Specifically, is anyone reading author blogs anymore?
This is what I want my blog to be. Even so, does anyone read them anymore?
This thought has been occurring to me lately as I look ahead to next month when Torch Ginger comes out. Yes, folks, mid-July I’ll be launching the second in the Lei Crime Series, with all its attendant excitement and alas, marketing efforts.
I’m trying to muster up some enthusiasm for the cornerstone of online book marketing—the blog tour. But increasingly, I’m wondering if it works.
Does anyone but the author themselves and their few (paid, blackmailed, otherwise indebted) friends and family follow these things? Do guest posts and book reviews translate into sales?
I did close to a hundred guest blog posts, interviews, witty/touching/informative articles for more than 80 different blogs (some I was featured on twice) between December when Blood Orchids came out and when I collapsed from marketing exhaustion in April.
And yes, Blood Orchids has had a good run, which is winding down though far from dead. I anticipate attracting some new readers for it when Torch Ginger comes out, as writers with more than one book out seem to generate sales for older books off each new one that comes out. But was all that blogging necessary? Sometimes we have to stop long enough to evaluate whether or not the established wisdom of a marketing strategy even works.
What’s my research been on this? Reading blogs, of course! Industry blogs, other author blogs, and watching what my fellow writers and social media gurus espouse. But personally, do I read author interviews about their new books? Hardly ever.
In fact, I just looked at my Google Reader which has a list of blogs I'm signed up for– and this isn't willy-nilly, I'm selective. These are good blogs that I'm actually interested in. Well. the unread total fritzed out at “over 1000.” So how many blogs am I reading lately? The answer is, very few. I’m saturated, and unless a blog is truly riveting, original, has great information I need or is someone I care about, I’m not reading them anymore.
Is it just me? Or should I do a blog tour again?
I did a two-week blog tour for my book DEFY, which released on April 30th. My tour involved about 60 blogs, some of which I contacted because I have a rapport with the bloggers, and some of which I paid YA Bound to organize. While I’m not sure that the tour resulted in a ton of sales that I wouldn’t otherwise have garnered, what it did (because it included a Rafflecopter giveaway) is got me several hundred more Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads followers. I firmly believe that a number of those will translate to future sales. I think that if you do posts that feature your writing (excerpts), that’s what will capture the most interest. And you’ll want to be sure you’re on blogs with a viewership that is likely to buy your books. In short, a couple of weeks of heavy promotion is probably worth it, but after that, you might want to focus on the next project!
Thanks so much Raine. I’ve been following some of you Triberrmates to see what you did, and this is the first I’m hearing of how and what it produced!
Aloha
Toby
I have only one blog and haven’t posted in over a month. I read blogs if suggested on twitter. Mostly about writing and publishing. I hope to have my prequel ready this fall, but who knows what that marketing will look like? I could be doing CCCs for some time. A short blog tour might work, but being a guest might be better along within person talks.
Yes, I like that and I can tell it’s worked for you. I’ve always been too busy for much “in person” sharing.
Hurrah! This was one blog I DID read! No, I don’t think anyone does read them. Or maybe one or two. I got one new reader by doing a giveaway on one. I don’t know that any much does read them, no, and most of them are so same old same old.
Apart frm anythng else, no-one cares. Your book is fascinating and a great achievement to your family and you, but not to anyone else. I’ve only ever done a couple of these interviews under sufferance – one thing it DOES do, however, is give you a bit of the old subliminal advertising thing. The more people see your name the more you’ll stick in their heads. Apparently.
To be truthful, I think the same about all these indie iuthor websites you can go on and pay to be featured. Who are you being featured to? A load of other indie authors. I bet none of the reading public read them, or certainly not enough to validate what you paid for the ad.
Best way to promote yourself is to stick your book out for free! Something for free, people WILL want!
Everyday you trawl through hundreds of blog adverts on here. I read some of them. When I do, they are about an interesting subject, not yet another interview with yet another unknown author. Why would I care why someone who’s further down the chart than I am creates her characters??? If I got to know her, I might be. But not just some random person. To highlight this – although I have seen your name up and down Twitter, i hadn’t got a clue what your book was called/how many books you had written/anything about you. I do now, though. Because you’ve just written something I wanted to read about!
Terry, I am THRILLED to have your (very valuable, wonderfully honest) comment here! And I’ve had the same sneaking sensation about the indie author websites popping up like popcorn–indeed, does it attract READERS? I don’t know how!
That said, what I’m getting from all of this is that 1) exposure is good but no one really knows what works to get it 2) Free is good and we know that works 3) Building relationships works because we’ll look closer at what we care about or something we need. Like, apparently I’m not the only writer wondering if the blog tour is dead.
Toby,
Wow, I am exhausted just reading about how many blogs you visited on your last tour. Maybe if you did one on a smaller scale. I used YA Bound for my last blog tour, just like Raine, but I did just a 15 tour stop for my first time using their service. It was primarily book review blogs and they gave me a few options of different posts: Interviews, Reviews, Character Tweets, Playlists, and that sort. That way, there was something different on each blog and not the same old post on each. I will be using them again in Aug for my next book and trying 20 stops this time.
I also just did my cover reveal, where I asked some of my favorite tweeps to help me get the word out by linking on their blog, tweeting, facebook, Google +, etc… That worked really well as a one day blitz.
I hoped this helped. Whatever you decide, I would be happy to help you out!
Bethany
Great ideas, Bethany, and thanks so much for showing up at my blog! Appreciate it!
