Lola’s Ramblings: Do you participate in blog tours?

Posted October 9, 2014 by Lola in Lola's Ramblings / 14 Comments

LolaRamblings

Lola’s Rambings is a feature on Lola’s Review where I talk about me. Usually these posts are everything that doesn’t fall under any standard header, like blog tours, book blitzes, cover reveals or reviews. Lola’s Ramblings posts are are personal discussions of a certain topic. Sometimes about book related topics and sometimes about non-book related topics. If an Lola’s Ramblings post is about a non-book topic it gets the non-book content posts tag. This feature was previously knows as About Me. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Design.

Today I want to talk about blog tours. When I first started blogging I thought blog tours where the most awesome thing and getting free copies of a book to review them during a tour seemed like a great exchange. Now I’ve been blogging for about 2.5 years and my opinion of blog tours has changed a bit. I still love blog tours and I think they are great ways to promote your books, but as a blogger I started participating in them less then I did before. I’ve also seen more mentions and discussions about original content around the blogosphere and it made me think about which posts I usually sign-up for and why and which type of posts I read on other blogs.

Do I participate in blog tours and why?

The short answer is yes I participate in blog tours. I enjoy participating in them. The most common reason why I sign-up for a blog tour are below:

  • I want to read and review the book. If I want to read and review a book I might sign-up for the blog tour so I get a review copy. I usually keep in mind whether I am able to read the book in time for my stop, else I won’t sign-up.
  • The tour is for one of my favourite authors or books. Whether they are one of my favourite authors, authors I am a big fan of or I am part of some authors street teams. For some authors I just jump on every chance to promote them and their awesome books.
  • I want to fill up an empty day and the book sounds interesting. Sometimes I just participate in a tour becasuse I have a quiet week on the blog or a book sounds interestng and I think why not.
  • I organize the tour. I participate in most of the tours I organize. I usually gotten to know the author a bit and want to help promoting his/her book any way I can, hosting a stop on my blog Lola’s Reviews seems like an easy way to spotlight the author and my tour company at the same time.
  • I got a tour invite for an interesting sounding book. I get a lot of tour invites and most often I check out the book and decide “nah I won’t participate in this one”, but sometimes a book catches my attention and I decide to participate in the tour. While all the tour e-mails can be overwhelming I also found some great tours and books thanks to them.

For which type of posts do I sign-up when I participate in blog tours?

Most often when I sign-up for a blog tour I sign-up for a review, guest post, tens list or an excerpt. I sign-up for a review stop if I want to read the book and have time to review it during the tour. I often go for a guest post or tens list when I don’t want to review the book, don’t have time to review the book during the tour or already have read and reviewed the book. I like guest posts and tens list as they are easy for the blogger, I only have to come up with a topic and still get an original content post for my blog. I’ll sign-up for an excerpt when I am lazy or don’t want to or can’t come up with a topic for guest post or tens list. Excerpts are easy and only require I sign-up for the tour. I also sometimes sign-up for excerpt stops when it’s a type of tour that doesn’t offer any other type of stop and I still want to participate in the tour.
I hardly ever sign-up for an interview stop as I find it difficult to come up with questions and I like to personalize my questions and not use a standard set, so that takes time and effort and I probably only choose this option if I already know the author. I enjoy reading well written interviews on other blogs though. I am planning to sng-up for interview stops more often in the future.
I hardly ever sign-up for a promo stop as I find most other options more interesting and even an excerpt offers some content. I only sign-up for promo stops if I know the author and like her books and in that case I probably grab every opportunity to showcase his/her books.

Which type of posts do I read on other blogs

The type of stops I read on other blogs are mostly the same type of stops that I like to feature on my own blog. Although while I might feature an excerpt on my own blog, I hardly ever read an excerpt on someone else their blog.

