So, I Signed up for a Blog Tour…

As I was setting up release stuff for The Talisman of Delucha a few months ago, I started looking into more ways to market the first book in the series, The Moon’s Eye. I knew I wanted to do a sale the week prior to the second book’s launch, but sales are difficult when no one knows the book exists. Yes, there’s always advertising, but I wanted to get noticed. Reviews are a good way to do that, but again, they’re hard to come by.

Then I read a post by a fellow author, Jami Fairleigh, that sparked an idea. (You can read the post here: Growing your Book Sales).  Like me, she blogs regularly. Also like me, she had a book two release earlier this year. One of the things she did to generate interest in her first book, Oil and Dust, was to sign up for a blog tour. I looked into the outfit she used, Escapist Book Co, and decided to give it a go.

Escapist primarily takes on fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels, but will consider others if they’re of interest and a good fit for their reviewers. They only accept standalones or first in series, so be mindful of that if you choose to sign up.

At this point in my authoring game, I need the exposure more than anything. And by exposure, I mean reviews. And that was why I signed up—even though the whole process terrified me. (Yeah, it’s the same level of anxiety I talked about when I decided to enter SPFBO8, too. But I’m never going to overcome that if I don’t push myself. So, here I am.)

From the start, Escapist Tours was very professional and sent me a number of tools to help promote my book during the week-long tour. The first stage was ensuring my book was a good fit; they asked for the first chapter, which I provided, and within a day they agreed to take it on. That was a bit of a boost for me – chapter one is good enough they were interested!

There were several questionnaires I was asked to fill out, some about me and my writing, some about the characters in the book. After a couple weeks, I was told they’d had a good number of signups from their newsletter and there was definitely some interest. Another yay! As the time of the actual tour neared, there were more questions from bloggers to answer. Escapist Tours handled the distribution of ebooks, but for the six reviewers that requested a paperback, I was responsible for shipping them.

Since I got the paperback list during the last week of June, shipping took longer than I’d hoped – FedEx seemed to have a number of delays around the July 4 holiday, but all of the books reached their destinations by the 5^th. That was only 10 days before the tour started, which concerned me a bit. Shipping delays aren’t something I can control, but I wanted to give everyone enough time to read, and every day the books spent stalled was another day they’d lose. Fortunately, it all seemed to work out in the end.

The blog tour itself started on July 14 and went for 7 days with a total of 13 reviewers of various sorts. By day 3, I was thrilled with the reviews and feedback I’d received so far! When I went into this, I wasn’t sure what to expect – and while I’d hoped for great feedback and good reviews, I didn’t know if I’d get them.

Please note, I did not get to read any of the reviews before they were posted publicly to the tour and the various internet channels, and I wasn’t even aware of who was reading my book prior to the tour’s start date on July 14. All of the reviewers were arranged by Escapist Book Co, and I had no prior interaction with any of them.

At least one of the reviewers was affiliated with the SPSFC (the sister competition to SPFBO) – and they stated at the start they were giving an honest review. As a writer who is constantly trying to hone my craft, I want those honest reviews, but at the same time, I dread reading them. What if they hate my book? What if there is something they caught that I missed, the editor missed, the betas missed…? What if, what if, what if?

I could spend hours spiraling down that dark path, but I digress. In reality, that review was one of the best of the bunch. My poor husband was stuck listening to me babble about it for the rest of the weekend. (He is patient, and usually doesn’t complain. I’m not sure what I’d do without him.)

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is: This book tour was 100% worth the time spent, the books I gave away for free, and the work that went into it.

If you’re an author who writes fantasy, science fiction, or horror, definitely look into Escapist Book Co and their tour packages. They were organized and detailed, and facilitated everything smoothly. The graphics they created for the tour (some of which are included in this blog) were nicely done, and I was very happy with the quotes they pulled from my book to use in them. They were very professional and I enjoyed working with them.

And getting those reviews at the end of the week was so worth it. (Plus, it was a lot of fun!)

You can follow Escapist Book Co on Twitter or Instagram with the handle @escapist_tours.

---

For those interested in seeing what was involved in my tour, the dates and features are linked below:

• July 14: Escapist Book Co. – Intro post about the tour and some details about my book
•               Escapist Book Co. – Main characters Q&A
• July 15: Beneath A Thousand Skies (Blog review)
• July 15: @that_voracious_reader  (Instagram review)
• July 16: The Goblin Storybook  (YouTube video review)
• July 16: @apocketfulloftomes  (Instagram review)
• July 17: Sadie’s Spotlight (Interview, plus an excerpt from The Moon’s Eye)
• July 18: BookswithDanSamEnd (Blog review)
• July 18: @rich_reads_ (Instagram review)
• July 19: @_tomeraider (Instagram review)
• July 19: Books by Bennett (Blog review)
• July 20: @bookandnatureprof (Instagram review)
• July 20: @ofproseandspells (Instagram review)
• July 20: Fiction Fans Podcast (Book Tour Q&A)