Raise your hand if you waited until you hit “publish” on Amazon to start thinking about how to get the book launch results that author dreams are made of.

If you’re a traditionally published author, you might not have thought about it at all. You expected your publisher to do whatever was needed to make sure readers discovered your book. No need for you to get involved. (Whoops.)

You were probably disappointed with your launch results, too.

Let’s turn that around. It starts with taking specific book marketing steps while you’re still writing.

Discovery is key

I understand the challenge. It’s hard enough to find time to write the book. Making room in your schedule (and mind) for book marketing while writing might seem like too much of a challenge.

But you have to — even if it means it takes a little longer to finish writing.

If you don’t start laying the groundwork you need to sell books before your manuscript is done, your book launch results will be dismal, discouraging, and disappointing.

Your book won’t be discovered on launch day or any other time of the year unless you goose the discovery process. That work starts early.

9 early steps to improving your book launch results

Here are nine steps to take while still writing that will help lay the groundwork for success.

Take on just one at a time. Fit in what you can, when you can.

If you do this, you’ll have several of your book marketing basics in place by the time your manuscript is done. That will set you up for a better, more successful launch.

1. Learn as much as you can about book marketing.

Read a book. Take a course.

Identify the bloggers who are publishing book marketing information you can trust. Subscribe to their newsletters.

In addition to my newsletter, I recommend:

• Kindlepreneur
• Author Marketing Experts
• The Nonfiction Authors Association
• Reedsy

2. Get clear on who will love your book.

That’s your target audience, the people you wrote your book for.

If you’ve written a nonfiction book, your target audience is people who are interested in that topic. But what do you know about them?

Many novelists tell me they wrote the book they’d like to read. It makes sense, then, that their ideal reader – their target audience – is people who are like them. (That’s not always the case – it’s just an example.)

3. Research your target audience.

Learn as much as you can about the person who is most likely to buy your book.

This will help you visualize your audience “avatar” – the one individual who best represents those who will love your book.

Next, do more research to learn where you’ll find them online and offline. For example, do people in your target audience use TikTok? Will you find them on LinkedIn? Do they like Pinterest?

4. Build a following on the social network that most of your audience uses. 

Your research into your target audience helped identify where you’ll find them online. Select one or two social networks that are most popular with your audience and learn how to use them effectively.

After you’ve spent some time learning how they work, start following “the right” people there.

Try this: Find the most popular authors in your genre. Follow them, and follow the people who follow them, too. (If they like the types of books the category leader writes, they’ll be interested in yours, too.)

And, of course, share content that will interest your ideal readers.

5. Connect with bloggers. 

Virtual book tours (author blog tours) are common and popular book launch elements.

When you “go” on a virtual book tour after your book is published, you’ll ask bloggers who reach the people you want to reach to share content that’s related to your book. That might be a:

• Guest post
• Q&A
• Audio or video interview
• Book review

You will be far more successful with bloggers who already know who you are. So, after you’ve identified the blogs you’ll want to visit on your tour, comment on and share their posts regularly.

They’ll notice you.

6. Build an email list.

Start gathering email addresses now. This is a never-ending process and for many, that growth is slow. So don’t wait.

Be sure to offer a downloadable gift – a “lead magnet”– in exchange for each email address. (Get ideas for fiction lead magnets and nonfiction lead magnets and learn how to create them at those links.)

Learn how successful authors use email to communicate with their readers by subscribing to their newsletters. What do you like about their approach? What do you dislike?

I also recommend reading Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert.

7. Compile a list of “key influencers.”

Who is most influential with your book’s target audience? You’ll want to ask them to endorse your book after the manuscript is polished and finished.

Begin gathering names and contact information for them now. That’s all – just figure out who they are and how to reach them, and save it all in a file.

8. Create a Facebook Page.

I’m not talking about a Facebook profile – that’s your personal account where you acquire “friends.” I’m referring to a business Page where you acquire “likes.”

You’ll need a Page to advertise on Facebook, but it’s also a good way to establish your book’s presence on this popular social network without annoying your friends.

Use it to solicit opinions on your book’s topic, share progress updates, ask fans to vote on cover options, and so on.

