In a follow up to Monday’s post, How to Find Your Audience, I discussed ways for writers to find readers. Today, get some advice from other writers. Special thanks to Marilyn Meredith, Cheryl Malandrinos and Cheryl Kaye Tardif for responding to my shout out via Facebook!

Marilyn Meredith

Cheryl Malandrinos

Whale Song by Cheryl K. Tardif

Make time for book marketing!

Most authors shudder to think about marketing. Not only do they not want to do it, they use the excuse that they simply do not have the time.

Authors who want to be successful MUST make time for marketing. Unless they are lucky enough to become an automatic bestseller with no work, or snag a publisher willing to put money behind their books, it is entirely up to them to get novel exposure.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos has a terrific article at Writer2Writer about time management for large writing projects. These same principles can be applied to marketing. Be sure to check out her article and take to heart the advice she provides in both writing and marketing.

HOT TIP: The fall time change offers an excellent opportunity to squeeze in some marketing time. Instead of languishing in bed for an extra hour just because you can, why not use the extra hour for marketing? For example, I normally rise at 6:30 a.m., but with the time change, my body wakes up naturally at 5:30 a.m. I get a LOT done in the quiet hour before the others in the house rise – especially writing. That’s why I had time to finally get a blog post up at Market My Novel today!

Every VBT publicist has a different strategy. Different strategies work for different authors. Some basics about virtual book tours are always the same. Today, Cheryl C. Malandrinos with Pump Up Your Book Promotion sits down with me to explain her theories about virtual book tours and the dos and don'ts of successful tours.

What is a virtual book tour?

A virtual book tour is where an author promotes her book at a variety of blogs during a specific amount of time. Pump Up Your Book Promotion offers tours for one month or two. 

Bloggers act as tour hosts and come up with interview questions, review the books, or ask the author to draft an article that will be featured at their blogs on certain days. We occasionally use podcasts (Internet radio interviews) in our tours and have recently introduced the V-log, where an author creates a video that is featured on a blog during her tour.  Here is a great and unique example:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFLktcMIc24

How are VBTs used?

A VBT is a promotional tool that creates a buzz for your book, helps with name recognition, and allows authors to reach a wide audience. Like an in-store book signing, a VBT gives authors the opportunity to tell potential readers about their books. In addition, VBTs increase hits to their websites and/or blogs, and increase their page ranking in search engines.  VBTs definitely have their advantages:

• No travel expenses
• You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home
• You reach a much larger audience than at an in-store signing
• Some blogs are syndicated out to larger sites, and therefore, increase your potential reach
• Information about your book remains online for as long as the blog does


Are authors in certain genres going to benefit more from virtual book tours than other authors?

Our client base has included both fiction and non-fiction authors in a variety of genres. I can’t say that I’ve seen certain genres of books perform better than others, but I can say that those authors who consider their tours a success are the ones who play an active role in their VBTs. By this, I mean to say, that authors who provide thoughtful responses to interview questions, engaging guest articles, and who make the time to promote their tours and which blogs they will be stopping off at each day, express greater satisfaction with their tour experience.

The ever increasing number of return authors we have seems to indicate that many of our clients are happy with the results of their VBTs.



 What makes a successful VBT?

Creating an online presence is crucial to survival in this ever changing and quickly advancing technological world. If done correctly, potential readers will easily be able to find authors’ books using Google.

While an increase in sales is important, there are additional benefits to VBTs that can’t be discounted. The first that comes to mind is networking. Authors have the chance to engage other writers in conversation, in addition to reaching out in a personal way to potential readers.

Some of our clients have gone on to become regular contributors to blogs that hosted them during their tours. This provides additional online exposure for the author’s work. One of our clients credits his virtual book tour for opening the door for him to write for magazines, having his books considered for film, and starting his own Internet radio program. He is currently working with A&E’s Biography Channel.

The other wonderful thing about virtual book tours is the overwhelming support of authors on tour from other authors.  The journey to publication can be difficult at best, but in the virtual world authors have the support of other authors who visit them during their tours and offer them words of encouragement.

Just like with any good promotional tool, VBTs help authors with branding and name recognition.



How do you book virtual book tours?

I spend the majority of my working hours browsing the Internet for appropriate blogs.  We use ranking sites to determine if a blog would be advantageous to our clients, but we also give thought to how good of a fit the blog is for the material, how well the blogger promotes her site, and the blogger’s knowledge of SEO. 

What is a good length of time for a virtual book tour?

Most of Pump Up Your Book Promotion’s tours run one month, but we also have a two-month package. I’ve also seen some companies run tours for shorter periods of time. The author has to consider how much time he has available to commit to a tour before he can decide how long he will tour.

 Is the payoff better than with a traditional tour? Or is a virtual book tour a supplement to a traditional book store tour?

We’ve had authors who have been approached during book store signings because the reader heard about their books while they were on a virtual book tour.  Virtual book tours can be used in conjunction with other promotional tools to increase name recognition.



