Blog tours

It would be nice for authors if books just sold themselves, wouldn't it? If, once a book was printed, there was nothing to do but sit back and watch as readers flocked to the bookstores to buy their copy.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Years ago, publishing companies took care of most, if not all, of the marketing. Authors were barely involved. But with technology and web presence, not to mention marketing budget cuts in publishing houses, authors are expected to play a large part in promoting their books.

One of the newest and perhaps most effective ways of getting the word out about new novels is through a blog tour. Blog tours can last as breifly as one week, but usually run for one month. The author enlists one friend or fellow author to promote their book every day for a month. Blog posts can consist of an author interview, a summary of the book, author bio, and often include a giveaway of the book. Because each blog tour participant has various readers and followers, this is a great way to get the word out to potentially thousands (even millions) of people about a particular book.

While blog tours may not cause a book to become an instant best seller or bring in thousands of extra dollars, they do serve the invaluable purpose of creating buzz about a story. And this ultimately results in added book sales and more awareness of a particular author.

I've participated in a few blog tours, myself. The most recent was Jenness Walker's, promoting her debut novel, Double Take. In November, I'll be posting about another debut author, Erica Vetch, helping to spread the word about her novel, The Bartered Bride.

If you're a Christian fiction writer who is interested in hosting a blog tour, you can either organize it yourself or hire someone to handle it for you. A couple of great options are Write Integrity Editorial Services and The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance.

If you are a Christian fiction reader who is interested in checking out blog tours to find new authors, discover great reads, and possibly win free books, visit Christian Fiction Online Magazine every month for a list of current blog tours.

NOTE ABOUT THE 12 BOOKS OF CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY...

I changed my mind about the day that the winner will be announced each week for the giveaways (hey, it's my blog, I'll change my mind if I want to!) :-) Entries will be accepted through Friday at midnight and winners will be announced in a very short blog post on Saturday morning. This is great news for you because it gives you one more day to enter! Check back tomorrow morning to find out the winner of Christmas Miracles, this week's giveaway by Tracy Ruckman. And if you haven't yet entered, be sure to pop on over to THIS POST and leave your comment.

Good luck!