Traditionally, when an author publishes a book, he or she sets out on a reading tour that the marketing people at the publishing house set up. While not quite as glamorous as a rock and roll band touring the country, it is a time for the author to take what he or she has written and read it to the world, with at least a nod to a sense of celebrity.
These days, with marketing budgets being slashed and more and more authors turning to self-publishing, a subsidized reading tour is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Instead, self-publishing authors are left to set up readings on their own. I know I did.
It can be a challenge to reach out to so many contacts and set up dates, dealing with logistics and questions you never thought you'd face. That part I can't say will be a cakewalk. But one thing you can avoid in the age of the Internet is all of the travel traditionally associated with a reading tour. Instead, a self-publishing author can take advantage of the massive and target blog culture that exists to help with spreading the word.
I think of this kind of "blogger outreach" as a blog tour.
Here are three things you can do:
1. Guest post: Contact bloggers who have an audience that overlaps with your target audience. Read their blog enough to understand how they write and what they write about, then think about something you could write about (or a part of your novel/story collection/etc.) that you could share, and send them an e-mail pitching the story. The better you know their audience, the better your chance. And of course, if you can get an introduction to the blogger through someone you both know, that makes things much more likely to happen.
2. Video readings: Some authors use Skype or Google Hangouts to do a live reading. This can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. In this case, I recommend contacting bloggers who review books. When you ask them to review your book, say that you are also doing live video readings and that you'd like to do one with them. It's great differentiating content for them as a reviewer.
3. Live stream: In a similar vein, rather than traveling to many cities, you can schedule one, well-produced reading in your hometown and market the livestream for it (through a company like LiveStream) and build a large audience for one reading rather than lots of smaller audiences for lots of smaller readings.
Has anyone else seen a great idea for a new kind of touring?
Image courtesy of Guillaume Cattiaux via flickr
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