10 Things You Need to Know About Virtual Book Tours

By Dorothy Thompson, CEO & Founder of Pump Up Your Book

By now, most authors know what virtual book tours are or at least have heard of them.  They’re that wonderful marketing tool that should be a must have in every new book’s campaign.  With each new book I write, I’m making a game plan before the book is even published and a virtual book tour is the first promotional venue on that list.

While most of us know what they are, there are still a few new authors who might have heard of them but have no idea what they involve.  I give you my top 10 things you need to know about virtual book tours so that you will know what to expect.

1. Virtual book tours are the BEST way to get the MOST online exposure for your book. Not only are you presenting your book and yourself to thousands of people, all of your interviews, guest posts and reviews are archived which means months down the road, you’re still selling your book because of that one tour.
2. Virtual book tours ARE a lot of work. Not only are you searching for the perfect blogs to host you, you are acting as the middle man between you and the blogger unless you are using a paid service such as Pump Up Your Book who will do all the work for you.  Even if you do sign up with Pump Up Your Book, there is still lots of work to do completing assignments – filling out interviews and writing guest posts unless you choose an all review tour.  Even though it requires a little bit of your time to fill out interviews and write guest posts, it’s well worth it.
3. You will learn more about your book than you ever did. I had an author tell me that through the interviews and guest posts she had to complete, she never learned so much about her book which caught her off guard.  Now when she is interviewed on radio shows and makes television appearances, she is better prepared.
4. Virtual book tours will build up your author platform.  No matter if you’re a fiction author or a nonfiction author, virtual book tours will build up your author platform using your key search words.
5. Your reviews are guaranteed. Offline publicists while they mean well do it all wrong.  They query a book blogger, make arrangements to send the book, then that’s where it stops.  The review is not a guaranteed thing.  The reviewer can post the review anytime they see fit.  With virtual book tours, your review is guaranteed on a certain date unless the reviewer jumps ship which rarely happens.  I had an author tell me she signed up with an offline publicist who sent out many books and only one or two reviewers actually came through for them.  That was money loss for the author.  Books don’t come cheap these days so coming up with a date you and the reviewer can agree upon guarantees that review will be a given thing.
6. Many reviewers now take ebooks which save you money. Thank goodness someone was smart enough to invent a device that automatically loads a book in a few seconds (no waiting to go to the book store anymore my friend) and makes it fun to read.  When Amazon lowered their price of the Kindle, sales soared and book lovers started talking about getting one.  What that means is that it opened up a wonderful way to get these books to the book reviewers quickly and less expensively.  Have you noticed how much books are and how much it takes to ship them?  Not saying all reviewers will take ebooks, but as time goes on, most will have an e-reader and, as a matter of fact, will prefer an ebook.
7. More website hits, more blog hits, more Twitter hits and more Facebook Fan Page hits. All authors should have a website or blog and accounts at Twitter and Facebook.  No matter if you think they’re all a waste of time.  A virtual book tour will definitely give you more hits at all places as long as your links are in your bio.
8. Going on a virtual book tour raises your Alexa rankings. What is Alexa?  Alexa measures how well you are doing in the search engines.  By going on a virtual book tour, and including interviews and guest posts during that tour, your website and blog links are included in every bio (or should be!).  Those are incoming links which Alexa uses to measure your ranking.  The more your website or blog link shows up on other sites, the more valuable your site is to them and thus, your rankings soar.
9. You will learn how to sell your book through media exposure. Not all authors take advantage of their interviews and guest posts by gearing them toward their audience, thus luring them to their book and/or website/blog.  I’ve had many authors on tour and the ones who really take the time to make their interviews and guest posts effective selling tools are the ones who profit the most.  The key thing here is to make your audience curious.  One liners in the case of interviews may not cut it.  Of course there are only so many ways you can answer “What’s your book about?” but take your time and get your audience’s curiosity peaked so that they do make your way over to your website or your book’s buying link.
10. Virtual book tours teach you how to connect well with others. There is no better way to learn how to network.  All these wonderful book bloggers who agree to host you are your new friends in your extended network and they will be there for you the next time you have a book to promote (unless they completely hated it of course).  You’ll also learn how to use the social networks effectively as you study how to get people over to your stops by persuasive wording.  Remember to talk to your audience, not at them.

There you have it.  10 reasons I feel you need to know about virtual book tours in a nutshell.  If you have a tour coordinator as opposed to setting one up yourself, she will walk you through it so that it will be a fun experience for all.  Your book will thank you for it.

