So back in May, I sought the help of a wonderful group of bookish ladies who call themselves BookLoverTitas to organize a book tour for my latest release, Connect the Hearts. The tour ran from June 7 to 18, with 12 bookish titas participating, and they did such an amazing job. They kept me on my toes, anticipating their posts every day, and I loved that they enjoyed the book a lot.
I’d been holding off on actually posting about this because we were supposed to have a face-to-face meetup last weekend and I wanted to include photos of us on this post. But alas, the weather put a damper on our plans and we had to reschedule.
Anyway, this post is long overdue, so let me just do it before laziness gets a hold of me. These are my 3 Takeaways from the Connect the Hearts Book Tour:
- Book lovers (and their content) are very much alive! When I started self-publishing in 2015, I was introduced to the world of book bloggers and the concept of book tours. I tried participating in them and also organizing some for other authors as well, but after a while, things got a little overwhelming and I forgot all about it. I also noticed that the number of people who blogged grew less and less, and they shifted to creating microcontent on social media. Bookstagram became a thing. And when the pandemic happened, I saw the rise of BookTok as well.
It was late last year that I met Kristine from BookLoverTitas at one of #RomanceClass’ events. We met again in February this year at our event in Fully Booked, where I also met Tess from their group. And as we approached Philippine Book Festival, the National Book Development Board created for us a bridge between authors/publishers and bookish content creators, which gave me a bigger view of what readers and influencers are doing now to promote their love of books and reading. I now follow a bunch of bookish creators, and I’m loving the content that they make. They constantly attend bookish events and organize book tours for local authors, which is such a great initiative to get the word out there about our books.
Times (and platforms) may have changed, but some things remain the same. Book lovers are very much alive and are here to stay!
- You think you know your book, but you don’t. LOL. When I was putting together Connect the Hearts, I developed a bias for the short story entitled Best Days Ever. It’s a little sad because it deals with grief over the lost of a pet, but as a pet lover myself, it became my favorite piece out of the four short stories in the collection. I thought that readers would feel the same.
To my surprise, the runaway winner for crowd favorite was a story called Finding Mr. Swipe Right, about a girl and a guy who got stood up on their dates and swiped right on each other while killing time at their supposed date spot. The overall sentiment of BookLoverTitas is that they want a full book for the main characters, and every time someone said it in their review or the comments section, I was just floored.
You think you know your book? You really don’t.
What you liked about it when you were writing it might not be what readers will latch on to when they finally read it. I’m aware that reader and author spaces should be separate to allow readers to be comfortable with expressing their thoughts about what they read, but this was an instance where I appreciated being able to know. And it was such an interesting piece of knowledge too! I really didn’t expect it. All I can say is thank you for loving Ace and Cleo, and I can’t promise a full book right now, pero malay natin, someday? (sabi ng manunulat na napakaraming pending hahaha)
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. This is something I already know, but always forget. Or push to the back of my mind. You see I like doing things on my own because 1) I was raised to be an independent girlie, and 2) I could be very specific about what I like, and I often just end up doing things myself so I don’t get disappointed.
With promoting my books, there are two other reasons I rarely seek help. One is the disappointing turnout of my last few ARC campaigns, and the other is shyness. Yes, mahiyain talaga ako, maniwala kayo. 😛
No, but seriously… when I got a lot of ARC signups and barely any reviews, I kinda took the silence as the review. Maybe the book wasn’t good enough, so I just let it go. I also kinda felt a little shy to approach the bookish creators because what if I had a subpar book? Won’t I be wasting their time?
Ten years of doing this, and my imposter syndrome is still very much alive and kicking.
Anyway, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to help me with Connect the Hearts. The ladies of BookLoverTitas were very reassuring and positive, and I loved working with them. I’m so glad I got over myself and reached out to them, because I would have missed out on this experience otherwise.
My heartfelt thanks once again to Kristine, Diane, Tess, April, Lynai, Joyce, Naia, Loraine, Kat, Vi, Hazel, and Charm of BookLoverTitas for your time and generosity. I really, really enjoyed our little time together during the tour, and I’m looking forward to meeting some of you very soon, when busy schedules and the weather permit.
Are you an author needing a little boost for your new book? Reach out to BookLoverTitas on Instagram and talk about a collaboration! They’re a very warm bunch of women, and I can vouch for the care and thought they put in their work within the bookish community.
