Book blog tours for a history e-book: what they buy, what they cost, and a gate
Skill harvest, 31 Oct 2026. Not in the index before ("blog tour" 0 hits; "book blogger" 0). Related but different: gifted-ebook-copies-history-creators-uk-cma-asa-disclosure.md (one-to-one gifting to creators), author-group-promos-bookfunnel-storyorigin-free-organiser-run.md (newsletter swaps), librarything-early-reviewers-member-giveaways.md (review copies).
What a blog tour is
An organiser sends the same book to a set of volunteer book bloggers ("hosts"). Over 1-4 weeks each host posts a spotlight, an excerpt, a guest post, an interview or (sometimes) a review, and the organiser shares every stop on social media. The author pays the organiser; hosts are unpaid.
The evidence
- Dianne Greenlay, three paid tours (ALLi, 2014; first-hand):
- Tour 2: 10 authors, 36 blog stops over 3 days, $30 + $20 toward gift cards each. "Fewer than 10 reviews", a small rise in sales, broke even after her own paid ads.
- Tour 3 (best organised): 8 authors, $40 + $15 each, two assigned 900-word guest posts each, published weeks ahead, a month of promotion; 54 bloggers and about 800 raffle entrants signed up. Authors gained up to 400 Twitter followers and 100-200 Facebook likes; "most saw only modest, if any, increase in sales". One author reached top-100 category ranks, but she also ran a free promotion straight after (97,000 downloads), so the tour effect cannot be separated.
- Her verdict: "Blog tours, for the most part, DO NOT sell books, but they DO get both an author's name and book out there". Bloggers' reviews were "far more critical and picky" than the public's.
- A later commenter (Aliventures) notes authors say tours "might be effective for selling non-fiction" more than novels: second-hand and not measured.
- The Coffee Pot Book Club (UK, historical specialist; read 31 Oct 2026 via the Wayback copy):
- The Mocha tour: at least 10 stops over 4 weeks (1 day a week), daily social shares on X, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads and Pinterest, a dedicated tour page, a Pinterest board, optional reviews. Total cost £145. It is available from July 2026.
- Terms: no guaranteed sales or reviews. Hosts hold any review under 4 stars until after the tour. The club may decline a book that is "not a good fit". Its hosts are mostly historical fiction readers, though it also tags #HistoricalNonFiction.
- Rachel's Random Resources (UK): lists fiction genres as its main market, and "all other fiction" on request. Non-fiction is not listed, so the fit is poor (read 31 Oct 2026).
- Love Books Tours (UK): all genres. Prices are in a downloadable 2026 kit, which we did not open (not checked).
- No case study with sales numbers for a local-history non-fiction tour was found. The expected result is exposure, links and a few reviews, not sales.
How to run one (if approved)
- Fit check first. Email nothing. Read 5 past tours on the organiser's site and count how many were non-fiction or local history. If fewer than 1 in 10, skip that organiser.
- Choose the format that suits non-fiction: guest posts and excerpts ("a 1956 letter to the Western Mail", "what a tithe map shows"), not reviews-only. Each post links to one article page, not straight to the shop.
- Track: one UTM per host (utm_source=
, utm_medium=blogtour, utm_campaign= ). Record visits, signups and sales for 30 days after the tour starts. - Disclosure: each host post must say the copy was free (the CMA/ASA rule in the gifting file).
- Kill rule: cost per new email subscriber above £5, or no sale within 30 days, means don't repeat.
The free self-run version
Pick 5-8 history and heritage bloggers who already write about Glamorgan, Welsh estates or family history. Offer each a guest post written for their readers, with one link back. This is outreach, so it needs the owner's GO and is drafted in HubSpot only. It costs £0 and the posts keep sending readers for years. This file only defines it; no one is contacted.
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- Status: GATE / PROPOSAL. The paid tour is a spend decision for the owner (£145 Mocha is the only verified price). It goes to the owner's queue with this file's numbers: about 10 stops, exposure-led, no proven non-fiction sales.
- The best candidate title is the most story-shaped e-book (a narrative chapter, not the evidence catalogue). The research site is the landing page for every post.
- Public text rules apply to every guest post and excerpt: family members are never named, banned words are kept out, nothing about holdings or addresses, and the dispute is framed as a record, not an accusation.
- If the tour is declined or skipped, the self-run guest-post route goes into the outreach draft queue instead.
Sources
- selfpublishingadvice.org (Dianne Greenlay, ALLi; read 31 Oct 2026)
- thecoffeepotbookclub.com (Wayback 2026 capture; read)
- thecoffeepotbookclub.com (Wayback 2026 capture; read)
- rachelsrandomresources.com (read)
- kellylacey.com (read; price kit not opened)
Raw Markdown: book-blog-tours-history-ebook-coffee-pot-gate.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json