Dicussion Post: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish – Or When Should I Give Up on Blog Tours?

Posted November 5, 2017 by Lisa Mandina in discussion post / 28 Comments

So, recently I’ve been feeling more and more overwhelmed by all the tours I keep signing up for. Not only that, there have been several that I have signed up to review, and then not enjoyed the book enough to keep reading/listening to it.

The title of this post comes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

A few weeks ago, I got an email from the person in charge of one of the tour companies letting me know that I had said I would review a book way back in March I think, and I never did it. So they were going to have to send a link to my review or I wouldn’t be able to participate in any more until I did.  At first I could have sworn that I’d sent them an email saying I didn’t enjoy the book and wouldn’t be reviewing it.  But I went back and looked through all my own emails and couldn’t find anything saying I’d sent that to them.  I do remember the book, and I remember when I gave up on it.  It was also right at the end of the school year, so I must have thought I’d emailed, but then forgot with all the crazy end of the school year stuff.  So I ended up just emailing back and saying it was fine if they just took me off of their list for promos.  I mean, the few books I’d gotten from them I hadn’t liked enough to even finish, so it probably wasn’t worth either of our times for me to stay working with them.

However, after the tour manager reached out to me about another tour I’d signed up for, I emailed back saying I’d thought I wasn’t able to participate.  She let me know that she had been sending out a lot of those emails, and doesn’t know for sure why I got it, that she still had me listed to keep being a part of the tours.  So that issue is solved.   Who knows what end it was on, probably mine, but it is good to work with someone who is willing to work with someone who is usually dependable.

The other thing, is that there are some tours that have the posts already almost perfectly ready for you to post in an html that they send out, and I love those!  I will mention one that does such an awesome job of it, Xpresso Book Tours.  I love participating because her html documents are almost perfect.  I only usually have to change a few things that are personal preference for my own posts, or maybe insert a review or whatever the extra promo I’ve got from the author might be.

But I have had to make myself stop signing up for more than one tour a day, for a while this year I got kinda crazy.  Even still, these are all the groups I still get emails from and occasionally post for:

1.  Xpresso Book Tours
2.  Rock Star Book Tours
3.  Jean Book Nerd Blog Tours
4.  YA Bound Book Tours
5.  Social Butterfly PR
6.  InkSlinger Pr
7.  Enticing Journey Book Promotion
8.  Fantastic Flying Book Club Tours
9.  Pump Up Your Book
10.  Silver Dagger Book Tours
11.  Book Unleashed Tours
12.  Reading Addiction Blog Tours
13.  Audiobookworm Promotions

Now those are all I can think of at the moment, so you can see why I feel like Castiel in the gif above.  And I’m not even listing when publishers contact me to participate in tours, or authors themselves ask me to promote their book. Then there are blog tour groups that have gone out of business, one of which was a favorite of mine. And I’ve not  listed the one that I mentioned above, since I will no longer be working with them anyway.

So, I hate to give up several of them, because I never know when they might have a book I really want to read or be a part of their promotion.

What blog tour groups do you work with?  Have you had any really good or really bad experiences you want to share?  Any thoughts on this post at all, I’d love to hear from you!

Now, excuse me while I go do some more writing to reach my goal during NaNoWriMo!!

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28 responses to “Dicussion Post: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish – Or When Should I Give Up on Blog Tours?

  1. Oh gosh, that's a lot of tours! I get emails from a few but not that often. I tend to do publisher blog tours more than anything, but even so, not a lot because it can be difficult to do it when they want. I know I send out emails about LGBT+ blog tours but then again, they aren't necessarily blog tours with set dates because I want things to be pretty flexible, you know? hah

    -Lauren
    http://www.letsgetbeyondtolerance.blogspot.com

    • I didn't always get publisher blog tours, and so got into it this way. But next year I'll probably be scaling way back. Maybe only one a week or something.

      Thanks for visiting!

  2. Oh my goodness you totally just summed up how I've been feeling the last couple months with blog tours. I really enjoy when they send an html code where I can just post things up, but at the same time I truly am not paying attention sometimes when blog companies send me stuff to post. It's getting to be a little much with sometimes 8 or 9 blog tour posts being all on the same day. Great post. I have definitely been thinking of thinning out when I reply to blog tours from now on, and thanks to you I know I'm not alone.

