
Here is the link: http://www.njkinnysblog.com/2015/08/blogging-101-top-reasons-why-bloggers.html
I hope these tips will help all of us as we make Great Escapes Book Tours better and better. As you can see with all the tours in the word is getting out about us and our tours. Authors are referring other authors and they are telling their publicists as well sending even more authors our way. Cozy authors love interacting with their readers and our tours help them do that.
If you have any tips or ideas to make these tours better just send me an email and I will share it with the group. I also have a tip sheet for authors touring with us so if you have any ideas please send those as well.
I appreciate having all of you helping me to organize and run these tours. These tours are a lot of work and juggling them and getting everything emailed and ready can be stressful at times but 99% of the time I love what I do but I know I couldn’t do it without YOU!
Thank you for being part of Great Escapes Book Tours!!
