Wednesday Chatter: Why Blog Tours Rock

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks

WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Hello my fellow book lovers! Today's mini-rant post was inspired by Vicky's post on Privilege in the bookish community. If you haven't read it yet, do yourselves a favor and go read it. Go on! I'll wait here.


Did you enjoy it? Good! Back to this post. So about a month ago I saw this strange conversation over on Twitter between a bunch of bloggers about blog tours and if they're still relevant and useful and how they don't help as a marketing tool. So I thought I'd share my thoughts and feelings about blog tours.

So without any further ado, here's my thoughts on

WHY BLOG TOURS ROCK

1. I get to find out about new authors

A lot of the authors I'm familiar with now are authors I've discovered through blog tours. Back when I started reading there weren't as many PR companies offering blog tour services to authors, but the ones that were had tons of authors I knew nothing about. In fact, I'd wager that about 60% of the authors I'm now a huge fan of are authors I discovered through blog tours.

Don't believe me? Well, just take into account that since I started blogging I signed up at least 3 editions of the New Authors Reading Challenge hosted by Literary Escapism setting the bar up to at least 25 authors each year, and I've always reached my goal. I actually once set it up to 100, and I reached my goal.

2. Being international sucks so thank you blog tours for existing

Now, of course, keep in mind that I can say that only about the companies I work with, but from what I've seen, there aren't a lot of blog tour companies that limit the access of bloggers based on geographical location. 

So this is a debate that has been going on since blogging started, but the short version of the story is this: if you're internationally based, you have limited options when it comes to meeting your favorite authors, go to conventions, and, yes, even get physical review copies. And what with international rules and regulations, even eARCs are harder to come by. Blog tour companies are the way to go if you're international. Now, that is not always true, because there are amazing publishers that work with international bloggers. But not a lot.

Which brings me to blog tour companies. I have a few with whom I work with and they are amazing for international people. They don't limit which book you can get access to, you can sign up for tours for really famous authors, or if you want, for lesser known authors. It doesn't matter, as long as you do the thing you promised to do, which is review the book.

Which might bring up the following question:

"But Ruby, doesn't that mean that the same book will be featured by a lot of bloggers at the same time????"

 

Source: Giphy.com

Now, normally I'm a pretty patient person (or I try to be in my blogging life, because in my real life I have the same amount of patience as a frog has hair), but this question gets to me every time. Because while yes, you might see 10, 20 or 100 bloggers featuring the same book during a short amount of time, but that is the nature of blog tours. OH WAIT! It isn't! And do you know why it isn't?

Just look at every overhyped book out there. Bookstagram, booklr, booktube, book blogs and book twitter and every other way there is to talk online about books will feature the same book at the same time when that book is popular. Why is it suddenly a negative thing when it's all because of a blog tour? Does it seem more honest if it's not tied to a blog tour? Is it okay for books to get all the attention outside of a blog tour, but once it's attached to such an event it suddenly becomes the most negative thing in the world? 

 

Source: Giphy.com

3. It keeps my blog organized and on schedule

See, here's the thing. If there's one thing I've learned about myself in my years of blogging is that I tend to go on binge-readings and binge-watching of TV shows, ignoring anything else. I've been known to forget to eat in favor of reading, because who has time for eating when there's a mighty battle going on in the latest story I'm reading??? Signing up to blog tours is the thing that makes sure I remember to sometimes hit pause on my current binge. Which is a good thing. 

Also, blog tours help with my procrastination tendencies, because it's hard to do that when you have 400+ pages books to read in a short amount of time. 

4. Blog tours keep me from getting blogger burnout

For those of you that have been following me for a long time, you know I have the tendency to take breaks. And I do feel the need to take a step back, because I'm human and real life gets to me, a lot more than I let on in my online presence. Signing up for blog tours though is the thing that keeps me going. Because one thing that needs to be considered is that once you take a break, picking up things where you left them is not as easy sometimes. Just stopping doing things is insanely easy, but if you're motivated, you'll start doing the thing you loved easier. I love blogging. I love the work that goes behind creating content, I do. But sometimes I get tired. And signing up for a blog tour is, for me, a really good motivator to keep working even though I'm tired and I want a break.

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So these are some of my reasons why I love blog tours. I could probably go on, but I would really love to see what you guys think about this subject.

What do you think about blog tours? Love them or hate them? And do you sign up for them or would you rather just stick to our regular schedule?