Virtual book tour tips

By Denis Ledoux

As I explored options for marketing my new Memoir Network Writing Series of six books, I kept hearing about virtual book tours.

I was intrigued, but I was also intimidated. Could I pull it off? 

When I viewed the concept less in terms of a traditional “real world” tour and more as what it is – a series of blog postings – I thought, “I’ve done a lot of blog posting. I can do this.” The problem of handling a big tour came under control.

Selecting the tour length

Some sites suggested several stops a day over just a few weeks; others, one or two stops per week over many more weeks.

I knew I could wrap my attention much more easily over a number of months rather than a few weeks. Plus, I still had my company to run and several books to promote, so a longer tour made sense.

In fact, the tour could not end before the last of my books was produced and available for purchase. Publication stretched from November (at this point, one e-book was already published) until the end of June. I decided to start on February 9 and end on June 30, 2015.

So now I had a loose working plan, but…

Would anyone want to host me?

The nitty-gritty of list building

To get myself beyond my very real fear of “what if I threw a party and no one came,” I did the following:

1. I made a list of every blogger I might have some “claim” on. I began with guest writers on my Memoir Writer’s Blog and others with whom I had had contact over the last years. Then I added a few names of people I might never have connected to except as a commenter on their blog. I ended up with more than 40 names – that was promising.

2. I wrote a template letter announcing my blog tour. I would personalize the template for each recipient. If individuals were interested, could they send me posting dates between February 9 and June 30 that would work for them.

3. I prepared an Excel spreadsheet to record data: name of person and blog, date contacted, the response date and content, notes [“get back in touch in two months].

4. I collated end matter—bio, photo, links, illustrations—into a document.

5. I set up a webpage as a promo for site visitors. The page also contained a tour itinerary. The upcoming sites were listed and as soon as posts were up, links became live. The itinerary would extend the life of the tour and serve as a credential for prospective hosts.

The tour begins

After sending my letters, I soon had three or four people who wanted blog posts within the same 10-day period. To get more posts scheduled over the next several months, I began telling people I was looking for a stop in a specific month. It worked.

I inserted confirmations into a three-ring binder with monthly tabs. The binder did wonders to create a sense of control.

Still, I needed more tour stops. To get them, I contacted blogs I had skipped over and did more research to uncover others that were appropriate. I also networked with LinkedIn contacts to find hosts.

What I’ve learned so far

1. Think of a series of posts rather than a “tour.” It’s less intimidating.
2. Leave your comfort zone when asking for postings. Bloggers are approachable.
3. Since I am often excerpting from my books, I am not likely to run out of text.
4. Do organization work early on before things get out of hand.
5. Accept that this is a work in progress that will be tweaked often.
6. Go beyond your usual audience. For example, this buildbookbuzz.com post about virtual touring (not memoir writing) reaches beyond my regular audience to writers who might benefit from the series.

Has organizing a blog tour been difficult?

It has not, but organizing a tour requires attention and some nose-to-the-grindstone work.

Has the tour produced the results I am hoping for?

I don’t know yet, but I believe it will.

What’s your best virtual book tour tip? Please share it in a comment.

I generally recommend the do-it-yourself approach for tours rather than hiring a service because as the author, you can add that important personal touch that can make the difference between success and failure. This is especially true if your book serves a niche market — a book on how to build a house with straw bales, for example, rather than a more general market romance novel.

The thought of researching, planning, and executing your own virtual book tour — also known as an author blog tour — can be overwhelming, though, right?

Not anymore.

Step-by-step guide

My friend and colleague Dana Lynn Smith has created an incredibly detailed, step-by-step guide to the process that’s useful for:

• Authors
• Virtual assistants
• Book publicists
• Book publishers

I like — and recommend — Virtual Book Tour Magic: The Secrets to Planning a Successful Book Promotion Tour not only because I’m one of Dana’s affiliates, but because she provides very detailed instructions alongside her practical advice and resources. It’s actually a training package more than an e-book because it includes two bonus reports and a tour planning worksheet that makes it a snap to keep track of all the details for your tour.

Discover different tour options

In Virtual Book Tour Magic, Dana not only explains the different tour options, she also tells you how to do each of them — from start to finish. Want to run a contest as part of your tour? You’ll learn how. Wondering how to research potential tour hosts? Discover how easy it is. Need to find blogs that specialize in reviews? Dana leads you to them – and offers so much more. Screen shots as illustrations and links to examples or resources online makes this book stand out from other resources.

Dana is incredibly thorough — which is why I continue to recommend her book marketing training programs. There’s no fluff — just useful information.

If you’re planning on taking a virtual book tour in the next few months, make sure you check out this e-book on Dana’s website, where you can review the detailed table of contents and learn more about the bonus materials that complete the package. You won’t be disappointed.

What’s keeping you from going on a virtual book tour to promote your book? What’s your biggest obstacle?

If you’ve read my free report, Virtual Book Tour Basics: How to Connect with Your Audience and Sell More Books Without Leaving Home,  you know that virtual book tours aren’t just about generating book reviews. This exciting book publicity tactic can generate guest blogging opportunities (hence, the infographic below), video chats, podcast interviews, author Q&As, and book giveaway contests, among other activities.

