A recent post on whether swag sells books brought up some interesting comments. It seems the general consensus both here and at Roni Loren’s blog is that readers enjoy getting some kinds of swag but that most of the swag we give away as authors and publishers does very little to actually sell books.
Readers at this blog said the thing that was most effective in turning them onto new books were blog tours. I agree. I’ve bought more than my fair share of books after reading about a book on a blog tour stop.
So…our readers here say that blog tours are the most effective way of snaring their attention. That did leave me with one question…what kind of posts at blogs do you most enjoy? Do you prefer interviews with the author? The hero? The heroine? The villain? A topical post on something that relates to the book? What types of blog posts are most likely to cause you to look seriously at an author’s work?
Karen mentioned that she follows blog tours largely for the prizes…and she particularly likes gift cards. What about you? Do you follow blog tours for the prizes? What types of prizes do you enjoy the most?
I like following blog tours to find new authors, to read about books that might interest me, and yeah, I like the prizes, too.
mom1248(at)att(dot)net
Yes, I like reading about new authors and new books too. It seems like one gets a lot more information from a blog tour or even a simple blog post than they do from just reading a book blurb and the reviews at Amazon.
A lot of different things intrigue me…I’ve bought books because of a post about the dog’s character arc of all the crazy reasons to buy a book.
I’ve also bought (and loved) books because they had a setting that had to do with feral cat rescue. Some of these things I wouldn’t even know from reading the book blurb.
What I try to do here is give authors an opportunity to talk about the things that make their books intriguing, which aren’t necessarily included in the book blurb.
I think the content of the blog book tour depends on how long it lasts. If it is a short 5 day tour, then I like background info about the author and the book including background about how the book came to be. A different excerpt each day is fun too. Doesn’t have to be long, but enough to give readers a taste.
The longer tours can devote time to character interviews (which are always fun) and more Q&A.
Whenever I post a comment on a book tour, I try to ask a question. Something that will start more detailed conversation. I have some authors go into several paragraphs to answer one of my questions. I love that. Gives me more insight into the author and her writing.
I’ve developed my own list of questions and I do ask generally the same questions for each tour I follow. Some questions I gleaned from past interviews and some I thought of myself. I’ve noticed lately that some blog hosts seem to pick up on those questions and are now asking them in their interviews. Note to self: think of some new questions! LOL
Mary Preston mentioned she likes it when the author asks the readers a question. I like that to…but after answering that question, I usually pose a question back to the author. I try to gear the question around the author’s post for the day..at least as much as possible. I always feel that if the author is going to offer a prize, I should offer some effort to earn it!
Thanks for such a great and in-depth response Karen.
Yes, I agree. I like to see a variety of excerpts. It’s great if there is a different one for every day of a blog tour.
Blogs are intended to be kind of conversational. I ALWAYS appreciate it when readers post questions for our guest authors. It invites and creates a conversation…and conversations are fun! It’s why we all hang out…to be part of the conversation.
I have kind of a master list of questions which I pull from sometimes… A lot of the time the post itself will introduce things that I am interested in…not always about the book…sometimes about something peripherally related to the book.
I like it when authors ask readers a question too…again…it invites and incites a conversation…and the conversations are interesting. The conversations following a post can sometimes be deeper and more interesting than the post that inspired it. But then, that’s the nature of conversation.
I always enjoy author interviews. The more original the questions the better.
Most blog tours have giveaways which is always appreciated.
I like blog posts that pose a question to the reader. I find I am more likely to interact, & by doing so, fix the author in my mind.
That’s a great point Mary. I was blogging quite a while before I started asking questions in my posts. I think the worry for the blogger is that you’ll ask a question and then there will be dead silence following…which makes you feel a little silly.
I agree with you though…I think asking the question…engaging readers…starting conversations…that makes a blog tour a two way conversation as opposed to a one way one in which the author does everything she can (including standing on her head) to incite readers to buy the book.
I have noticed many authors doing interviews or blog posts as one of the charecters in their books. Another fun one was a twenty quick and silly questions like coffee or tea. I do have to say blog tours are fun but when the number of blogs goes over five or so it can be a bit much and find myself only visiting a few if any. I don’t want to visit a hundred blogs just for a chance in a contest either.
I like the quick and silly questions too.
One thing I saw that was kind of fun at someone’s blog (can’t remember whose now) was interviews with the husbands of the authors. I found those kind of interesting and fun. It provided kind of a different glimpse of the author and the books she writes…and the husbands are often funny and interesting.
I don’t like having to do numerous things to enter a contest. I’m not likely to enter those contests. I will still visit the blog tour and comment…but I’m not going to follow someone on Twitter, leave comments on half a dozen blogs, and like them on Facebook all to win something. I like contests which are easy to enter. That’s why I keep ours simple.
Comment on any blog post. Sign up for the newsletter. Either of those things enters someone.