101 Ways to Blog as a Book Author - Updated Again

We all know that blogging is one of the best ways to get attention in today's Internet world. A blog is a godsend to your website, bringing it traffic, fans, and more. But you have to post regularly to your blog: twice a week or more.

Stuck for what to blog about? Here are some tips for novelists and children's book writers as well as writers of nonfiction: memoirs,  business books, spiritual titles, cookbooks, self-help, travel, and more.

1. Review other novels or books in your field, especially from other lesser-known novelists or book authors.
2. Write a blog post using the voice of one of your main characters. For nonfiction authors, write a blog post using the voice of Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Plato, Teddy Roosevelt, Dr. Oz. Henry David Thoreau or some other famous person in your field.
3. Tell stories. Have that main character tell some side stories not included in the novel. For nonfiction authors, you can tell stories you did not feature in your book, especially new testimonial stories you receive.
4. Write about the setting - time and/or place. Use some of the research you did to ensure that your novel was accurate.
5. Invite your readers to review your book. Feature their testimonials on your blog.
6. Interview some of your readers: via Q&A text or via an Internet radio show or via a teleseminar.
7. Podcast your book, one section at a time.
8. Write about trends in your genre or subject area.
9. Write about your favorite novelists (especially those that write in your genre) or book authors in your field. Include their photos and a sampling of their books.
10. Answer questions from your readers.
11. Fill in the back stories of some of your minor characters. Fill in the back story to your nonfiction book.
12. Write a new story featuring one of those characters.
13. Feature excerpts from your upcoming novels or books. Ask for feedback.
14. Link to the blogs of your favorite authors. Tell readers why those blogs would interest them.
15. Link to book review sites. Recommend your favorites.
16. Create a hall of fame for your genre or topic. Of course, include yourself. For a sample, see my Self-Publishing Hall of Fame.
17. Feature events. Write a blog for each of your upcoming book signing events, online events, etc. Invite your readers to attend - or to let their friends know about your events.
18. Write a follow-up post on each of your events describing what happened. Take photos of the event and post them here.
19. Review book trailers for novels you like (or other books as well). Feature the book trailer videos in the blog post. Here's an incredibly easy book trailer any author could duplicate in a few minutes: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2010/12/cool-book-trailer-incredibly-easy-to.html.
20. Write about your writing routine. Describe when you write (morning, evening, weekends), where you write (the proverbial garret, a coffee shop, at the kitchen table), and how you prepare to write (eat a banana, listen to music, kick your husband or wife out of the house). You could easily stretch this out into three or four short blog posts.
21. Share the genesis of your novel or nonfiction book. How did it come about? What ideas, events, characters, etc. inspired you to write the book?
22. Give an inside look. Describe how you went about plotting your novel. For nonfiction authors, describe how you went about organizing the book, why you included some things and excluded other info.
23. Write about a hobby you have.
24. Write about a cause that's important to you: charitable, political, social, ecological, or spiritual.
25. Write about your spouse, your children, or other members of your family.
26. Write about your town, your state, your country, your world, your galaxy.
27. Opine on the state of the nation. Opine on world affairs.
28. Opine on scandals. Write about Weiner, Schwarzenegger, Sheen, and other fools. You can relate it to what you know, like I did on this post about Weiner and Twitter: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/06/twitter-how-easy-is-it-to-fake-account.html.
29. Write about a hot issue, especially one that relates to the content of your novel or book.
30. Describe how you go about doing research for your novel or book. Book research? Google? Websites? Travel?
31. Share some of the interesting tidbits, facts, insights you discovered as you did your research. Share things that didn't make it into your novel or book. Share the facts that became key items in your book.
32. Review websites, blogs, courses, or events on writing, research, plotting, etc. that you like. Feature the book covers or banner images in the blog post.
33. Share the novels or books you are reading now. What's on your nightstand? What's in your purse or briefcase? What books did you take to the shore during vacation? You don't have to review these books. All you have to do is share them in a listing or discussion.
34. Survey your readers' opinions on any key issue in your books. You could do a number of posts. Announce the surveys. Then promote the surveys. Then announce the results. That's worth at least three blog posts, probably more.
35. Run a contest. Ask people to name their favorite character and describe why they like the character. For nonfiction books, ask readers to describe the most important tip they learned from your book. Offer a free book, sample chapter from your new novel or book, a phone call from you, or something else as a prize.
36. Feature your reader comments in upcoming blog posts.
37. Have your readers interview you. Encourage them to send in a series of questions you will answer.
38. Ask your readers to pick which character in your novel is most like them. For nonfiction books, ask your readers to tell you which story you told most touched them.
39. Tell your readers which character in your novel is most like you. For nonfiction authors, let them know which story has most meaning to you - and why.
40. Interview book reviewers.
41. Interview bloggers.
