10 things you need to know about virtual book tours

By now, most authors know what virtual book tours are or at least have heard of them. They are that wonderful marketing tool that should be a must-have in every new book campaign. With every new book I write, I make a game plan before the book is published and a virtual tour of the book is the first promotion spot on that list.

While most of us know what they are, there are still some new authors who may have heard of them but have no idea what they entail. I give you my top 10 things you need to know about virtual book tours so you know what to expect.

1. Virtual Book Tours are the BEST way to get the MOST exposure for your book online. Not only are you introducing your book and yourself to thousands of people, all of your interviews, guest posts, and reviews are archived, which means that months later, you are still selling your book because of that journey.
2. Virtual book tours ARE a lot of work. Not only are you looking for the perfect blogs to host, but you are acting as an intermediary between you and the blogger, unless you are using a paid service like Pump Up Your Book, which will do all the work for you. Even if you sign up for Pump Up Your Book, there is still a lot of work to be done to complete the tasks – completing interviews and writing guest posts unless you choose a full review walkthrough. Although it takes a bit of your time to complete interviews and write guest posts, it is well worth it.
3. You will learn more about your book than ever. One author told me that through the interviews and guest posts she had to complete, she never learned so much about her book, which caught her off guard. Now when she’s interviewed on radio shows and makes TV appearances, she’s better prepared.
4. Virtual Book Tours Will Build Your Authoring Platform. It doesn’t matter if you are a fiction or non-fiction author, virtual book tours will build your author platform using your search keywords.
5. Your reviews are guaranteed. Offline advertisers, even if they mean well, get it all wrong. They consult a book blogger, arrange to submit the book, and that’s where it stops. The review is not guaranteed. The reviewer can publish the review at any time they deem appropriate. With virtual book tours, your review is guaranteed by a certain date, unless the reviewer abandons ship, which is rarely the case. One author told me that she signed up with an offline publisher who submitted many books and only one or two reviewers ever received them. That was a waste of money for the author. Books aren’t cheap these days, so come up with a date when you and the reviewer can agree on assurances that the review will be determined.
6. Many reviewers now accept e-books saving you money. Thank goodness someone was smart enough to invent a device that automatically loads a book in seconds (no more waiting to go to the bookstore, my friend) and makes reading fun. When Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle, sales skyrocketed and book lovers started talking about buying one. What that means is that it opened up a wonderful way to get these books to book critics quickly and less expensively. Have you noticed how much the books cost and how much does it cost to ship them? I’m not saying that all reviewers will accept e-books, but as time goes on, most will have an e-reader, and actually prefer an e-book.
7. More visits to websites, more visits to blogs, more visits to Twitter and more visits to Facebook fan pages. All authors must have a website or blog and Twitter and Facebook accounts. It doesn’t matter if you think they’re all a waste of time. A virtual book tour will definitely get you more visits in all places as long as your links are in your bio.
8. Going on a virtual tour of a book increases your Alexa ranking. What is Alexa? Alexa measures how well you are doing in search engines. By taking a virtual book tour and including interviews and guest posts during that tour, your website and blog links are included in every bio (or should be!). Those are inbound links that Alexa uses to measure your ranking. The more your website or blog link is shown on other sites, the more valuable your site will be to them and therefore your ranking will skyrocket.
9. You will learn how to sell your book through media exposure. Not all authors take advantage of their interviews and guest posts to target their audience, thus drawing them to their book and / or website / blog. I’ve had many authors on tour and the ones who really take the time to make their interviews and guest posts effective sales tools benefit the most. The key here is to make your audience curious. One line in the case of interviews may not be enough. Of course, there are a limited number of ways you can answer “What is your book about?” But take your time and make your audience’s curiosity peak so that they will go to your website or to your book’s purchase link.
10. Virtual book tours teach you how to connect well with others. There is no better way to learn to network. All these wonderful book bloggers who agree to host you are your new friends on your extended network and will be there for you the next time you have a book to promote (unless they totally hate it, of course). You will also learn how to use social media effectively as you study how to get people closer to your stops using persuasive copywriting. Remember to speak to your audience, not to them.

There you go. 10 Reasons I Think You Need To Know About Virtual Book Tours In A Nutshell. If you have a tour coordinator instead of setting one up yourself, she will guide you to make it a fun experience for everyone. Your book will thank you.