9. Add your book title to your e-mail signature.

It doesn’t get any easier than just typing “Author,” followed by your book title.

Which one of these will you start doing today? Will you pick the easiest or the hardest?

Do what works for you, but whatever you do, be sure to do it now.

What’s the most important thing you did before you launched your book? Please tell us in a comment. 

Getting “out there” and talking about their book can be downright painful for a shy author or those who prefer to write, not talk.

Then there are those who aren’t exactly shy, but don’t like being the center of attention.

Still others are afraid they will be labeled as “shameless self-promoters.” Can you blame them? I’ve seen some who are beyond “shameless” – they’re downright undignified.

Common shy author obstacles and how to get over them

How do you overcome your personality-related reluctance to promote your book?

Here are the “I can’t do this” obstacles I see the most from shy authors along with ideas for getting around them.

Problem: Proactively promoting my book makes me feel self-conscious. I don’t like calling attention to myself.

Solution: Flip your perspective.

You’re not talking about or calling attention to yourself – you’re calling attention to your book.

You wrote that book to educate, entertain, or inform a certain audience. You won’t be able to do that if they don’t know about it. You’re doing them a favor by doing as much as you can to help them see how your book will help.

Shift the focus from yourself to the people who will benefit from reading your book. That will help you relax and maybe even enjoy that media interview.

Problem: I don’t like talking. I’d rather be writing.

Solution: Focus on the many promotional opportunities that don’t require voice-to-voice interviews or conversations:

• Do a “Twitter chat.“
• Go on a virtual book tour.
• Post information and updates on your Facebook page.
• Create and share social media images.
• Give review copies to readers who agree to write an honest review.
• Blog regularly – and be a guest blogger, too.
• Send out tip sheets.
• Ask to do media interviews by e-mail.

Problem: I see what others do and it makes me uncomfortable.

Solution: Head in the opposite direction with your tactics.

For example, did you receive a book announcement e-mail message that you thought was too self-serving, overly-aggressive, or even pointless? Write yours in a way that’s classy, helpful, and informative.

Don’t like how an author friend shares a purchase link to his book on the Facebook timeline of new friends as soon as they accept his request? Set a better example. You might create a fan page for your book and share helpful information there, or start a Facebook group for your genre or topic.

Problem: I don’t know where to start.

Solution: Make time to learn.

This problem isn’t unique to introverts, but they’re more likely to use it than extroverts.

I’m a big on starting with a plan, but before you can write one, you need to know more about your options.

Begin by writing down your goals for your book. Then educate yourself about book marketing, publicity, and promotion:

• Search online.
• Subscribe to newsletters.
• Read a book or two.
• Take a course that will walk you through the process.

This will help you decide which tactics will help you reach your goals. Next, select one tactic or tool that seems like the best fit for your skills and personality, and learn how to do it well. When you’ve mastered and implemented it, select another.

Be sure to download my free Book Marketing Plan Template, too. It walks you through the process with instructions and examples.

Problem: I don’t have time.

Solution: Apply the time you used to spend writing the book to book promotion.

You don’t have to be shy to have this problem. Still, when you’re a little more uncomfortable putting yourself “out there,” you might find it easier to use lack of time as an excuse to avoid taking action.

Try these strategies:

• Get up an hour early two days a week.
• Focus on the book after the kids have gone to bed.
• Work on book promotion during your lunch break.

Make promoting a priority

It’s hard to promote a book when the related activities don’t come easily or intuitively. You’ll make progress if you focus on tactics that not only help you reach your target reader, but that are a good fit for your personality, too.

Start with one tactic — just one. You’ll soon see that doing just one thing — and doing it well — is far better than doing nothing.

Give it a try. I’m cheering you on!

How do you feel about book promotion? Do you love it, hate it, feel ambivalent? Why?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2012. It has been updated and expanded.)

You’ll find a lot of good advice online about what you should do to prepare for your book launch. Several sources offer checklists and timelines.

These book launch prep to-do lists are generic, of course, because they can’t take individual author situations into account.

