Hey booklings, bookwyrms & writerlings!
It has been a while since we revealed our new big project over on Twitter (@BBNYA_official) and I’m so happy to be part of this.
When Dave first asked me what I thought about doing our own awards, judged by a panel of book bloggers and with the goal to find and promote some amazing and underrated indie and self-published authors and their books, I was over the moon! This is honestly so incredibly exciting and I love watching all the preparations for this behind closed doors and I’m so excited to see how it goes.
Today I am here to talk a bit more about what the winning authors (and the participating bloggers) can expect!
But first, let me introduce to you
The First Annual Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award!
in association with
The Folio Society & The Write Reads
BBNYA 2020 was first announced by Esmée, you can check out her post here, where she goes more in-depth about the idea behind BBNYA and what more to expect.
Like I said, I’d love to share with you some more about the prizes! Settle down because we have some amazing things in store for you!
I had the pleasure to ask two lovely authors about their thoughts on Blog Tours so can get more of an inside into what you could win by participating! I talk more about Folio Society (with photos!) and more!
Esmée already revealed the list of the prizes:
The winning author will receive:
- A yet to be revealed BBNYA 2020 trophy
- A 1st place BBNYA 2020 badge for the winning book
- A 100 pound Folio Society voucher
- A 100 euros cash prize.
- An ‘Ultimate Blog Tour’ for the winning book, probably the biggest Ultimate Tour yet!
The other finalists will win prizes as well:
- BBNYA 2020 finalist badges for their books
- More Folio Society vouchers (£50 voucher each)
- For 2nd to 5th place, a ‘Standard Blog Tour’ from @The_WriteReads with 20-40 bloggers taking part.
- For 6th to 10th place, a ‘Mini Blog Tour’ from @The_WriteReads with 10-15 bloggers taking part.
And I’m here to talk about them more in-depth.
First, let’s have a look at the Blog Tour prices. What are Blog Tours, what can you expect? And who better to tell you those things than two of the wonderful authors we had the pleasure to work with in the past!
So let me introduce you to Kristin Ward and Ben Galley, who were so kind to do this little interview with me. Both did a
When did you first hear about Blog Tours and what made you decide to do one?
BG:
I first heard about Blog Tours way back in 2010, when I first dipped my toe into the book market and the wide world of marketing. Blog Tours have always been a staple of a content strategy, and although their popularity or effectiveness has undulated over the past decade, I still think that given the right blogs and content, they can be of great use. I decided to get involved in a tour mainly because The WriteReads gathered over 100 blogs to organise the largest blog tour (possibly ever) and asked me if I’d like my books to be the focus of the tour. It seemed like a great opportunity, and so I agreed and got stuck in.
KW:
To be honest, I was greener than Kermit the Frog – it isn’t easy being green – when I first heard of blog tours. I had joined several indie author groups on Facebook and blog tours had been mentioned a few times on varying threads. The idea of a blog tour sounded like tremendous exposure, especially for an unknown author, but I really didn’t have a clue how to tap into this resource. From the information I had gleaned through Facebook and my own research, book blog tours were a wonderful way to get my work into the hands of certain types of readers who would look at the book with a critical eye and share their insights with their subscribers. Whether my work resonated with a book blogger or not, the tour itself could be an invaluable platform for sharing my novel and message with a broad audience I would otherwise not be able to reach.
But how does one even begin? I did read several articles on the topic and reached out to individual book bloggers through Facebook to begin a foray into the book blogger community but I put the desire to join an actual tour on hold and didn’t think about it until I was told about something altogether new: The Ultimate Blog Tour! My editor and the creator of this fabulous endeavour, David Taylor, told me about a blog tour that would surpass all blog tours – 100 Book Bloggers blogging about my book over a 10 ten period.
Wow! I was all in! This tour would recognize the important impact that bloggers have in an author’s journey and I loved Dave’s idea of bringing this to the forefront while also shining the light on authors that may be out of the mainstream.
What was the experience like? Was it what you expected?
BG:
The organisation of Blog Tours is most of the battle, I think, and thankfully that was mostly taken care of by the brilliant WriteReads. During the tour, my Twitter and Facebook notifications were off the hook, and have never been busier. It was impressive from that viewpoint, and great to see so many mentions of my books. Overall, the feedback and reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and it was great to also do a number of interviews and guest posts to keep the tour fresh and interesting throughout its duration. It was indeed what I expected, but also my expectations were exceeded.