42. Interview booksellers.
43. Interview a celebrity in your field.
44. Interview a major celebrity that has a passion for your field. For example, interview a movie star that loves dogs or is a vegetarian or fights for the preservation of the ocean. In this example, the celebrity should be passionate for the topic you write about.
45. Feature your favorite bookstores (with photos). Describe why you love them.
46. Interview your favorite novelists or book authors.
47. Write a ditty. Write a poem. Share a short story.
48. Expose your inner being. Share your feelings.
49. Let readers know about your day.
50. Post photos or videos of your favorite novelists and other book authors. Write a little introduction.
51. Join in the Amazon Bestseller Campaigns of your fellow authors. Promote these campaigns via your blog
52. Join in the blog tours of your fellow authors. Promote these blog tours via your blog.
53. Have a reader interview one of your characters with you responding as the character. For nonfiction authors, have readers send in a list of questions for an expert to answer. Ask the expert to respond via your blog. Here is an example of a blogger interviewing a character in a novel: http://www.thebookbuff.blogspot.com.
54. Report about the launch parties and other promotional activities of your fellow authors.
55. Have readers vote for variations of your book covers and/or book titles.
56. Write guest posts on other blogs. It's a great way to exchange blog posts with other authors. Plus, of course, it exposes you, your book, and your blog to other readers.
57. Post photos of your readers and fans. Feature them reading your book.
58. Run a promotion asking readers to send you photos of them reading your book in unusual places: foreign locations, mountaintops, in the water, at the dining room table, in a restaurant, while standing in line for the latest version of the iPhone, while dancing a jig, at a location featured in your novel or book, up a tree, down a sewer, at the zoo (perhaps with a monkey reading your book, in a bookstore.
59. Feature photos of yourself with your book in the same locations. Have fun with it. Make it a game for yourself.
60. Feature tweets and Facebook posts where others write about your book or you.
61. Create a controversy. Comment on a news story, blog post, current event, historical event, website, or tweet. Say something outrageous and let 'er rip.
62. Write about a service you used in writing or promoting your book. Tell your readers why you liked or did not like the service.
63. Share a quote you like. For example, see http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/03/whats-important-heres-one-way-to-decide.html.
64. Share your tweets or Facebook posts. At least several times a month, I feature some of my most important or useful tweets with the readers of my blog. For example, see http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/06/book-marketing-tweets-you-can-use-june_20.html.
65. Write a how-to post. For novelists, tell people how to cook a dish featured in your novel, or how to sew a corset, or how to sail the seven seas, or how to spot a vampire (something, obviously related to your novel). For nonfiction authors, feature tips or how-to advice related to your book.
66. Create videos. Post them to YouTube and then embed them in a blog post. Check out this video I created on advertisements in ebooks: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/04/ebook-advertisments-video-reveals-7.html.
67. Share any video that inspires you, even if it is off-topic. Here's recent blog post I wrote that featured an up-and-coming viral video: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/06/dance-like-no-one-is-watching-next.html. Watch the video. You'll be glad you did.
68. Create a video channel playlist and embed it on your blog. There are many tools to do this. Here's one example: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/03/google-gadget-showcases-your-youtube.html.
69. Share a song you really like. Link to a music video on YouTube or a link to a music site where people can buy the song. Minutes after Susan Boyle's video went viral on YouTube, I shared a link because I found her signing and story so inspirational.
70. Share a photo you really like. Something like this wonderful library desk made of books: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2010/09/cool-library-desk-created-completely.html.
71. Feature an excerpt from a magazine article you liked. For instance, see Books add warmth to any room (from Allure magazine): http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/04/books-add-warmth-to-any-room-miles-redd.html.
72. Offer a freebie for download. I offered a collection of quotations in the form of an ebook: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/04/quotations-from-john-kremer-get-book.html.
73. Cross-pollinate. If you have more than one blog, feature blog posts from your other blogs. Besides this blog, I also blog at AskJohnKremer.com, AskThePublicist.com, AskTheBooksellers.com, AskTheBookPrinter.com, AskTheCoverDesigner.com, and MagaGenie.com.
74. Index your blog and post a link to the index. See my index at http://www.bookmarket.com/bestofblog.htm.
75. Share content from a book, like this great first line from a novel: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2010/07/great-first-line-for-novel.html. Or these great first lines: http://askthecoverdesigner.com/first-lines-draw-the-reader-in-make-them-great.
76. Share a great line from a TV show or movie. The TV show or movie should be current and hot, a classic, or right on target for your topic. Or simply funny. Funny goes viral.
77. Share a joke. Jokes go viral. Even better if the joke ties into your topic or novel.
78. Create a bibliography for your genre or topic. Feature the best books you recommend.
79. Create a glossary for your genre or topic. Define some of the key terms for romance novels, for science fiction, for rabbit hunting, for crocheting, for what you write about.
