Running 2 Blog Tours At The Same Time - What I learned

Yup. You read that right. TWO blog tours at the same time. Craziness. Trust me, I know!

So after both of my blog tours ended, I realized I had learned a LOT. My weekly post last week found HERE explains how I set mine up. This week I'll clue you in to the things I learned or did wrong - and what I know not to do next time.

First - It doesn't hurt to ask book bloggers directly to participate, but do your homework first!! Make sure they are a fit to your book's genre. Don't embarrass yourself.

Second - No matter how organized you are, things WILL fall through the cracks. No matter how many reminders or exchanged emails, some bloggers won't post. No biggie. Brush it off like a grain of salt. It happens.

Third - My biggest regret is that I didn't learn more about Mailchimp BEFORE starting. While Google Docs are awesome, I had to manually add each participant from the sign-up sheet to my Mailchimp list of tour hosts. 

PAIN. 

This is where a few fell through the cracks for me. I learned after the tour that Mailchimp has their own sign-up forms for whatever campaign you're setting up - and those email address go DIRECTLY into your list for the newsletter. 

*slap forehead*

Fourth - I stalked too much. Commenting is great, & replying awesome, but some days I couldn't stop swinging by to my hosts' sites just to see what was happening. This leads to ...

Fifth - Prioritize. I hardly got any writing done all month long because I was so obsessed with checking on my hosting sites. 

Set a time limit. 

Stick to it.

Sixth - Not everyone will love my story. Reviews poured in from the other antho authors' tour stops, and I was a smidge disheartened when a reviewer didn't love my contribution as much as I do.

Again, no biggie. We can't please every reader every time.

Seventh - This one I attribute to my green anxiousness. I planned and started sign-ups too early. Until the reminders went out 4 weeks before the tour, a few bloggers never responded. Chances are they had forgotten they'd agreed two months earlier.

*shame face*

Eighth - Get those guest posts, interviews, and tens lists done WHEN THEY COME IN. Don't procrastinate and suddenly be left with ten things to accomplish in ten days. 

Hmmm. Thinking that might be about it. I'll probably remember another not-so-great moment a day or two after this goes live, but oh well.

What have you learned from your own blog tours? Suggestions to making them easier / better?