Back
when my first novel was published in 2004, my then publisher hooked me up with
a publicist to teach me the ins and outs of
book promotion. In our initial conversation, she asked, “Are you willing to do
book events?”
After over twenty years of dreaming
of the day I would become a published author, this question was a no-brainer. To
my surprise, the publicist said how many authors won’t do book events.
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Over the next decade, I found out
why. Book events are hard. They cost the author in time and money—with no
guarantee that they’ll sell any books. So you would think that when virtual
book tours came to being, that authors would snatch up the opportunity to
promote their books without having the leave home—or even get out of bed and
get dressed.
For these authors, online promotion doesn’t cut it. Some
authors feel like they aren’t really promoting their books unless they have a
table set up someplace. They don’t actually see the reader buying the book. One
author told me in a desperate tone, “I need to get out there and promote my
book.”
As for me, I’d rather sit in my scruffy bathrobe, or even
less if no one is home, while selling books across the world wide web on a
virtual book tour.
Virtual book tours have
been the rage for writers for years. In spite of the advantages (like saving on
gas money driving to and from the event), many authors are gun-shy to try it
out. A few years ago, I was on an author panel in which one of the author
declared that virtual book tours aren’t worth the investment. While I strongly
disagree I can understand why she would have said that.
There are a ton of virtual book tour
coordinators out there and I have used more than one. Some are better than
others. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad ones out there. So, it would be
easy for an author who has had one, two, or more bad experiences to conclude
that virtual book tours are a waste of money. I know
more than one author who was burned by a bad tour coordinator, or one who was a
bad match for their book.
When dealing with virtual book tour
coordinators, it is definitely a case of author beware. Many book lovers have
the mistaken impression that being a book tour coordinator is an easy endeavor
that they can do at home, only to discover that it is a demanding job that
requires massive organizational skills. Tour coordinators are dealing with
authors (some who are quite needy), bloggers, and reviewers. It doesn’t take
long for a new and inexperience tour coordinator to find herself in over her
head. One author I know booked a tour with a new coordinator who offered tours
for a rate that was much lower than anyone else out there. The writer went to
all of the trouble writing her blog posts and doing the interviews. She sent
them in to the tour coordinator, who in the meantime had decided that
coordinating a book tour was too hard and got a job at Starbucks, leaving the
author high and dry.
One author told me recently that she paid a
tour coordinator for a month long review book tour and it never happened. The
tour coordinator took her money and ran. Never answered her emails, etc.
When looking for a tour coordinator, check out
the authors who have toured with them. Are they all newbies? Check out the
rankings of their books on Amazon. Are they getting book sales? How long has
this tour coordinator been in business? If they are brand new, maybe you’ll
want to wait to see how long they stay in business.
Also, select a tour coordinator whose bloggers
and reviewers fall in your book’s genre. I once had a tour coordinator place my
clean-reads mystery on erotica blogs that you had to be eighteen years old to
enter. She claimed she was expanding my audience. My thought, anyone visiting
an erotic site is not looking for a clean mystery that doesn’t have even one
sex scene.
I use iRead Book Tours and have been
very happy. They have never let me down.
Another reason that many
authors don’t see any success on their books tour is because they think that all
you have to do with a virtual book tour is pay the tour coordinator and then
sit back and wait for the sales to come in. Nope! If you want a successful book
tour, you need to work at it!
So, should you take the
plunge and do a tour or not? And if you do, how do you make sure you get your
money’s worth? Read on.
What Is Your Goal? Do you want
to create buzz before your book is released with a spotlight tour? Maybe
you want to get reviews and generate publicity for your book that has been out
for a while. Or do you want to get reviews coming in as soon as it is released?
For most of these goals, you’ll need to launch your blog tour before the
release date, which leads to the next point.
Schedule Your
Tour: Good tour coordinators who know what
they are doing require time to set up the book tour. That means pitching your
book to their bloggers and reviewers who in turn decide if they are interested
in having you on their blog.
Keep in mind that most bloggers and reviewers
don’t get paid for their blogs and reviews. They do this out of a love for
books. They have jobs and families. Book reviewers get tons of review requests
and will usually have a pretty tall TBR list. So it is an honor when a blogger
or reviewer wants to feature or review your book on their blog. For this
reason, you need to allow them plenty of time (my tour coordinator requires six
weeks) to read your book for a review. If a blogger doesn’t have time in their
schedule to review your book, many can offer you a book spotlight. In other
words, don’t expect to email a tour coordinator on Monday and have a tour
running the next week.
Get to Work on Your Tour Postings. If you
want your tour to be a success, and you don’t want to write guest posts or do
interviews, let your coordinator know that up front. To make appearances at
blogs with inadequate, poorly written guest blog posts or lack luster
interviews will not be doing you or the bloggers any good. I knew one writer
who wrote one guest blog post and sent it in to be repeated throughout the
whole tour. None of those bloggers ever invited him back.
Publicize your blog tour. Here’s a
news flash: No one is going to come to your party if you don’t tell them that
there’s a party going on! Make a big deal out of your
tour. This is your tour! This is your book that is being featured across
the WORLD WIDE WEB! People all over the world are seeing your book! I’m not
kidding. On my last two tours, one giveaway winner lived in Croatia. The next
one lived in the Netherlands!
Post details on your website and
social media sites like a rock star launching a worldwide tour. And during the
tour, post anywhere and everywhere until your fingers bleed! This is your time
to shine!
Followup. The day your entry is posted, be sure to respond to every
comment, even if only to thank the commenter. Be sure to stop by days later as
well.
Scheduling a blog tour is all
about coordination and hard work. But I have found it to be a labor of love—not
unlike writing a book. Good luck.
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Connect with Lauren: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Connect with Lauren: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook
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Lauren Carr
Taking Your Book to the World
Virtual book tours
1 Comments
Thank you so much, Writers and Authors for inviting me to stop by today to discuss the ins and outs of virtual book tours! See you next time!
ReplyDeleteI love to hear from you. So feel free to comment, but keep in mind the basics of blog etiquette — no spam, no profanity, no slander, etc.
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