Benefits of a Blog Tour

By Jenny Blake

Today we would normally have a blog tour up but we didn’t have a book to tour in July and at this stage August and September are also free. We thought it would be a good chance to explain some of the benefits of a blog tour for both the Author and Reviewer.

ACRBA (Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance) offers blog tours for Christian books for fiction, nonfiction and children’s books. We have reviewers who review the different genres with some reviewing all books and some specialising in certain catagories. The aim is to promote Christian books to a wide audience. We primarily promote Australasian books but are willing to tour books from other countries.

There are benefits of being involved in a blog tour for both authors and readers. This post will also explain some of the etiquette for the tours.

Benefits for Authors include:

• Exposure to new readers in a confined timeframe.
• Reviews that will also be added to review sites
• A chance to connect with new readers and bloggers

Benefits for reviewers include:

• Free books to read and review
• Interaction with authors
• Added traffic to your blog.

With ACRBA books being toured are offered to the reviewers to review and they will then choose the books they wish to review. Once requested the list is sent to the author or publisher and the books sent out. We have a variety of reviewers that read a large variety of books. While not all will read all books many will post the information for all books which gives even more exposure. Many authors will also do interviews for the reviewers to add to blogs. This also gives more exposure for both authors and readers.

For Bloggers the benefits are free books to review, and a chance to interview an author for their blogs. They also are part of an alliance which often leads to more traffic to your blogs. They also feel they are helping an author promote a book.

Recently I have been asked what is required of an author or what they need to do during the week the books are toured. While we do not require authors to comment on blogs, it is however encouraged. For bloggers who have requested a book and take the time to read and review the book  post the information, appreciate having an author take the time to visit there blog. Its is an encouragement to the blogger. Even more so if a reviewer posts an interview and has blog reader’s comment. Having the author respond to questions or comments on the blog really encourages the blogger. It can also lead to new ways to link with new readers. 

If you have any questions please ask and I will answer as best as I can.

We are aways looking for good quality books to tour and reviewers,

JENNY BLAKE (aka Ausjenny) is an avid reader. When not reading she enjoys watching cricket, in fact you could call her a cricket fanatic, scrapbooking and jigsaws. She volunteers at the local Christian bookshop where she can recommend books to customers. Her book blog is where she reviews books and interview authors. Her goal is to help promote new books and encourage authors. Her blog is athttp://ausjenny.blogspot.com and is Co-Founder ofhttp://acrba.blogspot.com