Most, for example, will tell you to email your list. Many authors haven’t built an author email marketing list that’s separate from their personal contacts directory, though.

Still, there are several book launch prep must-dos that make sense for most authors. Here are five of them.

1. Create a book marketing plan.

You know what Ben Franklin says about this, right? “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

A book marketing plan is your blueprint to success. It will help you think through and identify your ideal readers. You’ll also determine the specific steps you should take to get your book title in front of them.

To make this process easy for you, I walk you through the process with my free fill-in-the-blanks template and accompanying instructions. Simply download your Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Plan Template, then use it to get organized and take action.

2. Determine which social network your ideal readers use the most and expand your presence there.

If you’ve written your book marketing plan, you’ve done the work to figure out who is most likely to buy your book. (Need help with that? I’ve got an affordable training program that helps you identify your ideal reader.)

Next, match your reader demographics — age, gender, income level, geographic region, etc. — with social network demographics. You can do this by selecting two or three social networks you think are popular with your readers and adding the word “demographics” to a Google search. You might search for “Instagram demographics” or “YouTube demographics,” for example.

If you’re an active social media user, you probably have a good sense of where you’ll find your readers.

Once you know which platforms they use, work to increase and improve your high-quality connections there. Consider taking a course on how to use the best network for you effectively so you maximize your time on that platform.

3. Create your book’s marketing materials.

Again, there are a few basics that every author needs in place before a book launch. They include:

• Book announcement press release
• Online press kit
• Quote cards
• Images that include your book
• Email announcement to your personal contacts, independent of an opt-in email marketing list

If you’re planning a virtual book tour (also known as a book blog tour), write a few of your proposed guest posts ahead of time.

4. Recruit a street team.

A book launch street team is a group of readers, like-minded authors, and/or friends who agree to support your launch.

Typically, you ask them to read an advance review copy, write an honest review, and stand by to post that review on retail sites and Goodreads during launch week. You’ll want to create a plan that includes other strategies for generating reviews, but your street team should be a big part of that.

You’ll also ask them to promote the books to their networks. To help them with that, give them quote cards and images that include your book (see above) along with a selection of tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram messages they can use. Include hashtags for each social network, too.

5. Update your social media profiles.

If you’re like most of us, you set up your social network profiles when you created those accounts and haven’t updated them since. (If you aren’t like most of us, I’m very impressed!)

Bring them up to date with a current author head shot, an updated description with a website URL,  and a header that promotes your new book.

(Pro tip: Don’t use your book cover for your profile photo. People connect with people, not books.)

What’s on your book launch prep list?

Your book launch prep list might include other tasks, as well. There’s so much you can do!

What do you do before every launch? Why? Please tell us in a comment. 

Favorite ways to promote a virtual book tour

By D’vorah Lansky

Over the years, and during the course of my previous six virtual book tours, I’ve promoted my virtual book tour in a variety of ways. In this post, I’ll share my five favorite virtual book tour promotion strategies.

Way #1: Get your virtual book tour promoted by your hosts.

Ask your tour hosts to announce your tour dates to their list as well as to their followers on the social networks. Because of their connection with their audience, this will raise the visibility of your virtual book tour.

When you make it a point to develop a relationship with your hosts, they will be more likely to help promote your virtual book tour.

Way #2: Harness the power of mini-posts to boost your rankings in the search engines.

Post mini-posts to your blog each day, and then post a link to that post across the social networks, letting readers know that it’s your virtual book tour celebration. If you use an online service such as Hoot Suite (HootSuite.com) you can post to several social networks with one click.

This accomplishes two things. First, it gets traffic to your blog from the social networks and second it allows you to have outgoing links from your blog to the blogs and podcasts where you’ll be featured during your tour. These outgoing links can raise your visibility in Google.

Way #3: Create a Facebook book or author Page and create interaction with your readers.

Facebook provides a wonderful platform for promoting your book. Creating a Facebook Page for your virtual book tour provides you with an “online billboard” if you will.

Facebook pages get a lot of visibility and when you post interesting content and encourage engagement with the people who “like” your Facebook page, your exposure can grow exponentially.

Way #4: Encourage conversation in the comments section below each blog post.

