With the promotion budgets slashed for even traditionally published authors due to tough economic times, authors are having to find more and more creative ways to spread the word about their works in order to find their audiences. One thing that authors of every ilk have benefited from is taking advantage of the sense of community that authors feel in order to work together on book promotion.
While online book promotion businesses have sprung up to create virtual book tours–essentially gathering book bloggers and authors for guest appearances on these sites–writers with established social media connections have been able to quite successfully stage their own promotional tours of others’ blogs. These tours typically include a guest post for each blog, some promotional information on the author’s upcoming book title, and even a give away, either of free copies, signed copies, book paraphernalia, and more.
Authors are also stepping out and taking a financial risk by staging physical book tours, but as an article in Publisher’s Weekly has shown, business-minded authors are working together to share the expense and the effort by combining their book tours into one “rock festival”-style event in several cities. Five authors have gotten together to stage the Bringing YA To You tour, following the success of the “Ash to Nash” tour that some of those authors had created. According to the PW article, the author behind the concept says there are a lot of benefits to authors working together.
“Revis, who prefers group gigs to solo appearances, notes that multiple author events have benefits for participants and audiences. “It’s fun to appear with colleagues and be able to riff off each other,” she says. ‘We’re all fans of each other’s work, and it’s great to turn questions around to the others. And it’s fun to give readers more than one opinion about things. I had written 10 books before I found one that worked, but Andrea Cremer had her very first book published. It’s nice to share both experiences and let readers see that every writer is unique.'”
In the case of the newest YA tour, it’s not just the authors who will be joining forces, but the booksellers, book bloggers, and fans as well. The public is invited to “create” the tour by voting for which cities the authors should travel to. In this way, it is actually the readers who are developing the book tour, working together to bring well-known and much-loved authors to what could be some out of the way locations, cities that may not often be visited by book tours. To vote in the Bringing YA To You tour schedule, click HERE.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
