Today my discussion is about blog tours. Mostly about questions I have about blog tours and if anyone out there in the blogosphere can answer them, I'd be ever so very grateful.
So, my thing is that when I sign up for a blog tour, all I ever sign up for is either a review or an excerpt. Because every time I look at the interview or guest post options, my mind goes completely blank. I probably wouldn't even be able to come up with topics or questions for people I know in real life and am perfectly comfortable talking to! I don't think I'm interesting enough for this!
But I want to do something besides just reviewing for a blog tour because it would be nice to change it up every now and then, wouldn't it? And I feel like maybe I'd be more likely to be picked for some of them. Maybe not, maybe I'm not cool enough, but whatever. That's fine.
There's like, not even a good list of suggested topics or questions for these things out there on the world wide web. I looked. For a long time. The only ones I found were a total snooze fest. And I know what a snooze fest looks like because I gave a presentation in college that was so long and awful that I was nearly bored to tears while giving it. That's bad, my friends.
So yeah, what kinds of questions do you ask when you do author interviews? Do you always ask questions about writing or the book? I have some books in mind where I feel that I could think of maybe book themed questions for the author, but not very many?? Do you ask personal questions?? Guide me, smart blog readers, for I am lost.
Then there's guest posts. And I feel even more lost?! Like, I'm almost CERTAIN that I am overthinking this like I do with 90% of the things in my life, but like, how do you decide what to have the topic be? Is it just like a regular interview question that you make them elaborate more on? Or is it always related to the book or writing the book??? There's smoke coming out my ears right now because I'm thinking so hard about this.
I think a lot of other options are pretty straight forward. I mostly sign up for Irish Banana Blog Tours and there are other options that I find mostly understandable. Not 100% sure what a top ten list is exactly, but that's okay. If you know, you can tell me, but not a big deal. I have attempted to sign up for other blog tours with absolutely zero luck, but that's okay too.
Anyway, do any of you have any guidance for me? Do you have similar questions to this? I asked this during a twitter chat and a lot of people seemed to have similar questions. So I know I'm not alone!
I think for interview authors the best way to decide what you might want to ask is by reading interviews that you enjoy and noting which questions or types of questions are appealing. Standard ones can be about inspiration or next projects or a character the author is excited for readers to meet. When I decide to reach out to an author, it's usually because I really really want to talk more about the book and have my own questions so sometimes I just end up asking things I'd really love to know.
ReplyDeleteI have started to read all the interviews I come across in order to figure out good questions to ask. I feel like I could wing an interview if I had to, but the guest post topic scares me more! Maybe next time I sign up for one, I should just choose an interview to get out of my comfort zone! It will end up being fun, I'm sure! I'll just have to think of things I really just need to know and ask those questions!
DeleteThanks for your input, that's really helpful! :)
I like to interview one of the book's characters when ever possible. I do mini-interviews on my blog reviews and I usually ask them questions like if certain happenings in the story were based on personal experiences for example, if a character has trouble in French class did they have problems in their foreign language classes, or if the characters' have a special place they meet did she/he have a special place their friends would all gather. That way you aren't straight out asking them a personal question. Heh heh. Questions about pets are good, too, because everyone likes to talk about their pets. :)
ReplyDeleteThose are all good suggestions! I have yet to really have to do this so I'm still freaking out about it, but I will keep these suggestions in mind, should I ever need them! Thanks!
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