First up: the professional, Devourer Of Books
When my agency informed me that I was signed up for a blog tour, my initial reaction was, “Say what?” The Internet is changing all our livelihoods, including the review biz. Across the country, stay-at-home Moms and Sci-Fi geeks and all other forms of passionate book lovers have started their own book reviewing blogs, building highly literate communities and networks that are deeply attractive to publishers. These so-called “amateur” reviewers are increasingly professional: their websites are supported by advertisements and the publishers ply them with review copies and “give-aways” (review surfers and book-chat participants can win a free book.) I recently had the privilege of meeting some of these Internet self-starters at Book Expo America.
But, from a marketing and publishing perspective, it’s best these lit-bloggers post their reviews around a book’s launch date, rather than arriving in scatter-shot fashion. The literary market is a very noisy place and by organizing the on-line reviews into a “blog tour” – a different blogger’s review appearing every day for several days – the chances are greater a book will make itself heard over the market’s cacophonous din. Too further sweeten the experience for their following, some bloggers ask the author to write an essay for them, or answer on-line questions, as is happening on my blog tour.
If you want to see this all in action, here are the dates and hotlinks for the literary websites participating in The Hundred-Foot Journey‘s blog tour. Check them out. They are well worth the surf time.
July 5 & 6: www.devourerofbooks.com*
July 6: www.myfriendamysblog.com*
July 7: www.zenleaf.blogspot.com
July 8: www.jo-jolovestoread.blogspot.com.*
July 9: www.peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com.*
July 10: www.bookloons.com*
July 10 & 11: www.litchick.typepad.com*
July 11-13: www.chaoticcompendiums.com*
July 12 & 13: www.bookNaround.blogspot.com
July 13: www.luxuryreading.com*
July 14: www.rundpinne.com
July 15: http://bookscandycorn.blogspot.com/*
*These blogs will also be giving away FREE copies of The Hundred-Foot Journey.
Other book blogs have said they will review the book over the summer, but couldn’t commit to the blog tour due to scheduling conflicts. A special thanks to Allie Greenwald and Anne Speyer for organizing the tour, and, of course, the peerless Rose Marie Morse.
Tags: art, blog, review, The Hundred-Foot Journey