80. Share a fact. Give your readers some tidbit they likely don't know about your topic. This can be a short blog, something like this: Did you know that 1200 years ago there were probably 12 million kiwis in New Zealand. Today there are only 70,000.
81. Promote your news. Let your readers know about your new books, new products, new updates.
82. Blog about new pages you've added to your website. Or new websites you've created. Here's the blog post I created to promote the launch of my AskJohnKremer.com website: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/04/ask-john-kremer-q-website-check-it-out.html.
83. Congratulate someone. Give them a thumbs up when they publish a new book, launch a new product, do some great service for humanity, have a new baby, get married. You don't have to tie it into your book or topic.
84. Thank someone publicly. When someone does something especially nice for you, thank them in public via your blog.
85. Make a prediction. Here's something I tweeted over a year ago that still hasn't really come true. Alas. - You heard it here first: The economy has begun to turn the corner. People are beginning to trust themselves again. Good times coming again.
86. Raise money for a charity. Offer to donate to a specific charity for every book sold during a specific week or month. Promote this via your blog, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.
87. Ask a provocative question. Encourage people to share their answers in the comments section for that post. Joel Comm once tweeted this question: What would you do if you discovered $100,000 hidden away in your basement? He got 3.5 pages of replies in less than an hour.
88. Solicit help. When Jeff Rivera was fighting gay prejudice in Costa Rica, he asked his Facebook followers and others to write emails to a list of government leaders and thought leaders in Costa Rica. It helped.
89. Celebrate milestones. Blog about your company anniversary, the two-year anniversary of the publication of your book, the 700th post on your blog (coming soon right here).
90. Announce awards and honors. If you receive any awards for your book or honors for yourself, blog about them. Link, of course, to the site of the award giver as well.
91. Excerpt your book. Run a series of excerpts from your book. They can be short paragraphs, tips, entire chapters, a story, whatever you want to share.
92. Ask for feedback on your blog and blog posts. Ask for feedback on your website design.
93. Share personal stories. I tweeted and posted on Facebook when I had a heart attack scare a week ago. Not only did it personalize me for my followers and fans, but it encourage me when I received so many good wishes.
94. Have your dog or cat write a blog post. Chances are, of course, that you'll have to write the post, but do it in the voice of your pet.
95. Invite family to blog. Ask your wife, husband, child, mother, father, or favorite aunt to write a guest blog post. The post can be about you, your book, your website, or whatever they want to write about.
96. Invite your friend or neighbor to write a guest blog post. Again, the post can be about you, your book, your website, or whatever they want to write about.
97. Create a scavenger hunt. Ask your readers to find a specific blog post where you wrote about xyz. Or have them find three specific passages in your book. Or three webpages on your website. This scavenger hunt can be a great tool to encourage people to explore your book, blog, or website in greater depth.
98. Solicit money. If you need to raise funds for the reprinting of your book or to produce a book trailer, create a Kickstarter.com project and promote it through your blog. Better yet, have your child create the project and let them write about it on your blog. Children can be very effective promoters of their parent's work. And cute.
99. Recruit joint venture partners. When you are working on an Amazon Bestseller Campaign or a BookTourPalooza blog tour, solicit partners via your blog. Write about what you propose to do, and ask your readers if they want to help. You can do solicit JV partners for any promotion campaign.
100. Create a holiday. Anyone can create a new holiday, commemorative week or month, special day of recognition, or related date. You can check out CelebrateToday.com where I feature over 18,500 such special events. Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Memorial Day were all days created by individuals or organizations. Take Your Daughter to Work Day was created by the National Organization of Women. What day could you create to promote your book or the topic of your book?
101. Ask for contributions to a new book. I did that for my 4-Minute Momentum series of books (still working on them). Here are some sample 6-word memoirs from the book Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak. I bet the authors solicited many of these memoirs via their blog or social networks. - Married by Elvis, divorced by Friday. It's like my heart has sciatica. It's worth it, despite your mother. She defines happiness, I defy gravity.
102. Share a mistake. Admit it when you make a mistake. It makes you human. Humans are more fun to read.
103. Create a meme. That's what Tim Ferriss did in creating his fourhourworkweek.com/blog. Here are a few memes being created on Twitter: Let's go all the way tonight, no regrets, just spuds... #replacelovewithspud - Come for the funeral, stay for the all meat buffet. #funeralhomeslogans - #mysuperpowerwouldbe Teleportation! NO MORE TRAFFIC! NO MORE WAITING AT THE AIRPORT!
104. Invent a new word, and blog about it. Something like the two words I recently created: booktourpalooza and blogtourpalooza (with accompanying websites soon to come).
105. Use Google to find more ideas. Follow the advice here: http://www.marketingtechblog.com/technology/how-to-get-blog-ideas-using-google.
106. Make a list - like this one. People love lists. And they love to pass them on. Please tweet about this list. And come back to visit again. I'll be adding more ideas as you pass on your great ideas - and as I come up with more of my own.

