Maggie Blackbird

I’m a member of the Author Toolbox Blog Hop.  What is it?  A chance for authors at any stage in their career to connect by providing helpful posts related to all things writing.  The Hop occurs once a month, with the exception of November and December.  My post for May 2020 is book blog tours for romance writers, so read on…

Before I get started, my biggest apologies for not truly participating in the April hop.  So much happened on the personal front regarding one of my fur babies.  However, I did get my post up since I schedule my blog posts a good two to three weeks ahead of time.  Again, my apologies for not replying to your comments or participating at your blogs.  That week was rough.

Anyhoo, without further ado…

When my first book was published in July of 2018, I had no clue how to get my name and novel out there to generate interest.  Yes, I had my web site up, my blog going full-steam, a twitter account, a Facebook page, but that wasn’t enough.

So I began hitting up different romance blog sites, asking if I could guest at their home on the web.  This was a lot of work.  Some I had great results with, at others I bombed.

By chance, I came across a book blog tour site.  I submitted my information to Gay Book Promotions, and the owner, Lily G. Blunt, took care of the rest.  To this date, Blessed, book one in the Matawapit Family Series, continues to be my best-selling book out of the four novels and four short stories I’ve published.  It also has the most reviews.

Finding the right book blog tour company is important.  Since Blessed is a m/m, multicultural, inspirational, contemporary romance, Lily’s blog tour hosts were already big fans of LGBTQ+ romance, and so were the readers who patronize the blog tour host sites.

When my second book in the series was released, I couldn’t use Gay Book Promotions, because Redeemed was a m/f contemporary romance.  I was already a tour host for Silver Dagger Book Tours by then, so it was simply a matter of contacting the owner Maia Gomez.  Just like my first book blog tour, Maia set up everything.  All I had to do was provide the content.

I find tours are important for getting my name out there, and my books.  I used Silver Dagger Book Tours for my other two series titles:  Sanctified and Renewed.  Currently, I’m on tour right now, promoting my four short stories, which works great with the May book sale my publisher has going on right now.

Will I use the same book blog tour company, again, for future books?  I’m debating about this, because the patrons of Silver Dagger Book Tours are now quite familiar with me, so I’ve been researching other blog tour companies.

Here is a list of tour companies that I’ve researched, and some are those I’m a tour host for:

Gay Book Promotions:  Lily G. Blunt specializes in LGBTQ+ fiction (not just romance).  Her prices are very reasonable I found.  She’s excellent to work with as a tour host and as an author, because Lily is an author of LGBTQ+ fiction, herself.

Silver Dagger Book Tours:  Maia specializes in all genres for fiction and non-fiction.  She does excellent work and is always in direct communication with the author.  Furthermore, she doesn’t do the standard 3 days, 5 days, 7 days that most blog tour promotion companies allow.  She encourages one-month blog tours with two stops a day at each blog hosting site.  Because she also wants to be as affordable as possible, she works only on tips.  Yes, tips.  You pay her what you feel is a reasonable price.

YA Bound Book Tours:  This site comes highly recommended by various bloggers who’ve also done their research on book blog tour companies.  I contacted the owner Sara about a potential tour for my upcoming YA LGBT series that is set to release this summer.  Her prices are affordable and she has tons of tour host bloggers on hand.

Xpresso Book Tours:  I’m a tour host for this company owned by Giselle Cormier.  I’ve also used Giselle’s services in the past, because she offers another service with “reviews only” through Net Galley.  She is also very careful about selecting tour hosts if you book a tour (not a blitz).  She ensures the maximum fit between the author’s book and the tour hosts’ readership.

Enticing Journey Book Promotion:  I find this place very successful for those who write contemporary and historical romance.  They have affordable prices and the staff are excellent.  I haven’t ever worked with them, but they have a great reputation.

Ardent Prose:  I did host a few book tours for this company.  They are very professional and work with a lot of bestselling authors.  I am not familiar with their prices, so you do have to inquire if you’re interested in finding out more about them.

Rockstar Book Tours:  This is another place I’ve been researching for future book tours.  Since I’m trying to widen my readership, I’ve been poking around at their site.  Their costs run the same as most book blog tour companies.  They are also very selective about new authors they take on, because their goal is to ensure they have a maximum fit between the author and their blog tour hosts.

That’s it.  If you’ve worked with a book blog tour company in the past, please share what your experience was like.  And if you have any other book blog tour companies to add, please do so.