Arranging a Blog Tour to Promote Your Book

Arranging a blog tour means sending your ebook or printed copies out to bloggers, who will then read the book and write up their review on their blog. Bloggers tend to be active on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to share their articles, which means your book will be much more visible on social media during your blog tour. And if you’ve never heard of a blog tour for books, we’re here to help - we’ve interviewed Anne Cater of Random Things to tell you more about how to arrange a blog tour and the benefits.

 When is the best time to do a book bloggers tour?

It’s great to run a blog tour in the week before your publication date to get some online publicity ahead of the launch event. By sending your book out to bloggers in advance, you’ll get their reviews and can include some of their testimonial words on your website and author pages. However, if you’ve already published then it’s not too late. You can still arrange a blog tour for a book that was published a while ago because the bloggers’ interest will increase the visibility of your book on social media.

How long is a blog tour?

Professional organisers will usually plan a blog tour from 7 up to 10 days - depending on how many bloggers accept the invitation to read your book and get involved. Each blogger is given a specific date for when they’ll write a piece about your book. If your book is in a popular genre, you could have a longer two-week blog tour, where you might get two reviews hitting social media per day. The bloggers will happily share their review, although you can’t specify the time, because it has to fit around their other commitments. 

How do you choose which bloggers to include in your tour?

As the author, you won’t be able to choose which bloggers accept the invite to do a review nor will you be able to see their review in advance. The bloggers will choose books they like the sound of - it’s part of their passion - to read books before they’re officially launched. Then once their blog is live, you’ll be able to see it and share it on social media.

Why get help: introductions into the book blogging community

When they first start writing, many authors aren’t aware of the blogging community. If you’re self-publishing a book, you’re busy working towards the publication date - but you’re also under pressure to start your marketing. Working with bloggers is a great way to get pre-and post-publication reviews for your book. However, there are thousands of bloggers worldwide and they all have different preferences for the type of content they like to read, write about and share. A service like Anne’s puts you in touch with hundreds of bloggers relevant to your genre, without having to build those relationships from scratch. Once you’re signed up with her, she will send out your book blurb to see who’s interested in providing a review for you. Anne has been part of the blogging community for around ten years with her own blog, building relationships across the world. When bloggers join Anne’s list, she asks them to choose their preferences, so she only sends them invites to review books they’ll be interested in.

Getting professional help to organise a blog tour also protects you when the bloggers don’t get on so well with a book. As Anne says, all the bloggers are aware that it’s a marketing tool, so they’re usually factual and positive. However, if they really don’t like a particular book or don’t want to post their review, Anne’s approach is to ask bloggers to get back in touch with her (as the blog tour organiser) and let her know. In these circumstances, they may work out an opportunity to provide different content for the blog instead of a review, such as an author interview or cover reveal article.

What are the costs of arranging a blog tour?

You must cover the postage costs of sending your books out to the bloggers, so you may want to offer a limited number of physical copies, sending the rest as ebooks. Plus the basic package for an arranged blog tour starts from ￡100 and includes a blog tour PDF poster; the fee is calculated based on the genre of the book and the likely number of bloggers or days involved. Crime and science fiction books are popular, so there are more bloggers to contact. To boost the visibility of your blog tour, you may also want to invest in some extra graphics for social media - Random Things charges an additional ￡25 for a support package that offers Facebook or Instagram visual posts and Tweet-sized images about the blog tour. The bloggers do the reviews for free; they do it because they’re passionate about the topic!

 Reviews received by SilverWood authors on blog tours

"Beautifully written and intricately plotted, Death Makes No Distinction continues this exciting historical series with another compelling murder mystery."

"A clever well-written mystery!"

"The real theme of this book is how your place in society can influence how justice works for you."

(For Death Makes No Distinction by Lucienne Boyce)

"Don’t be fooled into thinking that this novella is a light and breezy read. It’s a beautifully told story of childhood, friendship, love, betrayal, regret and murder and it packs a punch."

"Haunting and masterfully told. The characterisations are perfection, and the writing just wonderful. I had actual goosebumps as I read...will stay with me for quite some time."

(For The Birthday House by Jill Treseder)

"Imaginative and quirky. Full of humour and sexy moments. The vivid imagery gives you a good sense of place."

"Irreverent, original and steamy."

(For The Louise Fawley Symphony by Rikki Evans)

Want to know more?

For more information about how a blog tour could help you and your book, speak to us at SilverWood Books.

To contact us and discuss how we can help you to promote your book, get in touch here or take a look at our extra promotional services below.