This detailed infographic will help you learn more about how to uncover the right guest blogging opportunities for your virtual book tour and how to make sure you get the most out of them.

I’m sharing it here with a little extra commentary designed to make it particularly relevant for guest blogging authors.

(Infographic provided by the guest blogging experts – GuestBlogPoster.com; see the full size image on the GuestBlogPoster site.)

A few observations

• Step 2 reminds us to “Use heading tags to separate topics.” Writers call them “subheads.” You used them in your book; remember to use them in your blog posts (but don’t be confused by the H1 and H2 tag reference).
• I’ll add to Step 2 that you want to include a short “about the writer” bio that includes your book title and a link to where it can be purchased online.
• Step 3 points out that a guest blog request from an individual gets a better response than a request from a marketing agency. This is why I encourage authors to book their own virtual book tours. That personal touch and connection makes a difference.
• When managing your project in Step 4, consider using a Word table, too. As a writer, I’m more comfortable with Word than I am with Excel, and find that a Word table usually suits my tracking needs. And I’ve had too many problems with Google docs to recommend that option with any enthusiasm.

That’s it!

What other advice or tips about guest blogging would you add that might help authors?

Take your e-book on a virtual book tour and share your message with more people

By D’vorah Lansky

Would you like to take your book on tour, around the globe without leaving home? Consider conducting a virtual book tour! A virtual book tour is where you take your message on tour, around the Internet, with the goal of being exposed to new audiences. You can visit blogs and share guest blog posts in the form of written, audio, or video posts, or you can conduct a teleseminar and invite people to listen in.

Think of the traditional book tour where the author gets in a car or boards an airplane to go from location to location to talk about a book, hoping that there will be a crowd at the event. Well, even very popular, bestselling authors face the same situation. They speak at well-attended events and have also arrived at venues expecting a crowd only to have no one show up.

With a digital book, you can still conduct a book tour. In fact, for either a print book or a digital book, you can conduct a virtual book tour. With a virtual book tour, you can take your book on tour, without having to pay for travel expenses or worrying if anyone will be at a destination when you arrive. When you conduct a virtual book tour and are hosted by well-known experts with a responsive following, your book can gain exposure to many new audiences.

By participating in a virtual book tour you will grow your audience, and you’ll sell more books. You will be travelling around the Internet to the blogs’ of experts who serve your target audience, and you will be seen as an expert by association.

Three virtual book tour formats to choose from

There are several different types of virtual book tours to consider. Today I’m going to share with you three popular formats, and you can decide which format is best for you.

The one-day teleseminar

The first format for a virtual book tour is the one-day teleseminar where you’ll be speaking about your book.  With this format you get the word out to your community and have your colleagues extend an invitation to their communities.

During the teleseminar, which is approximately 60 to 90 minutes in length, everyone is driving traffic and inviting people to this one event. In essence, you are creating a big gala celebration. This can be a lot of fun and is a great way to get your message out across the airwaves. Of course, you can record your talk and have it available for replay.

The one-day blog blitz

The next format is called the one-day blog blitz.  This is a very exciting way to conduct a virtual book tour.  However, it takes a tremendous amount of energy and a tremendous amount of organization.  Imagine this: You’ve connected with 10, 20, or 30 blog owners who serve audiences that are interested in your topic.  You coordinate either on your own or with your virtual team to get content to each of the blog owners, and the blog owners schedule your blog posts to all appear on a specific date.

The reason for this format is to create a lot of buzz about your book, on a given day. This would be an excellent strategy to coordinate during a book launch. The one-day blog blitz will give you a lot of exposure and create a buzz about your book in a concentrated period of time.

Over the course of the day, you travel from site to site, thanking your tour hosts and responding to people’s comments. Be sure to stop by these sites over the course of the week because people will continue to come to the blog and there may be new comments to respond to.

The multi-day, multi-blog format

The format that I prefer is the multi-day, multi-blog, virtual book tour.  This is where you decide on a time frame for your tour as well as how many days a week you’ll be touring during that time frame.

For example, let’s say we’re going to do a 15-day blog tour, and that your tour will take place five days a week. That means you’ll be touring Monday through Friday for three weeks.

I find this format to be the most effective and the most relaxed. This format also provide prolonged exposure to you and your book and builds momentum.

Staying organized

Post a virtual book tour schedule on your site with links to where you’ll be touring to each day. You’ll need to add the hyperlinks to each day’s post the morning that a post goes live. The reason for this is because if people visit the URL before the post goes live, they will land on an error page.

I find it really helpful to ask my tour hosts to go ahead and schedule the post for 9 am Eastern on the date I am touring to their site. I ask that they do that while it is on their mind and to email me the URL to the blog post. I then add each URL to a spreadsheet and list what date I am touring to that site.

Have you conducted a virtual book tour? Do you have questions about them? Add a comment with your information or question!

Before you comment, remember to stop by the Digital Publishing Virtual Summit to learn more about Sandra’s presentation about how to plan and execute your own virtual book tour, and to learn about all of the other exciting speakers, too! (Please note that the links to the Summit in this post use Sandra’s affiliate code.)