Write Your Own Posts!
People ask questions before they decide to hire me as a publicist--and rightly so! You should always ask anyone you want to hire a lot of questions to make sure you are getting what you want. One question I get now and then is, if I arrange for an author to have a blog tour, do I write the blog posts, too? My answer is always no. And if there is a follow-up, "WILL you write my posts for me?" My answer is also, always, no.
If I write a blog post for someone else, no matter how hard I try, that post will have elements of my voice in it. It will have my beliefs in it, my ideas. It wouldn't reflect YOUR voice. It won't match your style, or any of the things your readers are coming to you for. Blog tours are supposed to help people find your new book and tempt them to read it. If someone reads a blog post that I as a publicist wrote, and then they pick up your book to read because of it, they might feel betrayed by the differences they see. That's because an author has an invisible contract with a reader. There is an element of trust involved, that the author will provide something the reader expects of them. This is one of the things that keeps readers coming back to an author time and again. Kristan Higgins makes me laugh and cry, sometimes simultaneously. Robin Hobb takes me on an emotional journey every bit as harrowing as the journeys her characters take. Cressida Cowell will crack me up for days and make me feel like I am a viking boy. Kelly Barnhill's books will magically suck me in and hold me by the heart until I finish. A well-written and thoughtful blog post will reflect these same aspects, and often the author doesn't even have to think about it. It's just part of who they are.
No one can tell a story like you do. No one else in the world. That's why readers pick up YOUR books. Not someone else's. You owe them honesty, at least. If you don't have the time to write blog posts, that is fine. You don't have to write blog posts. There are some other things you can do. But don't ask someone else to write them for you, and for the love of any god out there, don't use AI. When I see an article that is written by AI, I automatically assume everything that person does is also AI, even their book. Because why wouldn't they do that if they could get away with it? AI steals from other creators, it takes up resources like water (in Texas, there are towns that are running out of water right now because the AI farms are using so much), and it's just not any fun.
Connecting with readers is rewarding. There is nothing better than to reach someone new and inspire them to read your book. When someone comments on your posts, it forges a connection. Your readers want to know the real you. The person behind their favorite book, not some pretender. It's better to not write posts at all than have someone else do it. What would happen if it came out that you didn't write your posts? Imagine how bad, how embarrassing that would feel. And just like with AI, people would wonder how far it goes. Do you actually write your own book? You don't want to break that trust with your readers.
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