People care about novelists and book authors. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be professorial. You don't have to be journalistic. Tell the truth. Keep it simple. Cut a vein and let it bleed on the screen.

As noted in this update to the original post, this list can also be used by nonfiction writers. I focused on fiction because fiction writers often ask what they should blog about. Or what they should write articles about. Or what they should do for press releases.

The above ideas, obviously, can be used for more than blogging: article syndication, press releases, new products, newsletter articles, videos, Facebook fan pages, tweets, website content, and much more.

Let me know in the comments below of other ways that you blog about books or other products. Thanks for sharing.


John Kremer is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books as well as webmaster at http://www.bookmarket.com, http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm, and http://www.tenmillioneyeballs.com.

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If you like this blog post, you also like these:

31 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page. You can read it here: http://askjohnkremer.com/31-ways-to-promote-your-facebook-page.

36 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love. You can read it here: http://bookmarket.com/loveawriter.htm.

Authors Tour the World with Virtual Book Tours

Copyright © 2007 by Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Reprinted with permission of the author.



Over the years, authors who wanted to promote their books directly to the public had one main option; you had to physically travel across the country conducting book signings and readings in various bookstores and praying that people would show up. This meant spending money on flights, hotels, transportation and meals. This traditional type of book tour is expensive and very few publishing companies are willing to pay for them. But now, authors have a new method of ‘touring the world’―the virtual book tour.

Virtual book tours (also known as virtual author tours, guest blogging, blog tours, or VBTs) are a simple concept. The author tours various blogs and sites that pertain to a theme in the book or to writing in general. This way, you can potentially reach thousands of avid readers each tour day from the privacy of your office or home.

The goal of marketing your book is to expose it to as many people as possible in an exciting, cost-effective and entertaining way. Guest blogging can achieve that goal. Most blogs are archived, so your post becomes permanent and often viral, spreading from site to site. That is leverage. You are in essence leveraging your internet presence and duplicating yourself with every VBT stop. Your blog tour is working for you even while you sleep. Try doing that at a bookstore signing!

Virtual author tours really took off in the past year or two. They began with a handful of authors posting to other blogs in order to promote their works online. They announced those dates just as they would a bona fide book signing. This kind of author tour is now becoming all the rage. Some bookstores are no longer allowing authors to do book signings. Limited space and time constraints are the common reasons. Plus, it just isn't time efficient and monetarily feasible for most authors to do the physical cross-country bookstore tour. Well, unless you are one of the super authors that get paid the big bucks, like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. And since I am neither, I decided to hold my first blog tour this past August―for the entire month―to promote my latest novel Whale Song.

