A book blog tour, as its name implies, is the online version of the traditional bookstore tour but instead of visiting physical brick and mortal book shops, you go from one blogger’s website to another on the internet. Its main purpose is to generate interest and increase awareness of the author’s book on each blog that is part of the tour by reaching the followers of a specific blogger, thus exposing the author’s book to a wide and varied audience and potential readers who would hopefully buy the book once it is published or made available for sale.

A book blog tour is usually composed of ten to twenty participating blogs and can last from a week or two to a month, depending on what was decided between the parties involved. Tours are often set up by an author’s publicist, his publishing company or by independent and freelance blog tour coordinators hired by the author himself. However, if you are a self-published author and you want to organize your own book blog tour, you could actually do so; just make sure you are prepared to spend considerable time and effort to get it done.

The first step in setting up a book blog tour is to contact the bloggers you want to join your tour, send them the details, including the time frame, possible post ideas like question and answer panels, and promotional events like giveaways. And since you would be working with them, you have to make sure that they are professional and capable of meeting deadlines and will actually deliver what they promise. Familiarize yourself with their blogs too, read the topics and reviews they write about, and check out their followers. This will make it easier for you to communicate and work with them once they accept your request.

While waiting for the bloggers’ responses, you should already start organizing and preparing your posts. Make a list of the specific posts you will send each blogger and their contact information. Create a folder for each specific blog; that way it will be easier for you to keep track of all the information you needed to send. Edit and proofread your posts; they should contain important details about you, your book, your next projects, your interesting personal experiences that happened while you were writing the book, your contact information and links to websites for readers to purchase your book, and other post ideas suggested by the bloggers themselves. Make sure each post is witty and make your posts interesting with related images.

Afterwards, you just need to send the posts you have created at least a week or two in advance to your blog hosts. Give them the option to make some changes in your posts to fit their blogging site or style and to ensure that your posts will be appreciated by their followers. Do not forget to visit the blogs you have worked with after the book blog tour, and make sure you thank them for their efforts and hard work.