One of the most effective ways for self-publishing authors to sell their books is through the virtual book tour channel. This will usually mean that the author makes a guest appearance on a blog site, a book review site or in a forum. If you’re a member of Good Reads, I’m sure you have been invited to send in questions for any authors that you follow. A book tour can also involve appearing on radio shows, pod casts and teleseminars.
What makes the virtual book tour stand head and shoulders above the book tour where you’ll appear in person is the following:
- It won’t cost you a thing. Yes it’s free – unless of course you hire a professional to organise the tour for you. But the purpose of this is doing the tour virtually, and that means you won’t have to spend on travel or hotel costs.
- Your audience is huge. You should be able to reach a great deal of people and many of these people will be the type of people that really enjoy books like yours.
- By getting involved in a tour, you can expect to build some long lasting links back to your site.
The secret is to find some tour hosts who are a good match. They will need to have the right audience for selling your book as their followers.
You will be expected to provide material to each host that will help to explain what your book is about, who you are and demonstrate why somebody should buy your book.
- Interview material – your host will ask you questions
- Educational material and how-to articles in your field of expertise
- Excerpts and free chapters from your book
- Information about how you developed the plot and characters
- Books reviews
- Podcasts
Information on how you are marketing the book – ie what other tours will you be on in addition to any personal appearances that you will be making.
One way to create a buzz of excitement is to give away a copy of your book on the tour.
Let us know how you go about organising your virtual book tours.