Virtual book tour services and book marketing experts are popping up all over the internet. Authors can now outsource the organization of a VBT. I suggest that you thoroughly check out these companies and ask yourself if the price is worth it. Some services cost thousands of dollars, while some cost less but only post your content to duplicate sites―ones they have set up themselves. The latter is not an advantage to you. You need to have wide coverage and exposure to various sites and audiences. Go where your readers are.

Planning a VBT is time-consuming, but not that difficult. You may find it more worthwhile to take the time to plan your own blog tour, since you’ll have more control over who hosts you this way. Or you may decide that hiring someone to coordinate the tour is best. Do what’s right for you. I chose to do my own because I wanted to have flexibility in what each site posted and I enjoyed the contact with my hosts.



How to organize a virtual book tour:

• Start planning at least 1 month before you want to begin, and never before your book is available for sale. I suggest you allow 1 month when planning a 2-week tour and 6 weeks for a 1-month tour. It takes time to get the hosts lined up and on board and you don’t want to shortchange yourself.

• Read everything you can find on virtual book tours. There are numerous articles online and many books that give great advice. Check out Steve Weber’s Plug Your Book! for VBT advice and more, and John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market You Books for numerous marketing tips.

• Determine the length of your book tour―1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month.

• How many hosts will you need? 1 a day is best. If you have a radio interview, you could have it scheduled on a day when you have a text post appearing on another blog.

• Make a list of keywords and phrases that relate to your book.

• Search for these terms on Google and look for any sites that show up on the first page. Sites on the first Google page are the ones that your potential audience will find more easily. Make a note of these sites or save them in your Favorites under a folder marked VBT contacts.

• Search Technorati as well, although personally I found this method more time-consuming and confusing. Look for sites that have a high Authority and high number of Fans. Keep in mind that Authority means that people have voted for this blog, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best site for you.

• Use Alexa to get traffic results. Some sites or blogs may not rank well on Google or Technorati but may still be a viable host for your VBT.

• Look at the amount of reader participation. Do people leave comments? Is the topic of the site perfect for your book? Often lesser known sites and ones without a Google PageRank are little goldmines. You may find that the host will go out of his or her way to advertise you and your VBT. Don’t ignore sites by friends or fellow authors either. One day these sites could score an 8 or 9 on Google.

• Install and use Google PageRank. This is a simple tool that allows you to view the Google Rank of sites and blogs, which is Google’s interpretation of how important the site is based on the authority of inbound links that lead to the site. Go through your list and check their Google PageRank. List them in order of importance and contact the highest ranking ones first. In the beginning, contact about 25% more hosts than you actually need. Not all will say yes.

• Write an email that you’ll send individually to each potential host. Let them know what you’re doing and what you can supply. I always like to point out the benefits to hosts―more traffic, new visitors, fresh and interesting content, prizes, and a link on my website. What’s in it for them? That’s what they want to know. Make sure you hook your host, just like you would with a query letter to a publisher.

• Internet radio and promotional sites that charge small fees also make wonderful hosts. ArtistFirst Radio Network and Passionate Internet Voices Radio are online radio networks that interview authors in exchange for a donation or small fee. For an a la carte or membership fee, Author Island is another excellent site for authors holding a virtual book tour. You can post a book trailer and excerpt, plus advertise your contests and tour.

• Confirm hosts’ dates, topics and ask them to post the night before. This way you are not waiting all morning for them to post your content. Let them know you’ll send them the information 3-5 days before their date. If you send it too early they may lose, misfile or delete it. What will you submit? Each blog or site will usually feature one or a combination of the following: a book cover, a summary or synopsis, an interview, book review, an article that fits the site’s theme, a short story, an excerpt, a contest, an audio-cast or a book trailer video.

• Advertise your VBT via online and media press releases. It is a great investment, since it’s no good doing a virtual book tour if no one knows about it. One leading press release distribution service that I use almost exclusively is 24-7PressRelease.com, where you can pay from $10.00 to $299.00, depending on your distribution requirements. However, I can attest to the fact that a $45.00 release is the minimum you’ll want and its effectiveness is worth it. Other online services include PRWeb and WebWire, and don’t forget to send releases to the free services too, like ClickPress.com and FreePress.com. Press releases can be extremely beneficial if written correctly and distributed extensively to the right audience, and this means submitting them to your local media (newspapers, TV, radio) as well.

