Blog tours have been an integral part of my book blogging career and it is always exciting to find new authors through blog tour organizers. I am part of a couple mailing lists and Storytellers on Tour are my latest. Co-founded by Timy and Justine, Storytellers on Tour bring indie Fantasy and Science Fiction novels to the readers. I myself have been looking more into blog tours and finding how exciting and terrifying it is to reach out to bloggers about books. Let’s chat with Timy and Justine and get a glimpse into their side of the world.
Welcome to The Creator’s Roulette, Timy and Justine! Storytellers on Tour has brought some interesting books to my attention. What made you decide to focus on indie Fantasy and Science Fiction?
Timy: Hi Kriti, thanks for having us! We are super excited to be featured in the Creator’s Roulette and to talk about Storytellers On Tour. We’ve been really dedicated to the indie scene for years now. I, for one, started blogging because I felt this was the best way to raise awareness for the great indie fantasy books I came across. I’m pretty new to the fantasy scene compared to those who grew up reading SFF books and most of my experience with traditionally published fantasy was urban fantasy, so I was looking for other books. I had the pleasure to make friends with a couple of indie authors and that’s pretty much how I came in contact with this community. I know how hard it is for indie authors to reach a wider audience, and I know several books that would need much more attention. But some authors do not have the means to invest into marketing and others have no idea where to start. When Justine first pitched the idea of running a blog tour organizing service, we always meant it to be for indie authors.
Justine: Hey there, Kriti. It’s an honor to be here! Firstly, we’re insanely grateful for your interest in Storytellers On Tour – the support of our dedicated readers is the sole reason why we’re able to help showcase the incredible books we feature. Both Timy and I have been bloggers in the SFF community for quite some time now, and along the way we’ve had the pleasure of meeting some pretty great indie authors that have written grossly under-appreciated stories. While indie publishing has its charms, it can be a taxing experience for authors, as the responsibilities that would be taken on by publishing houses fall directly to them. As if writing, editing, polishing, and publishing weren’t enough, now it’s time to get that book into readers’ hands – where to even start?! As Timy stated, when we began discussing the idea of Storytellers On Tour, there was never any question of who we would direct our services towards. The best people to help with the heavy lifting of promoting indie books are lovers of indie books.
I love your mission and that is why I signed up to be a roadie! I have not been book blogging for very long and through review requests, I have been exposed to indie authors. I don’t think I would have known much about them if I had not gone into book blogging. This is a perfect chance to learn about the inside workings of blog tours.
The Backend of Blog tours
Blog tours require not just reaching out to bloggers to be on your team (roadies as you call them 🙂 ) but also once a tour is set, sending out books, making graphics, social media engagement. Do you divide these responsibilities between the two of you or do you have specialized areas of expertise?
Timy: It took a bit of time to work out the kinks, but by now we pretty much figured out a system to divide the responsibilities between us. At first, we’ve tried to both handle our Twitter account or our emails, but we soon realized it just led to chaos. Graphics were always Justine’s responsibility, as she has much more expertise there than me. I’m more into the organizing, and handling our social media. I think we are lucky, because we are both perfectionists, and have a similar work ethic, as well as way of thinking, so we pretty much agree on everything the other comes up with. We both have our strengths which compliment each other so we make a great team.
Justine: Chaos is a bit of an understatement! We had a pretty good idea of what to expect when we first launched Storytellers On Tour, but new surprises seemed to pop up every step of the way. During our first few tours, Timy and I were stepping on each other’s toes quite often, which led to the creation of a master checklist of responsibilities and a shared calendar. In addition to our website, we have a presence on multiple platforms (Discord, Goodreads, Twitter, and Instagram), so we also thought it best to divide those among us to prevent repeated messaging, as well. Without Timy’s organizational skills, this whole endeavor would’ve succumbed to mayhem by now. And I couldn’t agree more, I wouldn’t want to be taking this journey with anyone else.
I hear you. Organizational skills are such a big part of blogging and then you add in all the other magic that blog tours do, you have a lot on your plate!
As a book blogger who has been part of tours, I feel they are all about publicity for the author and spreading the world about their book, blog tours being a paid service. Do you read every book that comes your way requesting a tour? How do you decide which ones to share with your roadies?
Timy: We always try to have at least one of us to read the books we are touring – which is mostly Justine as I’m swamped with SPFBO and my backlog on review requests. But we both of us have our own spot on the tour – Justine does the welcoming on the Sundays before the tour begins, and I have the encore on Saturdays. So far it works out well for us. We are a pretty new service – we only started out this March – so we haven’t turned down anyone yet who booked our services. At this point most authors who reached out to us are people we’ve known for a while, or people whom they recommended. At this early stage every tour is an experience we learn from – which books seem to be more popular with our Roadies, which are harder to fill up, how is our communication with each author, what are the expectations towards us. At one point we probably will have to come up with a system to decide who we accept though. I try not to think of that day… I don’t like saying no…
Justine: The majority of the books (also audiobooks and albums) that we’ve offered so far are either from authors we’ve read in the past, or those that we’ve been recommended to by people we trust. We have a basic screening process where we request the cover, blurb, and general information in order to make sure the overall concept of the book isn’t offensive, and luckily we haven’t yet been forced to turn anything away. I personally try to read each title that comes our way, but usually don’t get to them prior to reader recruitment. We also understand that not all that sign up for a tour will enjoy the book being featured, so we always offer alternative routes to lessen the pressure of feeling obligated.
A Successful Tour
What makes a tour successful and memorable for you? What about from an author perspective? And a blogger on the tour perspective?
