Happy Friday everyone.

Today I’m expanding on my last New Kids’ blog about setting up your own blog tour.  One of the questions I’ve had, over and over, is how do you find blogs to guest on?

Research, people, research.

Like everything else in this world, you can do things the easy way (hire a blog tour guide) or the hard way (do it yourself.)  You already know which way I took. (You can check out my list of stops on my website.)

Now – if I was making the big bucks would I hire someone to help?  Yes-sir-e-bob.  I’ve met authors with their own publicists.  And several have a virtual assistant to help with the day to day tasks that keep you from writing. But I’m not making that kind of money.  Yet.

So what’s a girl to do on the cheap? 

Here’s my plan for The Double Trouble Blog tour this November. (I have two books releasing within a week of each other – hence the name. I might come up with something cuter but today – that’s what you get.)

First, I’m going to hit up my friends with blogs and blog connections again.  One, its good publicity for both them and me, and two, they probably won’t say no. 

I’m skimming through last tour to see where I got the most hits.  I’ve already booked a few dates with blogs where my comments and hits seemed to be pretty active.  Someone said that for every one comment, you have 100 looks.  I don’t find that stat true, or at least not on New Kids.   But if I got 10-15 comments, with at least a few of them from people I don’t know, I’m coming back to that blog.

One thing I’ve been doing since my blog tour ended is skimming the cream off my lists.  Okay, what do I mean?  I’ve picked up several blog visits just by responding to a call out on one of my writer’s loops.   It’s introduced me to new bloggers, new authors, and hopefully, new readers.

Don’t forget to reach high.  All they can say is no.  I was on Fresh Fiction’s blog last Sunday because a traditionally published author friend of mine mentioned she was trying to get a blog day.  I thought, why not? And they accepted me and set up an author page and book page for me.  SCORE.

Reaching out to a blog owner is easy.  Most blogs have a contact tab or even a list explaining how to be considered.  Write your email like a query letter.  Make sure your host can’t wait to have you on their blog.  Mention your book (I almost went the entire post without mentioning THE BULL RIDER'S BROTHER) and I always  put in a link to my personal blog and recent guest blogs I’ve done.  That way they know you can write.

Get your date, write your blog, send it early, and promote the heck out of it.

Whew. Any questions?