Writing a book is hard. But getting the word out you’ve written a book is even harder.
Everywhere you look people are publishing books (or so it seems when you’re an author), and so trying to share – without ramming it down people’s throats – is a fine art of balancing.
And so, not wanting to be one of those people who beg their friends and family to read my books, I decided to reach out and find what other authors do.
A book blog tour, is what I learned.
And so off with my little fingers a-tapping on the keyboard I found myself Rachel, a recommended book blog tour organiser who sorts it all out for you. In exchange for a small pot of gold, Rachel contacts all the people in her network (book bloggers, bookstagrammers etc) who may be interested in reading and reviewing your book.
Rachel is super lovely, but it’s a pretty anxiety-inducing time because you’re sending your book out into the world and hoping bloggers will be interested enough in your offering to want to read it.
As book bloggers, they’ve seen a lot of books, so it stands to reason they’re pretty selective about what they will and won’t read.
And I don’t think I’d realised how nervous I’d feel about this whole thing. Because not only do you have the thing about ‘does anybody want to read it?’ you also have the additional thing of ‘will anybody like it?’
And that does send you into a bit of a spin, I have to confess. But it’s a spin of excitement and anxiety and hope and fear and so many emotions it’s hard to know what the real thing actually is.
So I decided not to dwell. Dwelling on such a range of emotions will positively get me nowhere. Thus I decided to compartmentalise that part of my brain, it wasn’t easy. But with big thoughts about walls and ignorance and focussing on other stuff it worked.
So it was with utter delight when I read the email from Rachel informing me my book blogging tour for Who Killed Patrick? was full!
And it was with complete astonishment when I read the amount of book bloggers who wanted to do Q&A’s with me, who wanted unique extracts and who wanted me to write guest posts for their blogs. Little ole me? You want to know me and have a piece of me?
I won’t lie, I shivered with delight and tapped away again.
I don’t really know what to expect from this upcoming book blog tour for Who Killed Patrick? But what I do know already, is that the experience has exceeded my expectations.
To feel wanted to be read is such a special feeling. And it’s that I cherish. Of course, I want everyone to love my story and my characters. But that’s the next stage of this process (at least for me mentally!)
For now, I’m so happy with the start, book bloggers want to read my book and I’m going on tour. I’m not compartmentalizing anymore, I’m flooding with delight 🙂