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book publicity.  You can visit her website at www.PumpUpYourBook.com or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pumpupyourbook and Facebook at www.facebook.com/pumpupyourbook.

Tags: author tours, authors, blog tours, book marketing, book marketing companies, book marketing strategies, book promotion companies, book promotions, book publicity, book publicity companies, book publicity firms, book publicity ideas, book publicity tips, book tours, books, Dorothy Thompsone, marketing strategy, online book promotion, promote your book, publicity tour, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book, sell your book online, virtual book tours

I watched a presentation today that I just had to share with you.  Margaret Atwood, a multi-published author, and who blogs at Margaret Atwood: Year of the Flood, had some really interesting (and quite funny) things to say about the publishing industry.  Watch…

I just can’t watch it enough.  All authors – aspiring authors, debut authors, seasoned authors – need to watch this.  Margaret talks about how the publishing industry has changed and whether the new changes are good or bad for the author in the whole scheme of things.  I liked it when someone asked her if she had ever read an ebook and she says she owns two ebook readers.  In fact, right away she makes a point she’s in the middle – both a paper and ebook fan.  That right there confirms Margaret Atwood is my new hero.

Years ago, publishers who wanted to cut back on costs accepted manuscripts from authors on the contingency that their book first go into electronic format.  If you sold enough, they’d go into paperback.  It never happened that way for me, but I always thought poor author, you know?  It just didn’t seem fair.  How do you take an ebook to a booksigning?

Years down the road, we learn booksignings aren’t the most popular vehicle on the block right now.  Virtual book tours (online publicity tours) have replaced a lot of the offline booksigning ventures.  That’s not to say the author won’t still get out and meet their public and should be encouraged, but the more authors find other ways to earn (as Margaret called it) their “cheese sandwich,”  they are finding out that they can reach an even bigger audience by going about it virtually.

Authors are screaming for help.  Their first step takes them to the Internet to find ways to sell their book, yet which way is best?  Where’s the magic ticket?  Surely if they research all day long, something will pop up that sounds like it would work.  Just something to help.  The problem there is all that time they’ve been researching and never really understanding completely, they could have been writing books.  So why aren’t the publishers helping?  What are they doing?  Nothing?

In her presentation above, Margaret says, “Publishers don’t have the resources or they quite don’t know how.”  There’s your answer right there.  Books are publishers’ bread and butter.  Without you, without your book, they have nothing.  Of course they want your book to sell.  They wouldn’t have accepted your manuscript if not for the fact they believed it would sell.  You are a gamble to them.  Of course they’re going to do all they can do to make sure that gamble doesn’t go bust.  It’s not their fault they’re a small company and don’t have the resources.  Even NY publishers are concentrating on the books that are selling and not taking risks with new authors unless the new author has proven to them they stand out from the pack.

So yes, book promotion lies in the author’s lap and if the author can’t, don’t know how, or just don’t want to promote their book, they just hire someone.  As a book promoter who gets a tremendous amount of email (too much to read it all), I hear the authors’ cries.  They are seeking help.  They are crying for help.  As an author, I understand their cries.  It is the same cry I cried years ago when I sold only two books at one booksigning and no books at another booksigning.  I just knew there had to be a way and so I headed straight for the Internet and soaked up as much knowledge about book promotion as I could.  Years down the road, I’m doing more promoting than I am writing but it’s what I love.  Writing is what authors love.

Yes, the publishing world is changing, but if you think about all the new possibilities out there that have sprung up for the aspiring author, it’s quite a remarkable thing.

Tags: book promotion, Margaret Atwood, publishing, publishing world

I’m sure everyone by now has heard about the Borders chain going bankrupt and they decided to close quite a few stores across the country.  I’ve never actually walked into a Borders store, usually making the local Barnes & Noble my point of destination.  Perhaps if a Borders had been built near us instead of Barnes & Noble, Borders would have been the place I would have gone to do my book browsing.

However, when you think about it, I have been in our local Barnes & Noble once in the past year and that was because it was Christmas and I was in stores I either never go in or don’t go in frequently just to find those gifts for the hard to please.  I know you all did the same thing.

I am a book lover, though.  My business is books, not only as an author but also as a book promoter.  I live, eat, dream books.  In the past few years, there has been a change in my book buying habits and in the last two months, that change increased.  I found myself buying online.

