New Blogger Advice: Getting Involved in Blog Tours | Discussion Post
New Blogger Advice: Getting Involved in Blog Tours | Discussion Post
Hello lovely people!
I want to talk a little bit about the wonderful thing that is being sent books by publishers to review. When I did a panel about a year ago, someone asked how we prioritised which ARCS we read next. Now it’s a very interesting question and it got me thinking to how I’ve felt at different stages of book blogging.
Today I’ll be talking about the beginning.
Getting sent books as a new book blogger
When I first started out I had NO idea how people got sent books. It seemed magical and mysterious and I was insanely jealous (let’s be real I still am with a lot of books!). This lead me to feel unworthy as a blogger when I wasn’t sent books. This is a sentiment I see echoed a lot, and I want to say something and make it clear.
Your worth is not measured by what books you are sent
Honestly. A lot of the time in publishing it’s who you know and getting in touch with someone at the right time. Your stats do have an impact on whether you’ll get sent books but honestly, don’t stress too much about it. If you’re new, review books you have already, go to the library.
Also if you want to find out how to get a hold of ARCs, I wrote a post about it here.
When I was new I jumped on ANY chance I had to get sent a book – even if it wasn’t a book I’d ordinarily like or read. This lead to some very difficult decisions on my part. Do I review a book I hated? Do I participate in a blog tour when I don’t like the book? (The answer is no, no one wants to read your fake positive review about a book you hated).
This leads me to a recommendation:
Get involved with blog tours.
How to get involved in Blog Tours
Full disclosure: I don’t really do many blog tours anymore. Why? The pressure gets to me a bit, and I only take part if I really love the book. BUT. I still stand by my recommendation.
The first books I got sent were because I was part of ‘The B Team’ where I was sent Because of You by Helene Fermont. As far as I know Bookollective is still going, though I no longer take part. If you check out my post, I didn’t actually review the book, I did a Q&A instead. Why? Because I didn’t like it at all. It was not for me, and I’ll go more into that a bit further down.
Now I know what you’re thinking, how do you get involved in blog tours if you don’t have the stats or contacts in publishing? You don’t need to!
There are so many people who arrange blog tours for not only self published or Indie books but also traditionally published and it’s so great to be involved in!
Some of my favourite people to work with are both in PR, Jamie-Lee Nardone and Nina Douglas! Go follow them on Twitter and email them & ask to be on their lists, you won’t regret it!
There are independent organisers such as Faye, who organises blog tours for Authoright. She also runs Darkroom Tours which is exclusively Bookstagram tours, you should deffo check out.
Here’s a list of other tour organisers:
@XpressoTours
@InkSlingerPR
@YABoundToursPR
@artfromafriend
@The_FFBC
@Tr4cyF3nt0n
@Shalini_G26
@HFVBT
@LoveBooksGroup
@damppebbles
@CaffeineTours
There are a few more out there you should deffo go and check out, I find a lot via Twitter and I can’t stress how important it is to utilise Twitter for blogging.
What to do if you don’t like the book
As sad as it is, this happens. However it’s not the end of the world if it does! You can contact the blog tour organiser and ask if you can post your review anyway (they don’t tend to like 3 stars or less though), if not, ask for an excerpt, guest post or do a Q&A! They’re still great posts and you don’t have to compromise yourself by writing a falsely positive review (seriously don’t do this!)
I hope you enjoyed this post! Don’t forget though, you’re not getting paid for this. You should not feel obligated to take part for any reason you see fit. At the end of the day you’re doing this for your love of books, don’t let the pressure get to you <3
A special thank you to my Patreons who make my blogging possible! Check out my Patreon and what rewards you can get by supporting me on this link.
Special thanks to Cassandra who is Galactic Warrior and Jen who I don’t have the link for yet <3
11 Comments
This is such a great, helpful post, thank you!!
This is a great post- but I am confused. I’ve always reviewed every ARC I read honestly- 1 stars to 5 and everything in between. 5 stars are like unicorns for me, and 4 stars is: I mostly enjoyed it. I rate more books 4 stars than 5 but even with my favorite authors I can’t guarantee it won’t end up a 3 Star or less read. Do they really discourage you from writing anything less than a 4 Star review?
That sort of changes my thinking on blog tours… sure I like getting ARCs but not that badly. My library system is pretty good about ordering the latest and greatest, and there are other book resources (NG and Edelweiss… giveaways…) I don’t know.
I’ve always wondered how to get involved in a blog tour – so I do appreciate the advice (and the warning).
Yeah depends on the organiser. I’ve had some ask me not to post 3 or less star reviews so I’ve either pulled out or done a different post!
Well I appreciate the honesty!
From my experience, organizers typically ask you to hold off on posting reviews that are less than 3 stars until after the tour is finished running, and will send you an excerpt or something else to include if your review is less than 3 stars so you can still participate in your tour spot. I’ve never been told NOT to post a 1 or 2 star review, just asked to please wait until after the tour dates to post.
I think it depends on the organiser! It’s happened a few times for me.
Lovely post, Jenn! When I first began participating in blog tours, I jumped on any tour I was accepted for. When I encountered my first book that I disliked as part of a tour, I didn’t know what to do! My young blogging self didn’t want to write a fake positive review for the book, but I also imagine it would’ve been frowned upon to write a negative one. Haha! After contacting the host, she kindly let me know that I could do a spotlight post, instead, and this worked wonderfully. I’m glad that you mentioned how it isn’t the end of the world if you wind up disliking a particular book for a blog tour. And thank you for al the resources! <3
[…] Jenn @ Jenniely has advice for getting involved in blog tours! […]
Wow. I didn’t know there was such a thing as blog tours. Though actually reading a book then writing a review is something I would like to start for net month. Especially since I have the time now 🙂
Thank you for all the tips and book reviews you’ve written!
You’re welcome! Best of luck x
Amazing post, Jenn! It’s a perfect starters guide to bloggers that have never done blog tours before.