Sell Books With a Virtual Book Tour
What is a virtual book tour and how can
it sell books? This is one of the questions I had to
answer when I held my own nationwide virtual book tour in
November 2006 to promote my first self-published promoting
eBook, “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your
Self-Published e-Book".
What is a Virtual Book Tour
A virtual book tour is simply touring
“blogs” instead of bookstores. It's a wonderful way to
gain exposure for your book without leaving the comfort
and convenience of your home. This is a wonderful way to
promote your print books or e-books.
You need to know what’s involved so you
can use this wonderful promotional avenue to get the word
out that your book exists. Penny Sansevieri, CEO and
founder of Author Markteing Experts, Inc, best-selling
author and internationally recognized book marketing and
media relations expert claims the Virtual Author Tour,
which is her biggest Internet program, is the single MOST
effective way to promote a book because it actually
works.
How Do Virtual Book Tours Work
If you want to start your own virtual
book tour, there are some things you need to do to get the
most exposure.
The first thing you need to do is line
up interested blogmeisters who will host you. To find
them, put your topic in any known blog search engine, and
visit the blog owners. Don’t spring it on them at once.
Visit their blogs, comment and let them get to know you
first. This will help build their confidence in you.
The main thing is to find those blogs
which get a credible amount of traffic—and hopefully ones
that are updated daily—which are interested in hosting
you. The best blogs would be ones that are interested in
your topic. Once your virtual book tour is established,
announce it on all your blogs and websites. This will help
you get people interested and create a buzz before the big
day.
Answers Which Explain Virtual
Book Tours
How long should my tour be? Some tours
last an entire month, but the timeframe is up to you. How
much tme you want to devote. I chose a month-long tour,
and it was quite successful.
Why should anyone do this for me?
Should I offer incentives? Incentives work. I offered a
copy of my e-Book in exchange for a review, but if the
blog or website has low traffic, it may not be
economical. An alternative is to offer them a sampler of
the e-Book so they know what it’s about.
How are sales after something like
this? A virtual book tour is like any other book
tour. Your goal is to make sales, but other things will
happen. It allows you to get your selling page on as many
blogs and websites as possible so the search engines will
link to you. Long after your tour is over, people will
visit your site, and buy your books.
Can’t I just comment in people’s blogs
about my books instead of going through all that
work? This will be considered to be spam. No one wants you
to promote your book in their comment section. The virtual
book tour requires more effort, but people will see how
much effort you put into it. Posting your book information
in the comment sections of blogs is a big no-no, and you
could be banned from posting there again. A virtual book
tour is so much more personable, and gives you a chance to
answer questions that others might have. Setting up your
own virtual book tour takes commitment and you need to be
very organized, but once it gets going, you’ll enjoy the
tour. It will give you a chance to get those sales without
leaving the comfort of your own home.
To see where my virtual book tour took
me, visit How to Promote Your eBooks at
http://selfpublishedebookpromotion.blogspot.com/2006/10/virtual-book-tour.html.
Use the Internet to your advantage, and
start your own virtual book tour!
Dorothy Thompson is the editor of The
Writer’s Life (http://www.thewriterslife.net),
Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers, and the
author of “A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your
Self-Published eBook,” available at
http://www.thewriterslife.net/promoteebook.html.
Visit her at
http://www.pumpupyouronlinebookpromotion.blogspot.com
