Monday, April 9, 2012

Back to Business: THOUGHTS ON BLOG TOURS

May I begin by saying that I love blogging. 
I LOVE BLOG TOURS.
I love connecting with book bloggers who are so passionate about the YA genre.  I love getting to answer questions about my craft, my characters, my chocolate-versus-chips preferences. I love winning swag :)

However, of late I've spoken with several authors who are having difficulty setting up blog tours. Some bloggers who used to set up tours are so booked they're no longer adding titles to their roster. And so many blogger/reviewers (myself included) are overwhelmed with arcs, debut and otherwise.

Don't get me wrong. There's great fun to be had at  GReads (check out her fantabulous Blogger-Behind-the-Book and TGIF features), at Chick Loves Lit (luurve the Fun Five Interviews), at Novel Novice (projects and features galore plus great content for educators), and many more incredible sites.

But I'm just wondering if anyone out there has any thoughts on blog tours of late in terms of theme, duration, giveaways, who coordinates them, how to do the best work for your publisher, and so on.

Please share your thoughts.

4 comments:

JEM said...

Very interesting post. I'm not to the blog tour stage of my writing yet (fingers crossed one day maybe!), but blogging in general is an interesting topic for me. It's got great potential as an online community if you know how to explore it, but it can also be easy to get lost in the sea of voices/books out there. It gets hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I haven't seen the sites you mentioned, though, so I'm excited to check them out. I always love discovering new ways to find great reads. Thanks!

Jennifer Wolf said...

Started my blog tour today. I guess I was lucky to get in on one. I'll let you know how it goes...

Rachel said...

Hi, I just joined my first blog tour a few days ago so I'm not sure how well this comment will help, but here some thoughts i have.
I really enjoy reading blog tours because they provide interviews and ton's of information on coming books. A few weeks ago, I found the amazing YA scavenger hunt that helped me discover new books. I absolutely loved it.
I think the best way to work with the coordinator is to plan at least two in advance, ask necessary questions and have fun.

I love hearing food preferences too!
I prefer chocolate to chips! What do you prefer?

Stasia said...

JEM-I, too, am fascinated by blogging as an activity, a promotional exercise and a way to build community. Thanks for sharing your comment.
JEN - GOOD LUCK! Can't wait to hang with you at the library in a few weeks.
RACHEL-I'm in your camp. Chocolate. Absolutely no contest :)