When you are featured as a guest blogger on other blogs, you’ll have lots of opportunities to interact with new audiences. Once your post has been published on a site, you’ll see that there is a “comments” section below the post. You’ll want to be one of the first to post a comment by thanking your host for featuring you during your virtual book tour.

Encourage your readers to comment by asking them an action-oriented question and inviting them to join in the conversation. You can then circle back and interact with readers by responding to their comments and answering their questions.

Way #5: Register your gravatar so your photo appears in all your comments.

Have you ever noticed in the comments section below blog posts that the photographs of the people posting comments shows up? There is a way to automate this feature and you’ll for sure want to have your photograph appear when you post comments during your virtual book tour.

When you post a comment, you’ll see a form to fill in your name, email address, and website address. Your name will become hyperlinked with your website address and your photograph will appear if you’ve registered that email address at Gravatar.com

What you do is head over to Gravatar.com and register the email address you’ll be listing when you post comments below your posts. Once you register your email address, you’ll want to upload your headshot photo and link it to that email address.

Which of these marketing strategies are your favorite? Do you have a favorite way to market your book or business? Scroll down to the comments section below and join in the conversation.

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.

Develop your author platform and extend your reach

by D’vorah Lansky

I’d like to thank Sandra for hosting me in celebration of the launch of my newest book, 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. In this article I’ll be talking about the importance of developing your online author platform. An author platform is a place where people can come to connect with you. It is where you share your message and it refers to the size of your following/readership and your presence on the Internet. It is essential for an author to have an author platform as your platform raises your visibility and allows people to get acquainted with you.

Here are a few things that you can do to develop your online author platform:

• Set your blog up so that it makes a positive statement about you as an author. If you have any intentions of speaking, you are going to need a website which actually shows people who you are and what you speak about.
• Have a media page or speaker sheet that can be easily accessed on your website. Include images of both you and your book cover.
• Include a page on your site where you can feature endorsements or testimonials. This will provide a powerful way for people to get to know you through third-party endorsement.
• Make sure that you have a professional presence on the social media networks. Social networks provide you with the ability to reach a large number of people easily, develop your presence, share your expertise, and impart the message of your book.

Whether you are beginning with a well-established website and large audience, or you are just setting up your website and beginning to grow your audience, there is much you can do to develop and promote your online platform.

The fastest way to develop your platform is to make sure you have an attractive looking blog or website where people can come to find out more about you and your book. Develop a daily writing schedule and post articles to your site several times a week. Interact on the social networking sites and invite your target audience to enjoy reading the articles you’ve posted to your site. You will soon come to be seen as an expert in your field and you will develop relationships and friendships with your readers.

Top social networks for authors

As authors, social networking is an important aspect of our marketing plan. In addition to the big four social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube) there are dozens of social networks that are designed specifically for authors. Following are some of my favorite social networks for authors. Take time to explore these sites and pick one or two to join. Set up your profile page, add information about your book, and begin networking with authors, readers, and publishers.

Author Central on Amazon – Author Central is a free service that Amazon offers so that authors can gain more exposure and promote their books. At Author Central, you can share with your readers the most current information about yourself, your events, and your work. In addition, you can view and edit your bibliography, add a photo and biography to a personal profile, upload book cover images and videos, track your book sales, and pull in the RSS feed from you blog as a way to connect with readers. Here’s my Author Central page if you’d like to connect: www.DvorahOnAmazon.com.

Authors Den – AuthorsDen is one of the largest and most vibrant online literary communities for both authors and potential readers. Nearly 1.5 million readers a month visit this website and have the opportunity to review books while interacting with others.

GoodReads – GoodReads claims to be “the largest social network for readers in the world.” GoodReads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they’ve read and would like to read, form book clubs, and interact with others. GoodReads authors can create an author profile, add their books, create events, and interact with readers.

Shelfari – Shelfari is known as a gathering place for authors, aspiring authors, publishers, and readers. They have numerous features to enable these groups to connect in an enjoyable way.

What kind of networking about your book and topic do you do online? Tell us about your favorite social networks and how these networks have helped you to promote your book and your message.

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.)