Have you ever tried to organise your own online Book Tour? I have – and I feel faint at the idea. I lie not. Panic clutches at my insides at the thought of the work involved, let alone how to word those dreaded emails asking overworked – and unpaid – bloggers to read your book when their TBR piles are teetering to the point of plain dangerous. What are the benefits anyway you may ask. Well, apart from the reviews – cue more panic-filled moments – there’s the exposure: getting you and your book noticed where you couldn’t hope to get attention if you exposed yourself naked.
A good book tour, with a mixture of reviews and
interviews, allows you to flaunt yourself in your best light, your gorgeous
book cover, as opposed to your not-so-gorgeous bod. And in tweeting, retweeting
and sharing the posts that bloggers have worked so hard to put together, friendships
are forged. You don’t just hit RT and toddle off to the next tweet. Mostly, you
are so astounded by the thought and effort that has gone into creating those
blogs, the content all about you and your book, including links, Rafflecopter
giveways and videos if you have them, you just want to kiss the bloggers
concerned. Naturally, you thank people, you chat and you begin to realise that
bloggers are batting firmly in your corner. They’re shouting about you because
they’ve read your book and they believe in you: the author. That’s one hell of
a confidence boost.
So, do I think Book Tours are beneficial? Yes,
absolutely. Would I organise one myself? Having tried it once, I think I’d
rather flaunt myself naked (or possibly not). My advice would be to hand it
over to a book tour organiser. I’ve just toured with Brook Cottage Books and I
couldn’t have placed my baby in safer hands. Without going into detail and
boring you to tears, I have definitely had one of those years. In short, on the major life events front it’s been not
so great, and it left me not knowing whether I was on my derrière
or my elbow (a quick thank you here to all those lovely RNA members who picked
me up, almost carried me to the conference, and proceeded to feed me chocolate
and wine and generally buoy me up). Despite my befuddlement and complete
disorganisation, Debbie Johnston took over the reins and organised my tour
smoothly and totally professionally. I owe a HUGE thank you to her.
The book on tour was for my new release from Choc Lit,
appropriately titled The Rest of My Life (here’s to a slightly less frenetic
start to the rest of it!). Did I mention the cover? I think I might have a few
bazillion times, but just in case you ran screaming when you saw me coming and
missed it, here it is:
Isn’t
it just divine? *Sigh*
And here’s a snippet from one of the reviews I picked
up on the tour, which had me hooting out loud:
“THIS Choc Lit
book will have you giggling a bit, crying a LOT (I love books that spot up my
glasses with projectile tears. This book is brilliant and was very hard to put
down. It’s one that made me want to forget about necessary real-life things
like peeing and sleep.” Thank you so much: Double-Edged
Words
While I’m here, I do have a bit of good news to share: a second contract with Choc Lit for my contemporary romance, Learning to Love. Yay!
The book has a temporary cover at the moment, created
by yours truly, which couldn’t hope to live up to Choc Lit’s to-drool-over
covers, but it’s not bad, if I do say so myself. All of my romance novels are
now sporting new covers and I must say I do think they look rather smart.
Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share.
Keep safe all.
Heartache,
humour, love, loss & betrayal, Sheryl Browne brings you edgy, sexy,
poignant fiction. A member of the Crime Writers’ Association, Romantic Novelists’
Association and shortlisted for Innovation in Romantic Fiction, Sheryl has
seven books published to date.
LINKS:
Thank
you for such a bright and cheerful blog post Sheryl and good luck with your next
blog tour!
The RNA blog is brought to you by,
Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman
If you would like to write for the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com
