There has been a lot of drama circulating around the Book Community in the last week or more. The biggest bout of it was involving a blog tour company that was accused of Doxxing some of the bloggers after they spoke out against some opinions of one of the owners. To be honest I never heard of the company itself but after reading up on them and what they had been offering it added some fuel to my already burning idea.
To start a blog tour company…
At first this idea was brought out about wanting to find a way to pay bloggers for their time. Not for their reviews but for their work and for their space on a tour however that leads to very pesky areas of ethics. The fact is that you can’t pay a blogger for providing a review without the implications of the review being a paid one. Those are pretty frowned upon, in fact Amazon will ban you if they believe you were paid to post a review on their site.
I also wanted to provide a tour service for the Horror/Thriller Genre specifically. Most tour companies take all genres or go for more YA or Romance genres. But not many are just for the Horror or Thriller Genre’s and I wanted to support those books because those are my favorites.
But what the issue with FFBC made me realize is that I don’t have to charge for the services. Frankly the whole point of charging was less about me making money and more about me being able to help bloggers feel supported. But if I’m not profiting monetarily from the author or publisher, than would that make the bloggers feel less left out? Would that help? It seemed like a lot of bloggers were a part of FFBC and posted in a lot of tours for them.
So here I am, thinking that I can combine the idea I had with what I’ve learned and start a tour company that doesn’t charge for it’s tours and is strictly for the horror/thriller genre. But it’s not something that I can do on my own and it would be wonderful to find support, even it’s just one person to help.
I’ve been leaning towards the name “Macabre Book Tours” as far as I could look up it doesn’t already exist. With that the idea of maybe a Ko-fi account, or something for donations and that money can be used to do giveaways or give back to the bloggers while also helping any costs for websites and such.
Either way this is all just an idea. So I wonder is it a good one? Is there anyone interested in helping? Please comment or shoot me an email through the contact page if you are interested.
I think it’s a truly great idea…..I’d love to take part if you do set it up. I’m not bad with the odd graphic if you’d any assistance lol……take a peek at my blog to see x
Thanks!
I would sign up – but I do think it’s ok for tour organisers to charge a fee. I’ve not set up a blog tour, but from what I have seen they are a lot of work and graphics need to be done, etc.
Anyway – I would be in, I love a good horror and I love the name Macabre blog tours!
Yes that’s true but that’s why I thought a donation system would be better. I don’t want to make a profit when I know bloggers who participate aren’t either. But a donation or support that way could be a boost to help keep the service going and allow for giveaways and such for the bloggers. Thank you for the comment! I think it’s a pretty good name too! 🙂
Hey Chasity, I think it’s a great idea. Horror is not my genre but I would support you any way I could.
Thank you so much! That’s really sweet of you!
I think it is an interesting idea. My only quip would be how do you plan to obtain the books for the tours? I feel like it’ll require some kind of affiliation with a publishing company. I’m just curious how you would go about that!
As far as I know a specific affiliation wouldn’t be required. Advertising of services. Even a simple tweet could gain the attention of an author interested in a boost.
I’m not opposed to the idea of a horror/thriller book tour company. But I’m a little confused as to what your idea has to do with your mention of drama with another company? It jusg seems a little disjointed to me. Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose to do.
I mentioned it as I didn’t know they existed until the drama and looking into them I got the idea for not charging. I never said my idea had anything to do with the drama itself just that because of it I learned of the company itself. But my wording could have been better so I can understand the confusion. Thank you for the comment!