Tuesday Tools: Book Blog Tours

My lazy side is debating if I should just give you a list of Book Blog Tour Companies to go explore, but, I might first want to explain what a book blog tour is, does and does not do for you as an author.

ATOMR explains best what a Book Blog Tour is..."a virtual tour to help an author promote their book without traveling."

The Book Publicity Blog goes into depth as to how a BBT works, but I'll give you the elevator pitch: BBT's are a group of book enthusiasts that blog about your book.

A good BBT will guide you as to what to expect, and half the time, you should expect to work, pay or both. 

So that's what a BBT is, let's read about what a BBT does:
They
- schedule hosts of blogs
- distribute to those hosts
- mediate between author and blog host

Sounds easy, right! Well, scheduling your book tour is like herding cats. So many things can go wrong. Many BBT's do it for the love of books. If you don't believe me, search "book blogs" contact those people, get them to agree to host a guest post on a certain day and make sure you give them what they need and followup with them.

What a BBT does not do for you:
- Guarantee sales
- Guarantee your book will become a NY best seller

ACTION ITEM: There are some great companies out there that really do it for the love of books. Prices range wildly--like from $5 - $700 so make sure you read about everything they give you. Most are very thoughough and give you a check list and instructions as to what to do. Granted you have to know what a guest post is, what an excerpt is and it helps if you are prepared for interview questions to answer, but otherwise, they walk you through their system. The first one is overwhelming, but once you've done it once, it's just the time in writing the posts!

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