JustRead Tours Birthday Buzz (and a Giveaway!): Behind the Scenes With Me

Welcome to the Buzz Blitz celebrating 5 years of buzzing about books with JustRead Publicity Tours! As part of the celebration, I thought I’d take you behind the scenes with FIVE of my roles at JustRead! For those who don’t know, I’ve been part of the JustRead administrative team from the beginning but my roles have changed over time. And since my name begins with a ‘C’ it made sense for all of the roles in this post to start with that letter too haha

Cofounder

In 2018, my friend Annie (of JustCommonly) and I had been promoting books & authors on our own blogs / social media for a few years, and we’d also been two-thirds of the team that started the Christian Fiction Readers Retreat. We liked working together, and we liked connecting readers and authors. Taking the ‘Just’ from her blog name and the ‘Read’ from mine, we spun it together with affordable pricing and some of our fave bloggers & bookstagrammers … and thus JustRead Publicity Tours was born.

contractor

I had the absolute privilege of being a co-owner of JustRead Tours for four years – first with Annie and then with my book sisters Beth & Rachel. But after my dad passed away at the end of 2021, I began to sense that God was leading me to be intentional about carving out more time for the things of my heart – namely family, Jesus, and blogging/reading (something that ironically, given our company name, I didn’t have much time for in those past 4 years). So at the end of 2022, I stepped into a contractor role and transitioned out of JustRead tasks that weren’t directly related to our blog or review tours.

coordinator

My contractor role behind the scenes with JustRead Tours involves managing all of our blog tours (including the blog portion of our takeovers), review only tours, and reviewer add-ons. Several weeks before the blog or reviewer tour starts, I vet the hosts who have signed up and then assign them a post type (review, spotlight, author feature, etc.) & date to post so that our client gets the best exposure for their book each day. About a week before the tour starts, I put together the post for JustRead’s blog and the tour assets (materials like graphics, links, and other required items) for our hosts. Then, once the tour has launched, I check posts every day (for blog tours) and follow up with hosts as needed. After the tour is complete, I have Gleam randomly pick the giveaway winner(s), I notify them, and I check the direct review links posted to Goodreads, BookBub and retail sites.  I love interacting with our blog hosts & reviewers, and I love reading the reviews for the books we tour! It’s also fun to make someone’s day with a giveaway win email 😉

client contact

As part of my tour management, I get to talk with our blog/review tour clients about the information we need to put their tour together. This involves confirming their bio and book blurb, getting excerpts from the book, and finding out what they want to give away during their blog tour. I also coordinate delivery of the the digital or print copy of the book to reviewers in time for them to read it, and I’m on hand to answer client questions during their tour. When the tour is complete, I gather the winner info, important stats, and the review links & send all of that to the client in a handy email. Just as I love interacting with our hosts, I enjoy getting to know our clients as well. And I try very hard not to fangirl TOO much 😉 When my own book came out last October, I got to be on the client end of things too … and it was interesting to be my own contact haha!

consultant

Ok, so… this term sounds much loftier than this role actually is but it needed to start with a ‘c’ in keeping with my theme haha! Because I get to oversee the administration of a blog and/or review tour from the moment sign-ups begin until I send clients their wrap-up emails, I get a good feel for which genres and book styles are the most popular with our hosts and reviewers. Behind the scenes at JustRead, the admin team is exactly that – a team. Beth, Mimi, and myself work hard together to make sure our clients are getting the most value out of their tour investment. Picking which books we decide to tour is also very much a team effort, and a lot of factors go into it. But my birds-eye view of our blog/review tours definitely helps me give informed feedback in our team discussions about which books to tour and which ones will be the best fit for which tour type (blog vs. social media, etc.), too.

Wanna learn more about Beth & Mimi’s roles at JustRead? Check out their posts HERE and HERE.

5 book bee perks

Blog tours, bookstagram tours, reviewer tours, etc. are different varieties of book campaigns. Readers who participate in JustRead campaigns are called hosts or book bees. Did I mention that I’m also a book bee? I post on every blog tour and on the blog portion of every takeover tour. Occasionally (and sweating profusely) I will also post on our social media tours. If you’re interested in touring with us, being a book bee comes with some sweet perks!

Various hosting options

Readers buzz about books in a variety of ways through blog posts (spotlights, reviews, interviews, guest posts), social media posts (bookstagram, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), and posted reviews (Goodreads, Bookbub, and retail sites).

Reader community

Although reading is usually a solitary pursuit, enjoy a richer experience with community! Get to know fellow readers through comments, posts, and book recommendations.

Author interaction

Want to personally thank authors for writing books that you love to read? Authors often visit campaign posts to say hello, express gratitude, and answer questions.

Exclusive giveaways

Book bees are eligible for exclusive giveaways through the host newsletter and the monthly host giveaway in addition to tour-wide and occasional host exclusive campaign giveaways.

Access to sweet titles

Last but not least, the honey of the book bee life is sweet reads! JustRead promotes titles within Christian, wholesome, or clean reads genres with content notes tailored to conservative values when sensitive issues are present.

About JustRead

(1) winner will receive a $25 gift card (winner’s choice of Amazon, Baker Book House, Christianbook, or Walmart)!
(5) additional winners will receive one print book from the JustRead stash and a JustRead bookmark!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight May 8, 2023 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on May 15, 2023. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

Enter Giveaway

This giveaway is hosted by JustRead Tours, not RimSP
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

What about you? What questions do you have about what goes on behind the scenes at JustRead Tours or about being a book bee?