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Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Timothy Fish — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:45:11 -0000

I have not tried a blog tour. I am able to monitor my book sales on a daily basis, so it would be possible to get a rough idea of the impact of a blog tour on book sales. That could be an interesting experiment. I think blog tours work, but I am uncertain how well they work.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Eve — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:13:09 -0000

LL, your first comment about not being "pushy" with our books intrigued me.

Our aim is not to promote ourselves in a "Hey, look at me!" fashion, but it is to promote our business-that of writing books and selling them. That's the way I look at it.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Jason — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:42:04 -0000

This has been an interesting thread to follow, seeing as I participate in both the CSFF and the CFBA blog tours, as well as Mary's tour.

As a participant, I can say that if I fall in love with a book, then I'm going to give it several mentions on my blog, as well as recommending it personally to people IRL. I would suggest that this phenomena is not unique to me in these blog tours, and that there is a lot of hidden benefit when this happens. I know that you are trying to find objective benefit, but I thought this was worth pointing out.

Occasionally I'll come across a book that I don't like. I can't deny that since I was sent the book for free, there's a little internal pressure to review it benignly, but I feel it is an integrity issue to be truthful. If someone comes to my blog, I want them to think that they're getting a fair assessment. I haven't seen negative blogging mentioned, but it is probably even harder to measure.

A recent book even incited me to cause it to be a little controversial. The CFBA did the book Illuminated, and I felt it was gratuitous in its violence and said so in my review. I even started a series on violence in the CBA off of it. For those who like gritty stuff, this may be a positive, but others who are squeamish may avoid it. It may be like the old Tootsie Roll Pop commercial - "the world will never know."

I'll be watching for more analysis. Thanks Marcus.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

L.L. Barkat — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:13:22 -0000

That's an interesting comment about loyalty to the genre. It suggests that attention to something larger than ourselves (our own personal works, books) can find a larger, more sympathetic audience. Now, how to apply that... hmmm.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Marcus — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:37:42 -0000

Becky, you are such a good blogger, coming over here to comment when I link to you. If you aren't charging anything, you might think that through a bit. It's a nice service and all, but at least take up a love offering or something! He said both tours had about the same effect.

Also, I agree that the Technorati page is a good tangible measurement for the uninitiated. I just worry that people may misunderstand what it measures.

More and more, I think these blog tours ought to include an additional social media tool like stumble upon or smartlinks. (Those might be really cool.)

Mary, and if the book sales don't spike, is the tour a failure?

spaghettipie, measuring word of mouth is elusive, but surely it can be done! I won't accept that it can't. I just won't. : )

L.L., you have to be true to yourself. Certainly, it doesn't bother me to do blog tours for others. Tina ran Mary's tour as friend to friend thing. That is one of the reasons Becky's CSFF tour is so good, I think. The loyalty to the genre supercedes any perceived schmooziness.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

L.L. Barkat — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:19:38 -0000

I. Just. Don't. Know. It doesn't really feel like something I'd be inclined to do. Because of the sense I think blog tours give. They feel too overt. (Is "pushy" too terrible to say?) Maybe if my publisher did something, but me personally... I'd rather that readers who truly love the book do their own things.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

spaghettipie — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:02:50 -0000

Of course, I find all of this extremely interesting (and will link to it on Blog Tour Spot). As we saw on Mary's tour, I think it was effective in creating some buzz and reaching new audiences. I know that even within my circle of influence - including people who do not have or read blogs - we talked about Mary's book because I was working on her blog tour, and it consumed part of my life for a short period of time. Measuring the impact of word of mouth seems so elusive. We can get some sense of hard data to make general observations, but I doubt we'll ever be able to get our arms completely around it. The internet is just to huge and too viral.

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Mary E. DeMuth — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:19:45 -0000

You can either pay to have a tour done, or do it yourself, or ask a web savvy friend to help you.

Another way to analyze hard data is to sell books directly on your site. Then you can see whether book sales spike or not.

Mary

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Rebecca LuElla Miller — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:15:25 -0000

I'm curious, by the way, if Austin had any stats to report about the CFBA tour that just concluded. Did he see the same spikes? (I wish I understood all that).

Oh, and a comment re. Technorati. I actually agree with you that a high ranking is not a primary goal or a hard-and-fast evidence of the success of a tour. The thing is, it remains one of the few tangibles, so it gives a little immediate feedback.

Brandilyn Collins' reaction to her book being high on Technorati's list was that the cover was out there for an additional group of people to see, and that wasn't bad, certainly.

Becky

Re: Are Blog Tours Helpful or Just “Hype”-ful?

Rebecca LuElla Miller — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:02:32 -0000

Pay? Do people pay to have someone run a blog tour??? How have I not known about this??? LOL ;-)

Becky