Six days ago my debut novel was officially published. I managed to organise a short blog tour to coincide with publication week, and today is the last day.
I have allocated the final spot on this, my very first blog
tour, to my own blog. Although it is largely a travel blog, I do occasionally talk
books, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to take stock and to reflect
on my blog tour experience.
So what have I learned?
Firstly, I want to say that I think book bloggers are very
special people indeed. The good ones write their blogs for no payment, and they make a massive
contribution to the world of authors and their readers. I was so impressed with
the hard work, professionalism and conscientious approach of all the bloggers I
contacted, and especially those who were able to be part of my blog tour. So
huge thanks to:
You are all amazing!
Secondly, I would recommend any debut author, who has the time,
to organise a blog tour or assign a third party to do this for them. It was so
exciting to see my book reviews and guest posts written about in a different way
each day, and then reposted and retweeted across a variety of social media.
I had been worried that the blog tour would be too short,
but now I think the length worked very well for me. It gave my book a higher
profile in its official publication week without bombarding the same audience for
too long. It was also a great topic of conversation at the two book signings
which took place this week. I was able to chat to interested visitors and
purchasers about the blog, and discuss where I felt my book had most appeal.
De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill
Rye Bookshop
I am now happily exhausted.
Like sending my first child off to school, I release my
debut novel into the reading world, where I hope, with a bit more help, it will
find its own place in the market.
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