  • Review. I sometimes read reviews stops, but not always. It mostly depends on whether the book or cover catches my attention or not. Earlier I wrote a post about which reviews I read.
  • Interview. I sometimes read interviews, though not often. It depends on the blogger asking the questions, the questions itself or the author being interviewed. I regualary read interviews with my favourite authors and there are some bloggers whom interviews I often read even if I don’t know the author, but just because they make interviews fun to read. One of those bloggers whom’s interviews I love to read are those on Herding Cats and Burning Soup, she has a great way of interviewing.
  • Guest Post. I only read guest posts if I know the author or the topic interests me.
  • Tens List. I love tens list, there’s just something fun about authors listing their top ten chooses for a certain topic. I also like tens list written by bloggers themselves, they are just fun to read.
    I especially like them if the author goes a step further and explains her reasoning behind every item on the list. But in general I like reading tens list, unless it’s a topic I am not interested in or don’t know a lot about.
  • Promo. I don’t really see the point in stopping by a promo stop as there’s nothing extra than the blurb, which I can also read on Goodreads. The only reason I might stop by these stops is when the cover attracts my attention in my bloglovin feed and I decide to check the book out, same way I would do on goodreads.
  • Excerpts. I hardly ever read excerpts. I might read an excerpt if I am doubting whether to read a book and then an excerpt might help me decide. If I already have decided to read the book I most certainly won’t read an excerpt as I am afraid to get spoiled. I also feel it’s more fun to read the whole at once then have read some snippets beforehand already. I can’t properly explain it, but I just don’t like reading excerpts for books I plan on reading.

Which tours do I follow?

By following a tour I mean that I visit multiple stops during the tour. I don’t follow tours often, I usually do read a post for a tour if it catches my attention, but I don’t really follow tours. There are a few instances in which I do follow tours:

  • If one of my favourite authors tours her book. If one of my favourite authors tours one of her books I probably follow the tour through one of her social media accounts and stop by the stops that interest me. I think tours can be a great way to learn more about your favourite authors.
  • If I tour a book through Lola’s Blog Tours. This one is kinda part of the job, as a tour organizer I visit every stop for books I tour and tweet about them. I usually read most of the posts as well.
  • If a book or author somehow picked my attention. I group basically all other reasons under this heading. Sometimes I read a guest post or tens list by an author and like her writing style so I check out other stops during the tour. Or I am looking forward to read some reviews of a book to decide whether to read it, or maybe I’ve read it already and want to read other reviews.

So my question to you is:

Do you participate in blog tours? And which type of stops do you read or sign-up for?

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14 responses to “Lola’s Ramblings: Do you participate in blog tours?

  1. I very very rarely join in on tours these days and usually then only if the author or pub has specifically messaged me about it. I just prefer to do my own thing most of the time and there are so many poorly run ones it’s just not worth the stress of them. I’ll visit them on other blogs if there’s actually something unique. I gloss right over the promo/excerpt ones.
    anna@herding cats & burning soup recently posted…Interview w/ Maya Banks–there…might just be a Kelly brother *nods*My Profile

    • I think many bloggers tend to gloss over those promo/excerpt stops, but there are also so many fun blog tour stops. I have participated in a few poorly run blog tours as well, but those tours came in handy when thinking about Lola’s Blog Tours, how to do it better and how to make sure the bloggers who sign-up for them aren’t frustrated.

  2. I don’t do too many blog tours and I only sign up for reviews because those are the only types of posts I read on a tour. I was following a bunch of tour companies but didn’t have much luck so I rarely sign up for tours on my own anymore. Lately I’ve been getting some tour invitations from publishers after I’ve already been approved for the book on Netgalley. Those are super easy to decide I want in on because I’m already planning on reading the book anyway! I just have to make sure I have it ready to go on the correct date.
    Jenna @ Rather Be Reading YA recently posted…Review: The (Almost) Perfect Guide to Imperfect Boys by Barbara DeeMy Profile

    • I don’t think I ever gotten an invitation from the publisher after signing-up to read a book on Netgalley, but then agin I usually try to stay awa from Netgalley. I do end up signing for review stops sometimes and then posting an excerpt when I don’t enjoy the book.

