On a virtual book tour, authors visit a series of blogs, websites, radio shows or other virtual venues during a certain time frame – usually one to three weeks – to promote their book. Most tour stops involve making guest posts on blogs (either by writing an article or being interviewed by the blog owner) or having the blog owner review the book.
Virtual book tours can be a good way to promote fiction. When planning your tour, look for book blogs related to your genre, general book review websites, and blogs that cater to the specific target audience for your book. Here’s an example of an interview-style tour stop on a highly targeted blog, Suburban Vampire.
It’s best to create a web page with a schedule listing the stops for your tour. Here’s a great example for the tour for TimeSplash by Graham Storrs.
For best results, seek out sites with good traffic. You can estimate website traffic by comparing the Google Page Rank or Alexa ranking of different websites.
What kinds of topics can fiction authors talk about on their blog tour? Of course, you can talk about the characters and plot in the book you are promoting. But, many people are fascinated by the writing and publishing process, so you can also cover topics such as these:
• How do you come up with story ideas and characters?
• When and how do you write?
• What other authors inspire you?
• How did you find your publisher?
• How long does it take you to write a novel?
• How do you overcome writers block?
• What’s your next project?
• How long have you been writing and how did you get started?
• How does your background influence your books?
If you’re wondering whether virtual book tours are really worthwhile, read Blog Tours for Authors – Do They Work? by Fiona Ingram.
For a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a virtual book tour in progress, see Andy Shackcloth’s series of articles about Graham Storrs’ tour for his sci-fi ebook, TimeSplash.
To learn more about the advantages of doing a virtual book tour, see Why Authors Should Do a Virtual Book Tour by Nikki Leigh
This is a cross-posting from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.