Issue #70, BAB, Monday, September 1, 2014
Voice Matters. Dare To Share Yours. Impact the World.
This week’s Big Idea comes to you from BAB expert panelist Sara Hathaway. And in her feature Sara discusses virtual book tours as an excellent way for new authors to build their brands and promote their books.
Also in this issue…
You’ll find an inspirational, ceramic mug geared especially towards writers. Plus, you’ll be introduced to this week’s Makin’ It Happen author Megan Delaney, a freelance writer with a long-standing dream to become a professional writer.
I hope you get a ton out of this week’s issue. And as always, thank you for being a BAB subscriber!
Write on,
Today’s Quote
“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or a new thing in an old way.”
- Richard Harding Davis
Monday Musing
What Do You Think About Doing A Book Tour?
Today’s Big Idea
Travelling The Globe To Promote Your Book – No Planes Necessary!
11 Tips To Skyrocket Your Book’s Sales With A Virtual Book Tour
By Sara Hathaway
As exciting as it sounds to travel from Iceland to Italy to the Philippines on an international book tour like author of The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan, for most authors jet-setting around the world isn’t all that feasible.
Fortunately, though, with today’s technology authors no longer need to pack their bags and boxes of books and globe-trot from bookstore to bookstore to showcase their work.
Today, authors can go on virtual book tours, like I currently am doing with my book Day After Disaster.
What Is A Virtual Book Tour?
Virtual book tours are an essential way for new authors to gain traction in the marketplace. Currently, there are thousands of people online discussing or blogging about every topic imaginable. And virtual book tours access specific types of audiences by highlighting authors and their books for a specified amount of time on blogs.
Blog owners can choose to post a guest blog written by a book’s author, write their own reviews and do author interviews, or collaborate with an author on a joint project. Authors receive attention from the blog’s followers and blog owners receive attention from the authors’ fans that are following them, virtually, on their tours. So virtual book tours are win-wins for both blog owners and authors.
Whether you are a non-fiction or fiction author, there are lots of blogs willing to feature you. But you must know your niche. Who wants to read your book? Where does your audience go to get information and new material to read? Once that you have found a blog, how do you get its attention?
Scheduling Your Virtual Book Tour
1. Don’t be afraid to ask
Try to find some common ground with the owner of the blog you want to be featured on. Post helpful comments to their blog. Find them on Facebook and see if you have any friends in common. When it is time to contact them, carefully write your introduction so the blog owner sees the benefit for them: featuring you will draw more viewers to their blog.
Remember, don’t hesitate to ask. All they can say is no. In sales there is a saying: Some will, some won’t, some wait, so what. Move on to the next site.
2. Try to include variety of blogs, so content varies
No one will want to read an interview from you with a review of the book for multiple days. Make creative content to keep your audience engaged. Find a way to mold the theme of your post to the theme of the blog for a range of different types of blogs.
For example: My book’s main theme is survival, but I can temper the content for self-help and self-growth sites by explaining how survival mindsets can be applied for peace in your daily life.
3. Stay organized
You don’t want to annoy anyone by sounding needy, so keep careful records of which blog owners you ask to participate and when. If they do not respond, send one gentle reminder about a week later. If they still don’t respond, move on. For the blogs that do want to feature you, record your contact person’s name and email address, and record the name of the blog and its URL. The more organized you are, the easier life will be.
4. Use excellent communication skills
Keep communicating. Make sure you clearly inform the blog owner of the day you need the post to be posted on their site and request to get the post’s link in advance. Make sure your website and blog are prepared for people to visit. Create a page that details the schedule for your virtual book tour and provide a link on your home page. Visitors need to clearly see where the information is and how to travel with you. Nothing should need explaining.
5. Be ready to expand your email list along the way
By now you should be thinking about forming a long-term relationship with your readers. Getting their emails is key in this process. Develop a free giveaway in PDF format and upload it to your website. Then, link your email sign-up thank-you page to that PDF. Develop a signature line with a picture of yourself and let the readers know who you are and what gift they will receive for signing up for your newsletter. The signature line should be short and to the point.