I’m just getting around to reading this thoughtful post, Toby, since I haven’t had Internet access for ages up in Maine, and I find all of the comments here fascinating. I think that the “rule of three” is indeed true, about books, movies, or anything else we buy after we become familiar with the product. I also think blogging is a great way to start a dialogue with people who take the time to comment and who begin to interact with you first because of the blog post they stumbled upon, perhaps, and then after reading your book (the ideal, right?) When you do make a connection that way, you have not only a reader for your books, but a thoughtful reader. Even if I weren’t already a fan of your books, I would read your blog posts because I’m so interested in your life as a child in Hawaii and in your work as a social worker; I found your blog because of your books, not the other way around, but now that I have read both, I will continue to read the blog until you (hooray!!) put out your next book–it makes me care enough to buy that next book. So I think the advice about blogging only enough so that you’re comfortable with it, and only about subjects that interest you, is very sound advice indeed. Thank you for starting such a great dialogue here!
Ah, there you are Holly!
It is a mixed bag of advice but there’s some GREAT STUFF in there. I’m sifting through for the nuggets of a new plan. I may post on it… I read your blog religiously because it’s 1) always interesting and good information 2) I care about you. Those seem to be the key criteria. Maybe that’s what we bloggers need to keep focusing on–engaging and deepening our relationships, sharing our “mana`o” or wisdom as we call it here in Hawaii.
Hi Toby, thanks for broaching the subject.
In general terms, I’m tempted to think that we’re now being overwhelmed with both choice and volume in information. When I first ran a web site around 1999, many folk would browse the whole of the web site at a leisurely pace and even download all of the free pdf documents before moving on. More recently, I’ve seen that most visit for a specific purpose and often leave having read or flipped through one or two pages. Over time I’ve also seen the old usenet newsgroups die a death, then yahoo! forums, with lengthy discussion threads giving way to one-liners or simple “likes” and more and more fragmentation of the participators or audience. And over at twitter, a tweet about a blog post now gets perhaps 0.2 seconds’ exposure before it becomes buried and pretty much lost.
Anyhow, best of luck with your writing!
Yes, I agree with the declining engagement and it started with me first, which is why I’ve begun to question the bliz approach. Maybe a few more targeted spots is a better use of all time. Thank you so much for not only reading but commenting. We can always choose how to respond to what comes through the interwebs. I’m going with fewer, and more quality.
Many thanks, Toby. Great to meet a kindred spirit. Hope good fortune smiles on you.
I notice that most of these comments come from other writers. I blog, but rarely. I blog about Hawaii and what I find on my jaunts. But I’m not an author. I read a lot but have enough books in line to read to keep me sitting up in bed for a few years.
I don’t read writer’s blogs. I don’t have the time. If I’m looking for a book I read reviews but not often. I read blogs that interest me and satisfies a curiosity. Even those are just a few. How does anyone find the time to sit and read so much without giving up time to read books?
Another thought. I’ve followed you because your interesting to me. But I’ve noticed that when commenting to you on twitter or even tweeting in my own post that I’m reading such and such, I end up with tons of authors following me. Yeah, like they really want to follow me. I realize they have to get their name out there but like blogs I only follow people I’m interested in. So I’m not sure that tweeting even works.
So this is an opinion from a reader not a writer and it’s just my thought. Finding you interesting and reading about your books and just having established a cyber friendship would be my reasons for reading your book.
You are my true audience, Karen, for my blog overall, and for my books. Thanks for hanging in there with me through thick and thin, for both our blogs. I follow yours, and still read it and get it in my mailbox, for the same reason: interesting content, and a person I care about. Those seem to be my criteria, followed by…is a title catchy or has something I want to learn more about?
But I diverge into talking writing and marketing occassionally on the blog because I’m in the field and other writers have good info and opinions. I wouldn’t necessarily conclude they only follow you because of “getting their name out there” I find other writers are just generally curious people and Hawaii and history, your fortes, are fascinating.
Keep writing, Karen, I love your blog and look forward to meeting in person someday.
Aloha and friendship
Toby
I think instead of doing a blog tour (unless you have oodles of time) do a giveaway including a mandatory purchase of your book with an incentive prize like an Amazon gift card or PayPal cash. If you decide to go that route, I’d be happy to put together the rafflecopter and host it on my blog. It would be almost effortless to you and would lead to sales.
Am so taking you up on this. Soon as I look up “rafflecopter…”
I read a great number of blogs. Some daily and some every week or so depending on how often the author posts.
Over time, in general, I’ve observed less conversation activity on blogs and more on social networks (assuming bloggers and readers are on both.) It’s just the nature of the beast. Going to one party is easier than hopping from one to another. That said, I think owning your content on your own asset is still important. You don’t own what you put on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., and it’d be a shame if it disappeared and didn’t exist anywhere else.
As a strategy though, for the next book, and for the rest of the series to come, you’re probably looking at more engagement about blogs on social networks and less on the blogs themselves (though the latter isn’t dead; just waning.) It might be worthwhile putting a Facebook comment block on the blog to facilitate that, in addition to the share buttons you already have.
Great idea, Peter! Appreciate it. I will look into that, and I know how busy you are, so thanks for taking time to leave a comment here. You are right about the ownership of content and that’s an ongoing consideration.
I think people are reading author blogs. My article talked about guest posting in order to get traffic and back links to your blog (optimization and monetization purposes).
I think if you’ve got a new book out, it makes sense to try and get traffic from people you wouldn’t have touched otherwise. What better way to do this than to do a blog tour. 80 is a huge amount. I may do about 15 🙂