I think every author should do a virtual tour. It lets you get the word out about your books and you get to see how others do their blogs. It does take some time but I think it's worth it. I use a PR site to set up my blogs and then they just send me the dates and places I will be.
So, do you write excerpts from your book as guest blog posts, or original material?
TD Jones > Rose A. ValentaApril 28, 2012 at 10:40am
Some blogs have questions to answer and others have you do a blog. When someone does a tour on my blog I have six questions they answer and I post their cover and an excerpt if they want.
I own a small business called Lightning Book Promotions were I do blog tours at a reasonable rate. A couple of the authors on here have worked with me Mary Firmin and L. Filloon. If anyone would be interested in booking a tour I am open to some new tours. http://lightningbookpromotions.com.
I looooove virtual book tours (VBTs)!! I work with one really great company called Goddess Fish Promotions. They handle most everything for you at a very reasonable rate. The do the promotional banners that host sites use on their site, and send the author copies to use on their sites. They organize all the stops, liaise with the site hosts, post notices every day of your tour on their own media sites, handle copies of your book for reviewers, etc.
Each site does their own advertising, as should the author. Each site host will either have interview questions or ask the author to write a short piece for the site based on a topic chosen by the site host . . . usually something to do with the book but it's not 100% self promotion. Mostly fun stuff like location, history, interesting facts, etc. Once I was asked to put my two protagonists in a virtual room and interview them. That was funny! I had to come up with the question and both of their replies in their unique voices.
Other than paying for the service and doing the interviews and such, the author needs to sort of hang out on the host sites during the day of their visit to answer questions that come through in the comments section. The host site has dozens, if not hundreds, of followers so you really want to make a showing for yourself to earn their readership. Some readers are pros and are loaded with great questions and prompts. Some people lag behind so authors want to check host previous host sites for late questions.
Authors are encouraged to offer a prize at the end of the tour. Names of commenters are put into a hat and one drawn out for a prize. Usually an Amazon gift card in an amount the author can afford. I usually do two prizes . . . a randomly chosen one from the hat and a stalker prize. The stalker prize goes to the person who's followed me every day or most every day. If there's more than one, then their names go into a hat separate from the others and the winner is drawn. I usually give $25 to each, the random winner and the stalker. I also do $5 Amazon gift cards as spot prizes, usually one per week.
My last VBT with GFPs was in November. It was for two weeks and cost me a total $120. That was the cost of the tour, a grand and stalker prize and two spot prizes. And I more than earned that money back in book sales, AND as a side effect from the VBT is that I earned a lot of new friends on my Facebook and Twitter pages.
Authors need to be aware that tour hosts offer a number of tour options. Not every tour guarantees reviews unless you specify you only want stops that offer reviews. But also, that doesn't guarantee a good review. This company does a simple 'name before the masses' tour which is the easiest tour option but doesn't get much author/reader interaction.
And every company operates differently. I've just had very good luck with GFPs. The ladies who run it have become good internet pals as a result. Win-win for everyone :-)
Welcome To Goddess Fish Promotions!
Your Promotional Needs at an Affordable Price!
Rose A. Valenta > Kemberlee ShortlandApril 27, 2012 at 6:57pm
Kimberlee,
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide great information!
Replies
I think every author should do a virtual tour. It lets you get the word out about your books and you get to see how others do their blogs. It does take some time but I think it's worth it. I use a PR site to set up my blogs and then they just send me the dates and places I will be.
So, do you write excerpts from your book as guest blog posts, or original material?
I own a small business called Lightning Book Promotions were I do blog tours at a reasonable rate. A couple of the authors on here have worked with me Mary Firmin and L. Filloon. If anyone would be interested in booking a tour I am open to some new tours. http://lightningbookpromotions.com.
Thanks for the link, Stormi.
I looooove virtual book tours (VBTs)!! I work with one really great company called Goddess Fish Promotions. They handle most everything for you at a very reasonable rate. The do the promotional banners that host sites use on their site, and send the author copies to use on their sites. They organize all the stops, liaise with the site hosts, post notices every day of your tour on their own media sites, handle copies of your book for reviewers, etc.
Each site does their own advertising, as should the author. Each site host will either have interview questions or ask the author to write a short piece for the site based on a topic chosen by the site host . . . usually something to do with the book but it's not 100% self promotion. Mostly fun stuff like location, history, interesting facts, etc. Once I was asked to put my two protagonists in a virtual room and interview them. That was funny! I had to come up with the question and both of their replies in their unique voices.
Other than paying for the service and doing the interviews and such, the author needs to sort of hang out on the host sites during the day of their visit to answer questions that come through in the comments section. The host site has dozens, if not hundreds, of followers so you really want to make a showing for yourself to earn their readership. Some readers are pros and are loaded with great questions and prompts. Some people lag behind so authors want to check host previous host sites for late questions.
Authors are encouraged to offer a prize at the end of the tour. Names of commenters are put into a hat and one drawn out for a prize. Usually an Amazon gift card in an amount the author can afford. I usually do two prizes . . . a randomly chosen one from the hat and a stalker prize. The stalker prize goes to the person who's followed me every day or most every day. If there's more than one, then their names go into a hat separate from the others and the winner is drawn. I usually give $25 to each, the random winner and the stalker. I also do $5 Amazon gift cards as spot prizes, usually one per week.
My last VBT with GFPs was in November. It was for two weeks and cost me a total $120. That was the cost of the tour, a grand and stalker prize and two spot prizes. And I more than earned that money back in book sales, AND as a side effect from the VBT is that I earned a lot of new friends on my Facebook and Twitter pages.
Authors need to be aware that tour hosts offer a number of tour options. Not every tour guarantees reviews unless you specify you only want stops that offer reviews. But also, that doesn't guarantee a good review. This company does a simple 'name before the masses' tour which is the easiest tour option but doesn't get much author/reader interaction.
And every company operates differently. I've just had very good luck with GFPs. The ladies who run it have become good internet pals as a result. Win-win for everyone :-)
Kimberlee,
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide great information!
Rose