KW:
When the first Ultimate Blog Tour launched on April 1, 2019, my YA Dystopian novel, After the Green Withered, was featured. I can tell you that I was a bundle of nerves going into this tour! 100 bloggers reading my book! OMG! Will they love it? Hate it? I was nervous and excited when the first reviews began to light up the Twitterverse. I knew that whether the bloggers participating in the tour enjoyed the book or not, it was going to be huge.
On the first day of the tour my phone was lighting up with notifications and I was scrambling to interact with everyone while trying to go about my day at work without bursting with excitement. Like many indie authors, I love being tagged in reviews and during the tour, every blogger tagged my book and/or me as the reviews were posted throughout the ten-day period. This enabled me to interact with each blogger on the tour, thanking them for reading my work and sharing an insightful review of the book.
I can tell you that this experience far surpassed my expectations. By the end of the ten-day blog tour, my debut novel had been shared with thousands of readers, via each blogger’s platform, and I made connections with the blogging community that I enjoy almost daily. While I didn’t see an uptick in sales of my book, that was not at the forefront of my mind when I chose to participate in the tour. My goal was to share my book with people who have never heard of this new, geeky YA author and receive their critical insights into my work. The experience was fabulous and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again!
What’s your favourite thing about BT?
BG:
I have to say that the best thing about it was the sheer number of mentions of my books. It got my backlist and catalogue in front of a huge amount of readers I might not have reached otherwise, and undoubtedly increased my readership. Also, once the tour is organised, it’s quite nice to sit back and watch the tour unfold.
KW:
There are a few things that stand out as favourites regarding Blog Tours. First and foremost is the exposure an author receives when so many individuals are reading and reviewing their work. Not only do subscribers of each blogger get notified of a new review and become potential readers of the author’s work, but you also have these same reviews posted on major platforms like Goodreads and BookBub. Reviews are gold for authors and a blogger brings a level of expertise to reviews that truly makes each reflection they craft an important element of publishing and marketing.
The reviews themselves have become tools to better my craft. As with any readership, my books are not going to resonate with every blogger. I take their critique and use it as I way to shape future projects, paying more attention to those things that may have been a deficit across multiple reviews or capitalizing on those elements that were repeatedly highlighted as strengths. In this way, bloggers help me take my writing to the next level.
On a personal note, I love the relationships forged through a blog tour. Twitter is a fantastic platform for bloggers and authors and a huge benefit to a blog tour is the connections that I have made with some of these unique and talented people. The majority of the interactions I have on Twitter are the direct result of my tour! I can tell you that I am very excited about my next tour this month for my YA SciFi-Fantasy, Rise of Gaia. I look forward to reading thoughtful reviews, interacting with the amazing people who make up the blogging community, and learning from their impressions of my work. Bloggers and authors are on this journey together and I am privileged to be able to take part!
Kristin Ward: Ben Galley:
So, now you know what Blog Tours are and why it’s so cool that you could win them!
Let’s talk now on our Sponsor:
Folio Society. And I can tell you from personal experience … you really want to win this voucher!!
And even more exciting, this isn’t only for the finalist authors but for the participating bloggers as well! There will be a couple of 50£ vouchers randomly raffled out to the panelists! But enough talking, let’s see some beautiful books you could get with this voucher.
These are some pictures I took back when I won a Folio Society and went a little overboard and bought 3 (!!) books, but they were just all so incredible!
There are beautiful books for everyone. Stunning Fairytale collections from different parts of the world, incredible horror books, Gorgeous classics, sci-fi, fantasy … EVERYTHING!
And last but not least, I can’t yet reveal the Finalist and Winners badge …
BUT I can show you the panelist badge and you can guess how the others will look like. They are just as stunning (I got to see them already!!).
They were all designed by the wonderful and talented Jenn @ Jenniely
You should definitely check out her post, you will be able to see the logo there, too!
ALL prizes associated with BBNYA 2020, for both authors and bloggers, will be fully international in every way.
More details, all terms & conditions will be available soon on our official website http://bbnya.com!
Keep an eye on our Twitter for all updates: @BBNYA_official.
Papertea & Bookflowers 