What makes for a successful blog book tour?

Today, several blog book tour students had a chat about all things related to virtual tours, and I thought I'd share the link with you. Diane, Marvin, and Alex did a great job over at Spunk on a Stick talking about what makes for a great blog book tour.

I would like to comment about one aspect that has been changing the past year or so. How far ahead should you contact your hosts before your scheduled tour dates? Of course, you want to find them and get to know them a good bit before your tour. Six months isn't too far ahead to start scoping out blogs and interacting with them. But I don't actually contact hosts until a month or so before the actual tour stops. Then it's easier to get their attention and hold it for a few weeks while everything, including the nature of the visits, falls into place. People are getting shorter attention spans all the time, and most don't want to tie up their blogs schedules more than 4-6 weeks ahead.

I've also noticed lately that bloggers don't answer their emails anymore, so I'm finding that I have to connect with them on Twitter and Facebook at the same time that I discover their blogs.  Often, I get an answer on those sites long before I get a return email. The added benefit is I don't feel I'm spamming them with repeated contacts. So this is something to consider. Truth is, if they don't have a Facebook and Twitter presence, their blog might no be that hot anyway. Unless, of course, they're Alex J. Cavanaugh, Mr. Popularity himself. He isn't yet on Facebook. Hard to believe, I know!