It’s not that I hate bookstores at all.  It’s just that I love buying my books online now.  What’s changed for me in the last two months is that now I have a Kindle.  Kindle books are cheap usually.  Cheaper than their print counterparts, except in the case of Stephen King’s oldie but goodie On Writing which was $2 more in Kindle format.  I bought the paperback instead and I did so online at Amazon.

So you can’t really blame Kindle altogether.  People will buy books they want, but they are also looking to fulfill that reading fix by purchasing less expensively and if Amazon wants to offer them to me free or under $3 or at least cheaper than the paperback, I am so there.  I don’t mind reading books on my e-reader at all.  In fact, I rather think it’s neat to do so.

So if bookstores offered all their books at a drastic cut of only $3 to keep people from buying online, would you be more tempted to get in the car, drive through traffic and stand in line (believe me, if they were offering all their books for $3, there’d be a line out the wazoo) to buy?

No and I’ll tell you why.  If the bookstores offered these books for $3, Amazon would repeat the strategy so that they wouldn’t lose customers either.

So bookstores are cooked and Amazon would be cooked because no one would be making enough money off of it to survive and that’s the problem now.

Ebooks are cheaply made and cheaply sold, not to mention accessible within minutes.  It doesn’t matter you don’t have the pleasure of smelling that familiar aroma of new pages being turned and it doesn’t matter you’re not adding to your existing library at home and no it doesn’t matter you can’t fondle this book in your hand.  What does matter is that when I want a book and I can get it in a couple of minutes, why do anything else?

Don’t get me wrong; I still love paperbacks, but if we get real about the situation and backtrack to when we last walked into a bookstore to buy a book, then that’s when we realize what is happening.  If we look at our book buying habits in the last year, the truth unfolds – the Internet has opened up worlds of possibilities never before dreamed of.  We as civilized people love new gadgets to make our lives simpler, easier, convenient and less time-consuming and the Kindle (or any other e-reading device) fits the bill nicely.  Amazon has made it super simple to download a book and that’s what people are looking for, too – simplicity.  Anything that helps bring down the stress level, people are going to jump on it.

So I believe we as a civilized people who need to find ways to improve our lives are the reason why bookstores are closing down.  The more we advance in our ways of finding products that will make our lives easier, who knows what will be next on the chopping block?

Dorothy Thompson is the author/compiler of Romancing the Soul and the soon to be released, The Soul Mate Triangle: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Soul Mate Relationship.  She is also CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotions.  Visit us at www.PumpUpYourBook.com or connect with us at Twitter at www.twitter.com/pumpupyourbook and Facebook at www.facebook.com/pumpupyourbook.  Email her at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com.

Tags: Borders, Borders bankruptcy, Borders bookstores, Borders closings, buy online, ebooks, free Kindle downloads, Kindle, Nook

Every now and then, I’ll have an author ask me what they should write about when asked to write guest posts or what emphasis they should concentrate on when answering questions in interviews or just what they should do to create the most impact on their book buying public without becoming overbearing, pompous or downright horn-tooting obnoxious.

The first thing I tell them is get out of the mindset that you’ll be getting on peoples’ nerves with all this horn blowing and get on with the matter at hand. You are out to sell your book. Without you tooting or someone else you pay to toot for you, you might as well kiss your book sales goodbye.

Good publicity relies on these things:

1. Perseverance
2. Hard work
3. Dedication

I’m sure that you know this and I’m sure you’ve got all three of those qualities going on for you, but good publicity also requires this:

1. Knowing what common sense rules to follow when promoting your book
2. Realizing that researching your subject in off before, during and after it’s published leads to successful promotions later
3. Networking, schmoozing and generally getting your fans to adore you

Knowing what common sense rules to follow when promoting your book takes practice and experience. Unless you are out there noticing how other authors are promoting, you probably haven’t a clue. Are those emails coming from a certain author, publisher or publicist who has added your email to their email lists getting on your nerves by their promotional email blasts? Number One rule is never sign up anyone to your email list without their permission. I know no one is going to heed my advice but when this happens to me, I’m quick to delete and hit spam. However, if it is someone with whom you have connected in the past, they’re open bait and if they wish to unsubscribe, delete, hit spam, that’s on them but the odds are in your favor they’ll stick with you.

