All Fantasy Worlds: About Book Tours: When Is It Too Much?

 Reblogged from:

http://www.allfantasyworlds.com/

All Fantasy Worlds: About Book Tours: When Is It Too Much?:

I remember the first time I came across a book tour company. It was some years ago, and reading book blogs had just become one of my obsessions. I’d spend hours in front of the screen, going from one blog to another, saving them to my “favorites”, and adding lots of titles to my ever-growing TBR list. And one day I came across Bewitching Book Tours and I was blown away by the genius idea of book tours and how they offered bloggers the opportunity to connect with the authors. Yes, I’ve always been one of those people who believed authors are some kind of evolved species, made up of wisdom and pure awesomeness, who forged ideas, characters and plots by the fireplace, while muses cheerfully danced around their desks. So, this is how it all looked like in my mind: book tours = bloggers meeting authors = great books to read and review = bloggers interviewing authors (I mean, who wouldn’t want to interview a member of that evolved species, who forged ideas by the fireplace?) = authors getting promoted = bloggers dying of happiness because they’re a part of something so big and exciting. Conclusion? If I was ever going to make my own book blog, I promised myself I’d tour with Bewitching.

Yeah, well, that happened eventually. A year ago. By the time I built up the courage to create my own blog, there were so many book tour companies out there that I wasn’t sure which one to check out first. Of course, I kept my promise, and the first one I signed up for was Bewitching. Then I chose two or three more and I kept an eye out for the books that really grabbed my interest. However, my enthusiasm had died down, and I tried to keep myself from singing up for too many book tours. When I did sign up for one, I usually tried to choose a book that I also wanted to review, so I wouldn’t only post a promotional thingy, like a guest post, a book spotlight, or an excerpt. Why, you might ask? Here’s why:

Many of the book blogs I was following were now doing lots of book tours. I mean, lots of them. Some blogs that used to post reviews and other interesting stuff about books ended up posting only book tours, book blasts, and memes. The posts were all the same. Sometimes they would also have a review that went along with the promotion, but there’re only so many books one can read. Even some of the blogs I follow now on Bloglovin’ post only book tours. Twice a day, if possible. They don’t seem to filter the books they promote to choose only the ones that they truly, truly want to feature on their blogs. They don’t personalize their posts. Obviously, they don’t get many comments. Maybe they do get a lot of hits because most book tours have giveaways now. Do I still follow them? Yeah… they’re there, in my Bloglovin’ feed, but I rarely check them. Because I know I’ll find the same content. Over and over. The same content with a different cover and a different blurb.

So, what’s your opinion about book tours? Do you do them on your blog, and if yes, on what principles do you choose them? Do you check them out on other blogs? Do you leave comments? And please don’t hate me for this post. I just think that sometimes…. sometimes… there are too many of them everywhere, and they all look the same. (You can read the whole post on Oana's blog page.)