An Interview with a Book Tour Company
When you think of a book tour, you probably think of authors going to bookstores to do a reading and signing. But that’s not how the majority of book tours are done in the indie space these days.
Increasingly, that means getting your book in front of readers who will post about it online leading up to and on release day. This includes getting your book into the hands of ARC (advanced reader copy) readers, social media influencers, and email newsletters.
It’s time consuming and hard work to do this yourself, so you can outsource this work to companies like Gay Romance Reviews who will do it for you.
I asked Leslie from Gay Romance Reviews about how she helps indie authors with their book tours.
1. Who are you and how do you fit into the indie book space?
We're Gay Romance Reviews, and we're as indie as the majority of authors we work with!
Originally part of the LesCourt Author Services umbrella, we began as a one-off service for an author looking for readers for their ARCs. We did it again, and again, and eventually had a big enough collection of reviewers that we made it official and got our own name!
Our service has always focused on working in the gay (as well as other queer pairings) romance sphere, and we're constantly growing, learning, and offering new services to authors and readers in the genre.
2. Why should an author have you on their team?
One of the major struggles we'll hear from authors, especially if they're coming from another genre, is that they just don't know how to find the right readers for their gay romance books.
This is the number one reason we decided to keep our focus to just gay romance—so that we could be an easy-to-find, valuable service to authors of gay romance.
We work hard to make connections with reviewers, bloggers, and bookstagrammers who love and support the genre, and, to toot our own horn, think we've got the best network out there.
Our teams are always excited about debut authors and series, and have interest in books from contemporary to kink, sci-fi, thriller, and more...as long as it's romance!
3. What’s the one thing you wish indie authors knew about your profession?
1. We're most effective when combined with your own efforts.
While our review team is pretty self-sufficient, if you let your readers know we've got ARCs, and they sign up with us, your numbers will likely be higher.
If we're promoting a book on social media and you engage with our posts, the chances of them being seen increase exponentially.
If we're doing a blog tour, visiting and thanking the bloggers and bookstagrammers who are participating will, again, not only help you gain better traction, but also earn you brownie points with influencers who will remember you.
2. Social media is sooooo fickle and impossible to predict. (But you knew that one already.)
3. We're making it up as we go 😂
One of the things we've learned is that plans, trends, and goals change at a moment's notice, so we're always ready to pivot, try something new, or start from scratch.
Want to try something you've never seen done before? Let's give it a shot. We may not be sure how, but we'll figure it out!
4. When should an author think about booking your services and how much should they budget?
This really depends on what an author's budget is and what they're hoping to get with their money.
An author looking to advertise in our newsletter, Gay Romance Report, can do so for as little as $15.
Looking for reviewers? Services start at $45.
Want to reach bloggers, bookstagrammers, and more? Our tour-based services start at $90 for a release blitz and ARCs, and can go as high as $300 depending on the options chosen.
When you’re thinking about timing, we recommend submitting books for ARC reviews at least seven to ten days before release so that the reviews will be posted as close to release day as possible.
Since there are more moving parts with a blog tour, we'd ideally like four weeks to collect as many blog/bookstagram participants as possible, send review copies, prepare materials, and launch.
For any service, the more notice we can get, the better!
5. When would you recommend an author not book your services?
When your book isn't gay romance. Or when there isn't enough romance to appease the average romance reader. Since we’re so specialized, our reviewers and tour participants expect that everything we do will be both gay and romance, so deviating from that can deliver odd or unexpected results.
We caution authors on booking with us if their romance features other queer pairings, but we welcome them with open arms. The downside of recruiting such a specific group of readers is that they can be resistant to change. (We hope this changes soon! One of our active goals is branching out.)
We also caution authors on booking with us if they don't have a strong cover and blurb. First impressions are so very important, and if a book can't make a strong enough first impression, an author's marketing budget is probably better spent increasing that shelf appeal before hiring a company or team like ours.
6. What’s your favourite part about your job?
Top three things:
Working with debut authors who are putting their books in the hands of real readers (not just friends, family, and editors) for the very first time.
Sharing with any author how many requests/reviews their book has received, especially when it exceeds their target number.
When authors no longer need us. Sounds crazy, right? But that means the author who has been with us for however many books, has built a following of their very own super fans and is ready to soar. We're thrilled to have been part of that journey and can't wait for what they do next.
7. How does someone book you?
Our website—gayromancereviews.com—is the best place to find all the information an author might need, whether they're looking for reviews, tours, or our newsletter.
The website is also where anyone interested in joining the review or tour participant teams can find information and links.
And last but not least, you can also see what we're promoting and reviewing by checking out our Instagram feed, @gay.romance.reviews.