What Do You Think of Virtual Book Tours?
September 10, 2007 by Lillie
Many authors are doing virtual book tours today. A recent New York Times article described a virtual book tour (VBT) arranged by a major publisher. (Access to article may require free registration.)
Dorothy Thompson at Pump Up Your Book Promotion arranges blog book tours for authors. She also blogs about her experiences and hosts authors at Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion.
Updated: Dorothy also has a great article on making your virtual book tour a success at Book Marketing Buzz.
Many authors, however, plan their own virtual book tours. It takes a lot of work to arrange with bloggers and answer interview questions or write a guest post for each stop on the tour.
Glenda Watson Hyatt just finished a virtual tour for her book I’ll Do It Myself. She involved her blog readers creatively in her book tour adventure, describing her “travels.”
Mary Emma Allen, who hosts touring authors at Potpourri of Writing, recently wrote an excellent guest post on using virtual book tours for book promotion at Grow Your Writing Business. Be sure to read the comments as well as the post itself, because some authors with VBT experience share some helpful advice.
I’m thinking about planning a virtual book tour to promote my novel Dream or Destiny when it’s published later this year. I’ve been ambivalent about it, but after reading the articles linked here, I think it might be worthwhile and fun … as well as a lot of work!
Have you participated in a virtual book tour, either as an author or host? Do you read blogs that host VBTs? Has reading an interview or guest post by an author ever motivated you to buy a book?
[tags]virtual book tour[/tags]
This is exciting Lillie. I look forward to your virtual book tour.
Thanks for pointing readers to Mary Emma’s guest post at Grow Your Writing Business. As you say, there was valuable information in the comments too. It certainly sparked interest.
I wish you all the best with your planning and exploring for this new project.
Thanks, Yvonne – for inviting Mary Emma to post and generate such great information and for your good wishes on my plans-in-the-making.
Wow, Lillie, thanks for the plug! I do host authors for their virtual book tours and I’m finding that a lot of them either just don’t have time to choreograph a full tour or they’re more into writing (fathom that, lol) than promoting and want someone to set up their tour for them. Glenda did an excellent job setting one up for herself and she’s what I would call a perfect example if you want to take the bull by the horns and do it yourself. You can easily do it yourself. Just set some time aside for this as it does take an incredible amount of time, but you don’t want to go into it without giving your all. Glenda gave her all. I do have a post up on one of my blogs about virtual book tours that I just put up tonight. Let’s see if I can’t get the link to show up here. Okay, it’s How to Make Your Virtual Book Tour a Success. Again, thanks for the mention! ;o)
Thanks for the mention, Lillie. I’d say go for it and try a virtual book tour to promote your novel once released!
Yes, it can be a fair bit of work organizing a ‘VBT’, but it is definitely doable. I’ve done two such tours now and the second was more successful in terms of sales, in part, because I had began building relationships with bloggers in my target market before going out on tour. These bloggers were then eager to host an appearance, making this tour much more focused and increasing book sales.
With your novel due out later this year, you have time to begin building those relationships. When it comes to organizing your ‘VBT’, these bloggers will be excited and honoured that you’ve asked them to host an appearance.
The more I learn about this form of book promotion, the more I am realizing I could do. Had I known all this before my first tour, I may have never attempted one. I’m now realizing the key is to start with what you can realistically do and then build upon your success, adding strategies to subsequent tours.
Please feel free to email me if you have any with questions.
Good luck with your book and happy touring! Enjoy the experience!
Dorothy,
I’ve updated the post with the link to your excellent article for readers who miss the comments. Thanks for the advice and encouragement.
Glenda,
Thanks for your input and encouragement. I really enjoyed following your last tour – you set a great example.
Thanks, Lillie!!!
I have honestly never heard of a virtual book tour before reading this post.
It’s an interesting concept, and everything else is virtual tours these days, why not book tours?
I don’t think it could substitute for a real book tour though…not anytime soon at any rate!
Dave,
Glad to introduce you to a new concept.
Real-world book tours are great. When I was physically able, I met many of my favorite authors in persons at booksignings.
However, many authors cannot afford to go on tour – and publishers generally don’t provide a lot of support except for big-name authors. And some folks, like me, can’t travel for health reasons. So virtual book tours are a viable alternative.
Hi Lillie,
those are all good points that I hadn’t thought off. The Internet makes so many things possible!
Dave,
Like anything else, the Internet is a combination of good and bad. But it’s certainly a blessing to me to be able to work from home and do things – like a virtual book tour – I could never do in the “real” world.
Thanks for some great information, Lillie, and for the work you did to pull it all together for us. This is a post I’ll save.
Helen,
I’m planning to do a virtual book tour when my novel comes out, so I gathered the information for myself. I’m glad it is helpful to others as well.
[...] Be creative and realize that you can’t use the same marketing methods the large publishers do. As a self-publisher, you aren’t likely to get reviews in major newspapers or get booked on Oprah to talk about your book. Focus your efforts where they will be most effective. Submit your book for reviews in trade journals or association newsletters related to your subject, and aim for media coverage by your hometown newspaper or local TV station. Instead of an expensive book tour across the country, take a virtual book tour. [...]