Blog Book Tours: Goosing Your Sales without Leaving Your House (Part 1)

A blog book tour is just like a regular book tour, except you can do it from your computer, in that ratty shirt with the hole in it that your wife keeps trying to throw out, with a cup of coffee your side. Your job is to give the regular blogger a day off and write something compelling that his or her audience will like. Your payoff is that you also get to plug your book.

A blog book tour is a great way to reach people who are already be predisposed to buy your book. But before you can count the money, you have to do your homework.

First, you have to convince a blogger that his or her audience will be rivetted by what you say. Many bloggers sell ads and the rates for the ads depend on readership. If the advertiser says "this guest you had was horrible", you won't be invited back. So you need to target your tour stops well and provide high-quality, interesting copy.

How do I find out where to blog?
Glad you asked. You can start by using the Google Blog Search. This tool allows you to search only blogs for specific key words. The search process takes a little refining. For instance, if you search for mysteries, you'll see some blogs about mysteries, but you'll also see blogs on the mysteries of Lost, UFOs, and the beauty of actress Sienna Miller.

Search for mystery novels and you'll do better. After that, it's research and reaching out to people.


A helpful hint

If you have a blog of your own, you can show your potential host a sample of your blogging prowess. It's a good idea to have a blog and update it periodically.