Timy: I think what makes a tour successful mostly depends on what the goal of the author was: driving sales? Raising awareness? From our perspective, we think a tour might be successful if it books up quickly and we have more reviews than spotlights. Our first goal is to raise awareness and put the book in as many hands as we can. It’s always nice to read/watch reviews where a blogger says they loved the book and wouldn’t have known about it if it weren’t for us. That’s nice. We want people to know that indie books can be just as good as traditionally published ones. We want people to give them more credit.
From an author’s perspective, I think the main goal should be building image and awareness. We might be able to reach out to bloggers who beforehand weren’t on their radar, so we can build new connections between authors and bloggers. If a blogger loves an author’s book, then she/he likely will go and look at their other books as well.
As for bloggers, I think the building connections is true as well. Both with authors and other bloggers taking part in the tour. And maybe some extra views on their blog which, let’s face it, is always nice.
Justine: This is an excellent set of questions. I’ve unfortunately witnessed a sort of stigma associated with indie publishing that it’s somehow inferior to traditional publishing, and this is not the case whatsoever. We aim to rid this mentality in as many circles as we can. So, ultimately changing these views is what means success to me. Also, I think seeing the books we offer being showcased in various types of media–blogs, Instagram, vlogs, podcasts, etc.–is pretty amazing, and the more eyes we get on features, the better. I always enjoy seeing what our readers have to say, and spotting those “this sounds right up my alley, I just picked it up” responses pretty much makes my day.
When it comes to authors, I hope our services help them find loyal readers that will continue to read books that they’ve published in the past and plan to publish in the future. We’ve had several readers tell us they’ve either picked up or were planning on picking up more books from the authors they’ve discovered during our tours. Also, let’s be honest here – influencers hold an integral role when it comes to promotion of any kind.
As for our bloggers, we hope that we not only drive traffic in their direction, but also help them find some wonderful books that they truly enjoy. As a blogger myself, there are times when we sadly lose sight of the overall picture that reading is meant to be enjoyed, not looked at as a chore. Reading good books, finding new bookish people, growing your audience, all the positive aspects of being a book blogger.
Challenges and being Different
What is the most challenging part of being a blog tour organizer?
Timy: Honestly, if I had to do all this by myself, I would go crazy. It takes up much more time than I would have thought, and I already knew it’s going to be a time consumer. It needs a lot more organizing with everything else. Probably the most challenging sometimes is to book up some of the tours. Sometimes it needs a lot of field work to reach out to bloggers who aren’t among our Roadies yet to ask them if they might be interested so we could have a minimum number of participants. Luckily, so far, we managed to do that, and we didn’t have to cancel any of our booked tours. It also requires a lot of patience – at which I’m not good at – as we are working closely with people. That can be draining, when things aren’t going as we want. But as I said, each tour is a learning experience.
Justine: There isn’t much else to add to Timy’s response. Organizing tours is very demanding and, at times, emotionally draining – author/blogger/Bookstagrammer/vlogger correspondence, asset creation, scheduling, giveaway organization, social media interaction and cross-posting, reading, reviewing, interviewing – it can get overwhelming quickly. I think the most challenging part of the daily workings is finding audiences for the varied selection of books we offer. Some tours book quickly, and others require both Timy and myself to scour Twitter and Instagram all hours of the night looking for readers. Thankfully, most are very welcoming of our random emails and DMs!
There are so many blog tour organizers out there, WriteReads having a massive following. What sets you apart from other blog tours?
Timy: I know the WriteReads and they definitely have a massive following. We can’t compete with that yet. I think what sets us apart is that we focus exclusively on indie SFF, we both been part of the community for years now so we have our own reputation which adds to our credibility. As I mentioned, we both do our own features, and that gives our tours a frame and a stability. We are also trying to build a community amongst our Roadies and hope to organize events exclusively for them in the future – such as author meet and greet (virtually). We have some ideas, but they need some ironing out yet.
Justine: I’m personally on mailing lists for three or four blog tour services, and partake in them regularly. The problem with many that have these huge followings is that they appeal to a very particular brand of author within very specific genres. I think what sets Storytellers On Tour apart is that we welcome any and all flavors of Sci-Fi and Fantasy…as long as it’s independently published by an author, indie publisher, or small press. What we take pride in the most is the personal nature of our tour service. We make it a priority to get to know our subscribers, and always have open channels of communication on various platforms. Expanding our community is definitely a goal, but we never want to jeopardize these close-knit relationships we’ve built with our readers.
I think being SFF indie does set you apart. I have seen a number of blogs that are dedicated to SFF, more than any other genre that I have interacted with and that niche is what appeals to a lot of us book bloggers. I am also on a bunch of tour companies lists and from you, I know exactly the kind of book I am getting while from them, I might have to find more information.
If someone wanted to start a blog tour, what advice would you give them?
Timy: Have realistic goals, be organized, build up your brand and put in the work it requires. Which is a lot. If you only want to do it to pass the time, then it’s probably not your calling.
Justine: This is a business, not a hobby. Clearly outline the specifics of EVERYTHING for your own mental wellbeing. Expect curveballs. Be willing to evolve. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Prepare for late nights. Be passionate. Take pride in your creation. Respect your readers. Communication is key. And never forget this is all for the love of storytelling.
Thank you for these wonderful, insight answers, Timy and Justine!
Do you take part in blog tours? Did you learn something new about them today?
Interested to take part in SFF indie blog tours? Check out Storytellers on Tours on their website, Twitter and Instagram.
All images from Unsplash.com
That was really cool and insightful to really hear about the work involved, as well as the dedication of those two. Great interview!