Now your website is ready for traffic. Your email signup message is ready to deliver. It’s time to start the tour and market, market, market!
Marketing Your Virtual Book Tour
1. Post to your own blog
Each day make a post to introduce your readers to the blog and entice them to visit with an interesting summary of your article. Do not post your article here; just let your readers know where you will be.
2. Post your event on Facebook
Do this once or twice a day max; you do not want to overwhelm your friends. Let them know where the tour is and what you will be talking about. Ask them a question to get a discussion going.
3. Comment at the host’s blog
Do this early in the day and thank them for hosting. Then, you can click to receive updates on the post to keep you informed of any new comments. Check back and discuss issues with commenters.
4. Revisit sites you formally visited
Keep checking in now and again. People will keep reading even if you are not featured that day.
5. Send the blog owner an email thanking them
Ask for their address and send them a personal thank-you with a copy of your book. No one has to help you and the people who do should know they are appreciated.
6. Have fun!
Virtual book tours are a lot of work to set up, and keeping communication constant can be overwhelming. So remember, this is a celebration of your work. Enjoy it!
Now that you’ve got all the tools, I hope you set off on your own virtual promotion adventure. To see an example of how this works in real time, I welcome you to check out my virtual book tour schedule page along with my virtual book tour blog summary.
You can also learn more about me as an author in my Media Room.
What do you think about conducting a virtual book tour? Have you done one already? Share your thoughts about Sara’s Big Idea with us on the Be A Bestseller Facebook fan page.
Your “Write” Resource
Some days (or everyday) you need just a little extra push to get cracking with your writing.
A cup of freshly brewed coffee in the morning or tea when you’re writing late at night can do the trick—or perhaps something a little stronger for those days when your writing could use a shot of Hemingway liquid courage.
Whatever the case may be, check out this “Keep Calm and Write On” ceramic mug, featured as this week’s “Write” Resource.
Available in two sizes: 11-oz and 15-oz, this mug is lead-free, microwave-safe, and FDA approved.
Why drink out of a plain, old mug when it’s so much cooler to be sipping from a custom, writing-themed mug! Plus, it makes a great gift for any other writers in your life.
Makin’ It Happen
As this week’s Makin’ It Happen author we have Megan Delaney, a freelance writer who’s working to make her dreams a reality.
As compared to past Makin’ It Happen authors, Megan has no prestigious awards to cite or published books to speak of (yet)—only years of creative writing for personal satisfaction and a few paid business projects.
What Megan does have, however, is a sincere desire to progress as a writer and to publish something she has written. In essence, she wants to be discovered!
Megan’s love for writing started as a young girl writing in journals. During her sometimes-tumultuous adolescent years, she wrote from the coast of Maine, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, where she says her creative juices naturally began to flow.
Megan finished a degree at Pennsylvania State University at age 45, with a focus on writing-intensive curricula. During her time at school, Megan produced several how-to and feature articles that she would love to have published.
Megan’s desire to write professionally was previously put on the back burner so life could take place around her. As a wife, mother, small business owner, and employee in her mid-40’s, the encouraging words from family members, friends, as well as a few professors finally resonated and have gently nudged Megan to pursue her dream of becoming a writer.
In the last year, Megan wrote a 50-page educational guide called Straight Talk for Parents as well as a blog about addiction for the non-profit organization, DrugFreePA.org.
The how-to articles Megan has written are on Internet dating and preparing a bountiful Thanksgiving feast on a budget. She currently has a personal blog and blogs for Webpage FX, an Internet marketing company.
In the works for Megan are a fun, family cookbook, full of “experimental dishes gone exceptionally right,” a memoir of her childhood years spent at her family cottage on the coast of Maine, and a parents’ guide to raising a millennium adolescent.
You can learn more about Megan and her work here:
www.museythings.wordpress.com
www.bloginablender.wordpress.com
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