Do Blog Tours Sell Books?
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 9:48AM
So as most of you know, I've just wrapped up a blog tour for CRASH INTO YOU. It was roughly 35 stops and spanned about six weeks. It was fun...and freaking exhausting. Writing that many posts about that many different topics and answering comments all while keeping my own two blogs afloat, doing other promo stuff, and trying to draft a novel that's due soon was a bit overwhelming. And that was with hiring Goddess Fish Promotions to do the organizational piece of the blog tour for me--scheduling the stops, giving me the topics, and getting the posts to the right people. (They were fabulous, btw. Very affordable and there's no way I would've been able to manage it all without that help.)
But even with outside help, I found myself having writer's block both for posts and for my WIP. I felt like I was in the middle of a tornado and I couldn't quite get anything done well. (See last week's post on the 5 Emotional Stages of a Book Launch for more on that.) So now that it's over and I have two more titles to launch this year, I'm left asking the question--was all that work worth it? Is the amount of time the blog tour consumes proportionate to what you get out of it?
I honestly don't know. It obviously doesn't hurt, but it's hard to tell what has an impact on your sales and what doesn't. My gut instinct tells me a review on a book blog is worth much more than a guest post or interview on one. I mean, does hearing me talk about my writing journey or my family life compel new people to try my book?
I know for me as a reader, if I read a guest blog by an author it doesn't necessarily make me want to buy their book. It may expose me to a book I haven't heard of and if it's something I might like, I may buy. But if the book had been reviewed instead of the author interviewed, it would have the same effect--exposure.
Also, as an author, you spend time promoting your blog tour--tweeting posts, linking from your own blog, etc. But that's preaching to the choir. Y'all know me. Y'all know my book. If you haven't bought it already, a guest post somewhere else probably won't compel you to change your mind.
The same goes for blog tour giveaways in my opinion. We're so bombarded with "Free book!" and "Win!" now that it becomes white noise. Yes, there are some people who click and enter every giveaway, but those are often people who aren't going to buy your book if they don't win. They just enjoy the chance to win. And if you give away your own book you're promoting, there are times when people will delay buying to see if they won. That delay could mean you lose the chance of them impulse buying and then you risk them forgetting to buy it when they don't win.
Perhaps I'm just being cynical. Maybe guest posting all across the known interwebs does sell books. But it's definitely hard to measure the ratio of time invested to book sales.
What are your thoughts? Do you think guest posts and interviews sell books? Or do you think a review has more impact? How do you feel about giveaways? What kind of post compels you to buy someone's book?
"Revved up and red-hot sexy, CRASH INTO YOU, delivers a riveting romance!" --Lorelei James, NY Times Bestselling author of the ROUGH RIDERS series
CRASH INTO YOU is now available!
Read an excerpt here.
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