Serena Agusto-Cox Interview on Book Blogs and Blog Book Tours for Poets

I’m very excited today to feature an interview with Serena M. Agusto-Cox. I know Serena from her book blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, but she’s also just started a book blog tour service for small press authors! Don’t know what a book blog tour is? Read this!

Serena M. Agusto-Cox is a poet and amateur photographer who lives outside Washington, D.C. Her poems have appeared in Beginnings Magazine, LYNX, Muse Apprentice Guild, The Harrow, Poems Niederngasse, Avocet, and Pedestal Magazine. An essay of hers appears in Made Priceless by H.L. Hix, and she is interviewed in Everyday Book Marketing by Midge Raymond.  Her blog, SavvyVerse & Wit is a literary review blog and home to the Virtual Poetry Circle.  She also is the co-founder of the blog War Through the Generations and owner of Poetic Book Tours. Poetic Book Tours is an online virtual book tour marketing firm for small press authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

JHG: Serena, you’ve been running your book blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, for some years. Why do you do it? What is the most satisfying part of it?

Serena: I’ve been blogging about books, poetry, and writing since 2007. I started talking about individual poems I read in literary magazines because I felt like others should be reading poetry, too. I think that the genre is often overlooked or even avoided by readers because they have this perception that it is too hard to understand.Then I fell into a book blogging community and received some encouragement from one blogger, Dewey, who has since passed away. She encouraged me to take part in the community and share my thoughts on books, which I did. Since then, I’ve interacted with men and women throughout the world and shared thoughts on books and poems, and even connected with some who write their own fiction and poetry. That, to me, is the most satisfying part of book blogging – the connections.

JHG: You’re offering a service now to authors and publishers to help them put together a book blog tour. Can you tell us a little bit about that, and the benefits that a book blog tour can have?

Serena: I started Poetic Book Tours at the end of 2014, and my first book blog tours are rolling out this month. When someone wants to create an online book blog tour, we agree on a number of stops for the tour and a mix of reviews, guest posts, and interviews for that tour.Not only do these blog tours give writers more time to work on their writing projects because they are not traveling from bookstore to bookstore and state to state, but they also are able to connect with their readers in an environment that has fewer pressures and constraints on time. Readers and authors can communicate with one another on the blog. It also gives authors a chance to explain their work and inspirations, which many readers are eager to learn about.The costs of an online book tour are far less than traveling on a traditional book tour, and also provide an opportunity to connect with readers on a global scale through the blogs and their social media contacts.

JHG: How would you say an online book blog tour compares to a “real life in person” book tour in terms of sales, benefits, etc. (besides it being a lot less tiring for the author!)?

Serena: As I’ve just started my tour company, I can only tell you what I’ve learned from my own experience as a book blogger with an affiliate association to Amazon. When readers buy books through the Amazon links on my blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, I can see an immediate sale or even sales a few weeks down the road. These links help me see which books are being purchased because of my reviews, but even those who do not buy through Amazon will often comment that they ordered a book I reviewed through their local bookstore.While online book tours are less costly and time consuming for the author – definite benefits for authors who also have other full-time work – online tours allow them to reach a wider audience, and through tailored packages, they can reach target groups. For instance, poets can reach poetry readers – those who already read poetry – while at the same time, expose new readers to poetry.

JHG: As a reviewer yourself, what makes you interested in a certain book, or what raises the chances a book might be featured on your blog?

Serena: I have very eclectic tastes, and I love deadlines. I’m probably an anomaly in terms of liking deadlines. I want stories that have not only a unique plot and characters, but also tend to touch me on an emotional or intellectual level.Covers have to be engaging right from the start because honestly, covers that are very blah do not entice me to read the synopsis, which means the synopsis for those books has to be extremely compelling.Usually books that automatically get considered are those written by authors I’ve read before and loved, poetry, and fiction set during WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War. I also love books about different countries and cultures, and I’d love to see more about Portugal rather than Spain, for instance. I will read mysteries, but they have to be more than plot driven, unless I’m already invested in the characters from previous books. I am also big on reading translations.

JHG: Any advice for poets as they go about trying to get publicity for their new books?

Serena: I think poets have a harder time getting coverage, especially in the mainstream media. Beyond that, I think book blogs are a great place to find some decent coverage that will reach an audience interested in new poetry.My first recommendation is to ask poets where they have had coverage for their books in the past, and start with those places. Start looking around the Internet for book blogs, and check the archives of their reviews to see if they have ever featured poetry. If that seems like a little too much effort, they could always check out an online book blog tour company, like Poetic Book Tours.JHG: Thanks for the interview, Serena, and good luck with your new venture!