Researching your subject after the book has been written sounds a bit confusing, doesn’t it? Let me explain. Joe has written a book on fly fishing while Mary has written a romance novel. Both Joe and Mary have elected to promote on their own. Joe goes about the normal promotional procedures like putting up a website and/or blog and wishing for the best, but Mary decides she’s going to put her book subject in Google Alerts to find out what others are talking about relating to her book. Mary also loves to blog so she has elected to visit blogs that concentrate on her genre. Mary also has decided to pick out certain topics, locals, etc., within her book and researched them to find other like-minded people out there blogging about the same subjects in her book. Joe feels all alone in his self-promotional journey while Mary has made lots of friends, which has resulted in lots of sales.

Networking, schmoozing and generally getting your fans to adore you rounds out my third point which ties into researching your subject. Once you have found the many people out there who absolutely loves your work and loves to hear as much as they can about your book and you, treasure them like gold nuggets. These are your fans. These are the people who follow you like shadows on a moonlit night. These are the people you need to nurture. These are the very people that you must pay close attention to and never let them feel you’re just another name on another book. They are your book’s lifeline.

When you can find that happy medium between what your book buyers want to know about you and what you should know about them, book promotion gets a little bit easier.

© Dorothy Thompson All Rights Reserved

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion. Visit us at www.pumpupyourbook and let us take you to the virtual level!

Tags: book marketing, book marketing ideas, book marketing plan, book marketing tips, book promotion ideas, book promotion tips, book promotions, book publicists, book publicity, e-marketing, online book promotion, online book publicist, online book publicity, promote your book, Pump Up Your Book, sell your book

Your book has just been published. Or maybe it’s going to be published in the next month or two. Regardless, authors are signing up for virtual book tours the moment they hear about the exciting ways they can promote their books with them. There is no better vehicle to sell your books online so I don’t blame them.

I would like to provide a checklist of things to consider before booking your tour. After all, you want you and your book to be in the most tip top shape, so here goes:

Literarily Speaking’s 28-point Checklist BEFORE Packing Your Cyber-Bags:

• Do you know which audiences you want to target?
• Are you aware the broader the scope of readers you want to target, the better the tour?
• Have you narrowed your key search words down to the most important and have figured out ways to use them in your interviews and guest posts?
• Have you compiled a list of potential blog stops for your tour along with email addresses if you are putting your tour together on your own?
• Are you making sure these particular blogs are updated frequently and have a full set of archives to make them search engine friendly?
• Can you provide author copies (unless the publisher takes care of it) to reviewers in time for them to receive the book, read the book and post the review by the given date both of you have agreed on?
• Do you have a professional author photo and can you provide your blog hosts with a jpg copy?
• Do you have a landing page (website or blog) where people can go to learn more about you and your book?
• Does your website or blog have clear enough directions on how to buy your book on the first page and are you providing a cover to entice them?
• Does your website/blog have contact information in case people want to get in touch with you?
• Are you keeping your blog updated with fresh content to keep it search engine friendly?
• Do you know how to craft a bio written in third person that includes your book’s title and website/blog url?
• Does your bio ramble or can you say most of what you have to say in one to three paragraphs?
• Are you prepared to learn more about you and your book than you did before the tour took place?
• Are you prepared for the workload that is involved when planning your tour – e.g. having to write several guest posts and fill out an umpteen amount of interviews keeping each interview fresh, different and non-boring?
• Do you have a few guest posts already written for when blog hosts ask for them?
• If not, can you come up with a few ideas beforehand so that when asked for a guest post at the last minute, you’re not pulling your hair out?
• Do you know what kind of guest posts bring in more reaction from the readers?
• Do you know what kind of guest posts bring in more sales?
• Do you know how to use the social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to promote your tour stops on a daily basis?
• Are you set up in google alerts to alert you on how well your publicity efforts are taking you?
• Do you know how to set up press releases to announce your tour or know of someone who can do it for you?
• Have you built up on your communication and organizational skills so you don’t become unglued?
• Have you built up your contact list (your followers)?
• Have you prepared yourself for negative reviews in case they happen and are you willing to accept them for what they’re worth?
• Are you willing to participate in your virtual book tour by leaving a comment at your “stops”?
• Are you willing to thank your tour host after they so kindly posted your interview, guest post, review, etc.?
• Are you prepared to SELL BOOKS?

If you have answered no to any of these, reconsider fixing those problems before you embark on an international virtual book tour. It’s way better to be prepared and ready than winging it.

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion and virtual book tours.  You can visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

Tags: blog tours, book marketing, book marketing services, book promotion companies, book promotion opportunities, book promotions, Dorothy Thompson, how to promote your book, how to sell your book, online book promotion, Pump Up Your Book, virtual book tours