Book Reviews & More: Introducing TLC Book Tours

One of my jobs as the Director of New Media and Alumni Education is to identify opportunities and share information that can help YOU make the most of your Mom’s Choice Award®. Book tours are one of them.

Back in January, I was cleaning out the inbox – as I suspect many of you were – and I came across a flyer that I had picked up at the first-ever Book Blogger Convention in New York.

The event was just on the heels of BookExpo America in 2010, and it was an opportunity for all of us in the “book biz” from writing to publishing to reviewing to come together as bloggers and readers. I’ll just say that as exhausted as we were, this one-day event rejuvenated us all.

And when I re-discovered that nearly two-year-old flyer, I was thrilled once again! Long story short, I reached out to TLC Book Tours co-founders Trish Collins and Lisa Munley to see if they’d be interested in sharing their knowledge about virtual book tours with our honorees. I’m happy to report they said yes! So please welcome Trish and Lisa to Celebrating Mom’s Choice!

Trish and Lisa combined their talents as bloggers and book reviewers in creating TLC Book Tours, which as their about page describes “promises to treat our authors and their books with the Tender Loving Care they deserve!”

Lisa’s blog. Books on the Brain is an avocation … second (or maybe third) to being a “wife, book club organizer, virtual book tour coordinator, amateur photographer, homework checker, scrapbooker, avid reader, blogger, tv watcher, procrastinator, band parent, cheer parent, FLYbaby, friend, daughter, sister, aunt …” You’ll find book reviews and snapshots of her life on the California coast.

On Trish’s blog, Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’? you will find book reviews for Literary fiction, women’s fiction, and crime fiction, as well as riffs on life and cool things she’s discovered (like this cool app)! She is a self-described chatty person, “funnier than some and not as funny as others.”

Terry: Hi y’all! Welcome to Celebrating Mom’s Choice! I guess the best place to start is to ask you to explain what a blog tour is and, if you could, give us a non-blog equivalent of what that would be.

Lisa and Trish: Thanks for having us!

A blog tour is a marketing tool for authors who want wide exposure for their book. It is similar to a “real life” book tour in that the author is getting out there and marketing their book to potential readers and buyers, but in a 21st century way, on the internet rather than in a bookstore.

The author virtually ‘visits’ blogs rather than bookstores. Each blog has its own unique audience of readers. This audience won’t be sitting in chairs, listening to you read an excerpt of your new book at their local bookstore. Instead they’ll be reading reviews of your book and learning more about you on their laptops / desktops / tablets / phones, etc. Basically, they will learn about you wherever they happen to be, all over the country.

Terry: For a TLC Book Tour, an author will be featured on your website for a month, but will also visit with other folks who will have received, read, and published book reviews of the author’s book. I guess before we to too much further, can you tell us about the criteria for booking a tour? For example …

What publishing formats do you accept: paper, eBook, Kindle / Nook / iBook?
What genres of books can be part of a tour: picture book, novel, graphic novel, nonfiction / fiction, etc?
Do tours focus on only specific audiences: infant/toddler, young reader, young adult, teen, adult?

Lisa and Trish: The only criteria we have is that a book needs to be traditionally published.

We love working with small press books as well as books that come from major publishers. We’ve done tours for e-books, backlist books, and books that haven’t been released yet.

Genres run the gamut from graphic novels to non-fiction to romance to prize winning literary fiction. The target audience range from children’s books to books for mature audiences.

Terry: Earlier in our interview you used a bookstore visit as an example of marketing. On your website, you explain that “a book needs to have an online presence if it is to be noticed.” Could you describe for us what an “online presence” is?

Lisa and Trish: An online presence is when a book has been discussed online, particularly in the form of book reviews. Most people go to the Internet when wanting information on something – even before they go to a bookstore – so it is important that readers are able to find opinions on your book.

Terry: If an author or publisher is considering a blog tour – or similar online marketing campaign – do you have a checklist of things they should think about and/or be prepared for?

Lisa and Trish: Yes, as a matter of fact. Some of the things an author or publisher should consider:

How far in advance do you want the tour?
Should it start on the publication date or a little before?
When will books be ready to send to a reviewer / blogger?
Will the author be available for interviews or guest posts?
Will the author be available to interact in the comments of the reviews?
Do you want to have a blogger offer a giveaway of your book?

The review timeline is important because reviewers need a lead time of two to three months to slot a book into their schedule and read and review the book.

Terry: Along a similar line, are their “pieces” that the publisher or author should have in place before launching an event like this?

Lisa and Trish: It’s not necessary to have any pieces ready to go before launching a virtual book tour. If you really want to be pro-active, I suppose it can’t hurt to write up a couple of generic guest posts that can be offered to bloggers.

Our caution would be that they aren’t cheesy self-promotion pieces about your book. It can be a related topic, but not a sales pitch. Most bloggers will have an idea of what they’d like an author to write about when asking them to guest post on their blog, so having something written in advance really isn’t necessary.

Terry: It sounds like a blog tour requires more of an author than a “traditional” bookstore visit. Could you describe for us the optimal situation for getting the most from a virtual book tour?

Lisa and Trish: The ideal situation is when an author is actively involved in the tour, which requires time on the author’s part but no additional expense. The good will that is fostered with bloggers and their audience is invaluable.We recommend that authors

thank bloggers for a review in the comment section after the fact (regardless of the nature of the review – positive or negative),
offer to answer any questions or address any concerns, and
send a nice private note via email if the review was positive, but never get defensive if it was critical.

Thank you for having us, Terry!

Terry: Find lots of great info about TLC Book Tours on their website www.tlcbooktours.com, including more details about the value of a virtual book tour, how to Book a Tour with TLC Book Tours, and even sign up to host a tour.

Other places to find TLC Book Tours …