The Second Edition Book Launch Begins

I’m excited to announce that this week…actually yesterday…marked the first day of the official How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition book launch. I’ve got two concurrent tours in place with tons of opportunities for you to learn more about blogging a book or booking a blog.

Online tours, called blog or virtual book tours, form the foundation of my launch strategy. They have proved fruitful each time I’ve run one, producing bestsellers and creating a huge amount of visibility for me and my books.

When people say to me, “I see you everywhere,” I know my launch is working. I become visible because my tour involves appearances on so many websites.

In 2012, when I launched the first edition of How to Blog a Book, I was at a conference and asked a speaker, Michael Hyatt, a question during his session. I introduced myself as the author of How to Blog a Book, which had just been released. In fact, my tour had started that week.

He immediately said, “I’ve heard of you and your book. I was just reading about it this morning!” Sure enough, he was a regular reader of one of the blogs included in my blog tour. Because of that, I was able to approach him after his session, give him a copy of the book, and form a relationship with him. He even recommended the book several times on his blog and podcast.

So what’s planned for the launch of the second edition of How to Blog a Book?

First, I scheduled a 23-stop book blogger review tour that started on June 1. (These are the type of book bloggers who review books rather than blog books.) You can follow along with each stop, some of which include interviews with me and guest posts written by me:

1. June 1 –   Mary-andering Creatively – review / guest post / giveaway
2. June 1 –   Words and Peace – review
3. June 2 –   The Booksnake Ect – review
4. June 2 –   Library of Clean Reads – review / giveaway
5. June 3 –   Readers’ Muse – review / author interview
6. June 3 –   The Things We Read – review
7. June 5 –   Back Porchervations – review / author interview
8. June 8 –   Writers and Authors – guest post / giveaway
9. June 9 –   Vic’s Media Room – review
10. June 10 – Fur Everywhere – review / giveaway
11. June 10 – Perfect Chaos – review / giveaway
12. June 11 – Keenly Kristin – review
13. June 12 – Seaside Book Nook – review / giveaway
14. June 13 – Writers and Authors – review
15. June 15 – Psychotic State Book Reviews – review / guest post / giveaway
16. June 15 – Life With Katie – review / giveaway
17. June 15 – Nuccia.ca – review / author interview
18. June 16 – Create With Joy – review / giveaway
19. June 17 – Romorror Fan Girl – review / guest post / giveaway
20. June 18 – My Life. One Story at a Time – review / guest post / giveaway
21. June 19 – View from the Birdhouse – review / giveaway
22. June 19 – Jessica Cassidy – review / author interview / giveaway
23. June 19 – One Frugal Girl – review / giveaway

Additionally, I created a 15-stop virtual book tour. Most of these stops include guest posts written by me or podcast appearances or webinar events. Notice there is even one book giveaway contest.

1. June 2-    janefriedman.com/ – excerpt
2. June 3-    writersdigest.com/ – guest post
3. June 8-    blogtalkradio.com/b2basilico – podcast appearance
4. June 8-    wow-womenonwriting.com/ – contest / book giveaway
5. June 10 –  shelleyhitz.com/ – guest post
6. June 12 –  elizabethspanncraig.com/ – guest post
7. June 17 –  sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/ – guest post
8. June 16 –  pressbooks.com – guest post
9. June 19 –  buildbookbuzz.com/ – guest post
10. June 24 –  ellenfinkelstein.com/ – webinar
11. June 25 –  thebookdesigner.com – guest post
12. June 29 –  thebookdesigner.com – webinar
13. July 1 –      publicityhound.com/blogs – guest post
14. TBD –        socialmediajustforwriters.com – review
15. TBD –        bookbaby.com – interview

I have a few more podcast appearances in the works as well.

What It Takes to Create or Go On a Virtual Book Tour

A blog or virtual book tour is a lot of work. Organizing one on your own takes time. I had to contact about 20 different bloggers—many of whom I’ve worked with on previous book launches—to end up with 15 tour stops. I had to:

• Email them a request for participation in my tour.
• Follow up with those who did not respond.
• Schedule the tour stops with those who did respond.
• Determine what content the bloggers wanted from me.
• Create a schedule for myself so I could get them their content in time.

Hiring a company that provides blog tour or virtual book tour services cuts down on some of the work. They organize your “event.” However, you might not get the same caliber blogs you would on your own—assuming you know some awesome bloggers with well-trafficked sites. On the other hand, a tour company might have access to a lot of book bloggers, many of whom can be difficult to access.

I have done it both ways: on my own and with a tour company. I’ve also done a little of both.

This time I opted for a specific type of tour (a review tour). Then I paid another company that had previously organized a tour for the first edition of How to Blog a Book but only to run a book give-away contest. I also opted to set up my own virtual book tour to ensure I hit some other types of sites.

Notice that to complete this tour, I must write 13 guest blog posts. I also have to complete four written interviews. (The fifth interview was verbal.) That’s a lot of writing…in a short amount of time.

If you want to go on a 38-stop tour like mine, you better be ready and willing to do the work. Or you can make less stops and only visit sites with huge amounts of traffic; this can work as well if not better than visiting many smaller sites.

Does a blog or virtual book tour pay off? We’ll see. But in the past, my tours have all produced bestselling books. (The second edition of How to Blog a Book hit #1 Amazon Bestseller status before release! But it’s books sales and ranking over time that count.)

I hope you’ll follow along on this official book tour page, where I will update my tour stops with links as the posts, podcast, webinars, reviews, etc., go live. Each stop offers something different, and you are bound to learn something by joining in the fun.

Of course, don’t forget to purchase your copy of How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition—and leave a review on Amazon or your favorite online bookstore’s site!

Get your copy of How to Blog a Book here:

Amazon.com
Barnesandnoble.com
IndieBound.com
WritersDigestShop.com