What are reasonable expectations for virtual book tours?

The main goal of a virtual book tour is to create a buzz for your book.  Think about the average Internet user, he wants information and typically he wants it fast.  He plugs some keywords into Google and gets about 12 million hits.  Most likely, he’s not going farther than the first three pages of his search to find what he’s looking for.  And this is where virtual book tours help authors, because when they stop off at blogs that are updated regularly and the blogger knows how to use SEO, their name and the titles of their books move up in the Google ranks and make it into those top three pages.

I want to address two important points here.  The first is that there is an idea out there that a blog has to have a huge amount of traffic to make a difference.  That’s not necessarily true.  I had a friend who blogged at a website that had a traffic rank on Alexa of under 25,000.  But the percentage of readers who actually visited blogs on this site was under 3%. 

Smaller blogs with loyal followings can play a much more important role in creating a buzz for a book than a huge site like the one I mentioned above.  A lot of these bloggers know each other.  Word of mouth is still a very powerful way to promote books.  In addition, bloggers are excellent networkers.  Huge sites don’t need to network as much as the smaller sites to promote their blogs.  And let me tell you, there are some bloggers out there that spend as much time promoting their blogs as they do posting to them.

The other thing that I want to address is the concern that if you only sell a handful of books, your tour wasn’t a success.  Perhaps the greatest advantage of a virtual book tour over an in-store book signing is that people can continue to find out about your book a long time after your tour is over.  Just tonight, I used keywords to search Google for some of our clients who had toured at the beginning of 2008, and on the first page of search results were links to interviews and reviews they received while on tour with us. 

Virtual book tours work!

Do authors sometimes expect too much from a virtual book tour?

At times they do.  We’ve had clients who assume virtual book tour companies have access to radio and newspaper contacts.  One client thought we could get him in touch with Oprah.  I wish!

Virtual book tours lead readers to books.  They create an online buzz where people begin talking about the book, authors are sharing their stories behind the book and its characters, and reviewers are providing their impressions to help potential readers decide if they want to spend their hard earned money on this book.

When will authors see a return on their cyberspace investment?

One of the greatest advantages of virtual book tours is what I mentioned earlier: a reader can find out about your book long after the tour is over.  Unlike a traditional book store signing where you have one shot to promote your book and convince someone to buy it, information about your book remains online for as long as the blogger maintains her blog.  Authors can continue to reap the benefits of a virtual book tour long after it’s over, so it’s not a cut and dry formula.

But when authors take what we have shown them about book promotion and continue to apply those principles, they can keep the momentum going and continue the buzz we’ve created for a long time.

Is it better to hire a virtual book tour agency, or to do it yourself?

I don’t know if better is the right word, but what it boils down to is this:  do you want to spend your time writing or coordinating a virtual book tour?  Having coordinated tours for over a year now, I can tell you, they are a lot of work.  You have to find the right blogs, contact the bloggers, mail out review copies, complete interviews and guest articles, then follow up and handle promotion of your virtual book tour; in addition to everything else in your personal and professional life.

For those authors who prefer to focus on things other than coordinating a virtual book tour, there are companies like Pump Up Your Book Promotion who can help.

How can an author find a good virtual book tour company?

If you plug “virtual book tours” into Google you get over 12 million hits.  Smaller VBT companies are popping up all over the Internet as entrepreneurs see the popularity of this fast growing promotional avenue for authors. 

Authors have to beware of what they’re getting into and for how much.  Prices for virtual book tours vary widely and you have to know that a company can provide what you’re paying for and that they actually follow through on it.  Do they know SEO?  Do they promote your tour and how?  Are there testimonials on their website and/or will they provide referrals?

These are some of the things authors need to find out before investing money with any virtual book tour company.

What are some dos and don'ts authors should know before venturing out into virtual book tour territory?

Do’s


• Be sure you can commit time to working on your virtual book tour.
• Have ARCs available for reviewers.
• Investigate your tour options and decide which company and package best fits your budget and available time.
• Look for testimonials on the company’s website or contact them for referrals.

Don’ts

• Don’t sign up for a virtual book tour until you can commit the time to prepare for it.
• Don’t  plan your tour so close to the release date of your book that review copies might not be available.
• Don’t stop promoting your book in other unique and interesting ways just because you’re planning to go on a virtual book tour.

What else would you like to add?

Once new and unknown, virtual book tours have become a typical promotional vehicle for authors seeking to reach a world wide audience.  Not only are virtual book tours a great promotional tool, most of my clients tell me they’re fun!

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a contributing writer for Writer2Writer.  Her articles help writers increase productivity through time management and organization.  A member of Musing Our Children, Ms. Malandrinos is also a reviewer for the Muse Book Reviews.
 
Cheryl is a Tour Coordinator for Pump Up Your Book Promotion and interviews authors and editors at her blog,  The Book Connection.  She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, two children, and three pesky cats.