    Sharrice @Reese's Reviews

    • I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one! I make sure not to do the automatic ones, I have no way or time to do that. Plus, I really don't like to post more than one post a day if I can help it. I don't have time to go read all the other blogs that post more than one a day myself. Thanks so much for joining into the conversation!

  3. Jen

    Xpresso, Inkslinger, Chapter by Chapter, Tasty Tours (she only does LL and a few other authors now and that's it) and occasionally FFBC. I love the html by Xpresso too! I try not to pick more than a few a month, although next week I have two tours *shrugs*, because there's also publisher emails. So I've made myself be super picky this year, and it's finally been working out well.

    Jen @ Star-Crossed Book Blog

  4. I used to do a lot of tours but stopped a while ago when I realized it was just bringing me stress. I do occasionally post with one now but it is just a few times per month and only books that I plan to review.

  5. I work with Lori Caswell who specializes in Cozy Mysteries and TLC and then I also have a few relationships with publishers but I've tried to pull WAAY back on the tours because it got so overwhelming. And I've tried to be way more selective about what books I agree to review. You've got a LOT of tour companies going! That sounds hard to keep up with – especially with regular life stuff thrown in as well.

    • Yeah, I have got to cut back next year. I've already cut back on how many I sign up for, but I think I'll have to make some decisions about cutting some companies out completely.

  6. I like FFBC and Jean the Book Nerd, because they always get the tour schedule and materials to you early. I signed up for this one tour, didn't hear back, until I started getting all these blast emails, to post the next day. I read and reviewed the book, but they sent the tour schedule two days before I had to post. I doubt I would sign up for tour with them again, because I like a little notice. I mostly do tours for books I read already. I think it's better when I like the book.

    • I love when they can get the tour material out to you early! Xpresso does that a lot too. I try not to take on reviews unless I know it is one I want to read. Usually I'm only doing blasts or cover reveals or interviews. But still, it is too much.

  7. I only work with TLC Tours because they are the only tour I've seen that has books that I want to read. They send out one email a quarter to pick the books that you are interested in. My only complaint is that sometimes the books come too close to when I'm supposed to review.

    • I do a lot of just promos, there are a couple of the tour groups I don't find any I actually have the time to try to read. It is hard when you don't get the review book with enough time before you have to post a review. Glad you could join into the discussion!

    • I don't do as much with Netgalley and Edelweiss anymore. I do get some of my tour books through those sites still, or I will go and write down what is available. But until I get my stats up on Netgalley, especially, I don't want to request a lot more. Thanks so much for stopping by!

  8. Well the thing about blog tours is that you have an option to sign up for it or not. And unless you sign up for their blast lists, you should have the option of picking and choosing the books you want to read, right?

    I sign up for multiple blog tour companies so I get regular emails listing available tours open but I only sign up for the ones I am interrested in. I only sign up for review tours and the only time I post a spotlight is when I DON'T like the book at all.

    • Yeah, that is the good thing, that I can sign up for only what I want. And I don't sign up for the automatic lists. But I have got to stop signing up for a lot. I've done much better this past month, but plan to cut it down even more next year. I rarely sign up to review books with the companies though, mostly just post promos. I still want to read more of the things I know I want to read, and not sign up just to be part of a tour. Thanks for joining into the discussion!

  9. I have worked with Xpresso, Lori Caswell, and iRead Book tours. There are several others I have worked with from time to time as well as directly with authors.
    I scaled back this last year because I got too overwhelmed with working full time and trying to get the book reviews done on time. I did do book blast and book spotlights but only for ones I was truly interested in. I never do book reviews unless I am interested in the book or like the author. I am not sure what 2018 will look like quite yet.

    The one thing tough for me is agreeing to do a tour months in advance and then pretty much forgetting about it until almost time due.

    • I worked on keeping from forgetting the tours I scheduled way ahead of time, and now have a pretty good calendar/planner in place. But I'm going to try really hard in 2018 to not sign up for so many. Although my January and February are already pretty full. I probably need to scale those back. Thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts!

  10. Ann

    I don’t do book tours. Like ARCs I see them as something I can’t keep up with. Plus I don’t think it nursery for a book blog. Maybe every now and then to help some authors out.

    • Lisa Mandina

      I like the different images and stuff I get with book tours, and I like helping out authors. But yeah, I think it will be a goal of mine next year to only do tours, review one specifically, for authors I already read, and then work on my TBR shelves. Thanks for joining into my discussion!

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