• Publicize your virtual book tour and other events on BookTour.com, a free site that connects authors to readers by listing author events and making it easy for readers to set up reminders and track their favorite authors.

• Promote your VBT on all your websites and blogs on an events page. Put up a schedule with your hosts’ home page URL. I found it more exciting to post a weekly schedule the day before the week began. It prevented people from going to host sites too early and kept them coming back to my website to see where I’d be going next. I promoted the mystery, which worked to my advantage since I’m a suspense author. This also gave me 1 extra blog post each week, and therefore new content.

The day before each virtual stop:

• Send out a reminder to your host and ask them to post that night. Make sure they have book cover jpgs, your photo and anything else they might need.

The morning of each stop:

• Confirm that your host has posted your content. Check the site. Copy the full URL that leads directly to your post. The home page will change and you want your links to always lead to the exact page that the host has created just for your content.

• Change the home page URL on your schedule to the exact page link. This is how you really leverage yourself. Now when someone stumbles across your schedule and clicks on the link, they’ll be directed to your post, not your host’s ever-changing home page.

• Write an introduction about the day’s stop and post it everywhere. Copy the first paragraph or two of the interview or article and use that for your intro. Post intros to all websites and blogs that you have access to. Don’t forget to post to your Amazon blog, MySpace blog, and MySpace bulletin. The latter goes out to all your MySpace friends. Make sure you have some!

Follow-up:

• Check your host site frequently throughout the day for comments and answer any questions directly on your host site. Do this every other day afterward for about a week. Offer to write a possible follow-up article, depending on what you posted originally.

• Assess the success of your virtual book tour. Set up TitleZ and/or Charteous to monitor your book’s Amazon sales rank throughout the VBT. You should see some lower ranks (lower is better!) during your blog tour, particularly if you have a contest or incentive that inspires more sales of your book. Be creative and have fun!

Authors are now starting to comprehend the full potential that blog tours have to offer and how they benefit everyone involved. You could sign books at a bookstore for three hours plus driving time and reach a few hundred people yet sell only to a few dozen, or you could organize a VBT and promote to millions of people worldwide. Virtual book tours take time, patience and research, but as I have discovered, they are definitely worthwhile. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So why not start today? You have the entire world at your fingertips!

~*~
If you found this article helpful, please consider picking up a copy of Cheryl’s newest novel Whale Song through Amazon.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif is the author of The River, Divine Intervention, and the Amazon bestseller Whale Song. Among her peers, she is known for her perseverance and tireless dedication in book promotion. In August 2007, she was the first Kunati Books author to hold a virtual book tour with 35 stops.

Blog Tours: An Opportunity Not a Loss

In a Sunday New York Times article on blog tours, Felicia Sullivan, senior online marketing manager for Collins was quoted as saying, “If I had to choose, I’d rather have an author promote themselves online. You can reach at least a few hundred people on a blog, and save time, money and the fear of being a loser when no one shows up to your reading.”

What a sad comment on the possibilities of a blog tour: Do the tour if you don't want to be a loser. Sad. That's not why you should do a blog tour. You should do a tour because it can be an incredible way to reach a targeted audience for your book.

Virtual Blog Tours: How to Do One

Here's a comment I made on The Book Marketing Network when someone asked a question about virtual blog tours.

A virtual blog tour is essentially a set of blog interviews or reviews. To set one up, you contact blogs related to your book as well as book blogs that review books and/or interview authors. Ask them if they'd like a review copy of your book and/or would like to interview your book. Tell them why your book or author would interest their audience.

Many blog interviews are done via email where you answer a set of questions and email them back to the blog owner who posts the interview on his or her blog.

By giving this procedure a fancy name, it seems more complicated than it really is. Now, some blog tours feature the same interview on more than one blog, and that is certainly a great thing because it means less work for you. There are a number of blogs that are happy to feature duplicate content since their visitors don't overlap a lot.

Of course, for a blog tour to work, you really need to locate blogs that are actually read. To locate blogs, use Google blog search or Technorati search.