Whether or not it will be your own job (or your publicist's) to set up a blog tour, the book will help you understand what to expect. In the first place, the author is a book blogger--therefore she's seen every author blunder first hand. From the cover copy:
Do you feel out of your comfort zone when dealing with book bloggers? They are the New Gatekeepers to book publishing success – but how can you tap into that source of free promotions by putting your best foot forward?
The Author’s Guide to Working with Book Bloggers combines the advice of 215 blogging professionals collected in a survey covering all aspects of communication between authors and Review Blogs. Whether you are a new author, or have many titles under your belt, let us demystify the promotion of your book on a book blog.
You’ll learn about whom and where book bloggers are, and the following:
The Query, The Review,The Giveaway,The Author Interview, The Guest Post, The Book Blurb Excerpt and Cover Reveals and more
When the author mentions 215 bloggers, she's not kidding. That's how many responded to the survey she put out. Their quotes add depth and useful examples to Drozdowich's no-nonsense how-to manual.
There is technical information here: the uses of Triberr, the various databases of book bloggers just waiting to be explored. Then there are the more philosophical topics. Chapter Three is all about the etiquette of interacting with bloggers. And etiquette is ever-shifting, lately. Auto DMs for new followers are passe, as the author points out. Also, she points out how tiresome Goodreads "events" invitations have become. (In short, hearing the politely stated pet peeves of a real life book blogger is darned useful.)
Chapter Four covers the query letter, and includes a perfect check list of all the info you need to provide a blogger in order for her / him to decide whether or not to cover your book. Even a seasoned self promoter will find useful tips here.
There are also guest post ideas, and lots of thoughtful advice about offering giveaways. Chapter Eleven helps authors understand and utilize a blog tour.
Yet it's Chapter Twelve which is worth the price of admission alone. The author asked the bloggers she surveyed, "if you could give an author one piece of advice about promoting their book, what would it be?" Hearing their thoughts and motivations is excessively helpful!
If you have a blog tour coming up, it's worth a couple hours of your time to devour this book. An Author's Guide to Working With Book Bloggers is available for Kindle, Nook and at other major eBook retailers.
Disclosure: I received an epub copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
This review first appeared on Blurb is a Verb, the book publicity blog.
Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.
2 comments:
Sounds like a great book. I always admire book bloggers because they do so much work on their blogs all for the love of books and they help authors so much.
So true, Natalie! And it *is* a lot of work.
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