  3. Yes I participate in tours – but I don’t even title them as tours. I actually agree to them less and less now because I don’t like having to read a book by a certain date. I’m a mood reader and this is not my job so I don’t need stinking deadlines you know! But I will agree to post guest posts on specific days and I agree to do interviews less and less because people just don’t read those!
    Tabitha (Not Yet Read) recently posted…Review: Poison Fruit by Jacqueline CareyMy Profile

    • I am a mood reader as well and sometimes it can be so difficult to read a book by certain date. I actually started reading a book for a tour two days ago and couldn’t get into it and put it back down. I don’t think I’ll manage to read that before the tour. I usually sign-up for tour reviews when I know them early in advance so I know I have enough time to read it and stay true to my mood reader ways ;).

  4. When I first started out blogging, I joined a LOT of blog tours, and I mostly went with a review stop. I rarely go for anything else. But after a while, it became way too stressful. The deadline and required high book rating put way too much pressure for my liking so I’ve then been very careful with which tours I sign up for. And there aren’t a lot nowadays. I’m not much into following blog tours either. I’m not really sure why
    Francine Soleil recently posted…Chat It Up: What Sells on You? Mine are NerdsMy Profile

    • Yeah if you sign-up for a lot of review stops during the blog tours, it can get really stressful. Nowadays I carefully decide which to join and which not and when I can afford to do a review. I found most tour organizers don’t make too much of a trouble if you don’t like a book although you often ahve to wait with posting your review till after the tour, but I don’t mind that too much. It makes sense as it’s a promotional tour after all.

  5. I do participate in blog-tours, and my reasons are quite similar to yours. I will almost always sign up for a tour when one of my favorite authors is being promoted. And also, if there is a new-to-me author and the story sounds interesting, I’ll sign up as well, so I can get a review-copy and discover a new universe.
    These days, I don’t have as much time, though, so I only have one on-going tour, and it won’t start until December, but I’ve already read the book (and loved it). Mostly, I’ll sign up for reviews – I can never think of clever and different questions to ask authors, so I’m not really all that comfortable with interviews. And sometimes, the excerpt tours have so many posts that look almost exactly the same, and I want to post original content on my own blog.
    Great post, Lola! Have a wonderful weekend.
    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #53 / Bought Borrowed and Bagged #3My Profile

    • I found a lot of new authors trhough blog tours and books I normally wouldn’t have encountered, that’s an aspect of blog tours that I love!
      I am not that comfortable with interviews either. I just can’t think of many good questions. Although sometimes inspiration hits me and I can pull of a good interview, but usually I just go for a different type of stop.
      I like tours whe I can choose from multiple excerpt, then at least there’s some variation in content.

  6. I only do blog tours for books that I know I am going to love – either because I read the book before asked or I really like the author. I’m too much of a mood reader to do otherwise,

    I wouldn’t like the pressure of having to read a book by a certian date as I am too much of a mood reader, I think it would take the shine of the book.
    Charlotte recently posted…Review: Doll Bones by Holly BlackMy Profile

    • Yeah my moodreader ways can interfere with blog tours sometime,s but then I have so much discipline that I usually manage to read the book in time. The pressure can take some of the fun out of it sometimes. That’s why I prefer if blog tour sign-up are open early before the tour starts, if I have 2 months to read a book, I don’t feel the pressure as much.

  7. I will participate, but only if it is a book I really, REALLY want to read. I don’t like to do them *too* often, because I feel like then it isn’t anything special when I do; it doesn’t highlight the book properly if I do them all the time.

    I also LOVE tens-lists! The concept is so appealing, and it is so easy to read. I also will read reviews, especially if it is a book I am very curious about, or one I’ve seen a lot of mixed things about. I almost never read excerpts or promos, but if the topic is interesting, I would read an interview or a guest post. But not if the post is all about random content of the book, because I haven’t yet read the book, and usually get bored of those!

    Great topic!
    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight recently posted…Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To VisitMy Profile

    • I think I have a blog tour about once a week, sometimes two, but usually not more then that. And indeed tnes list are so easy to read and can be a lot of fun as well.

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