What Authors Need to Know About Virtual Book Tours

POSTED ON Dec 1, 2011

Joel Friedlander

Written by Joel Friedlander

Home > Blog > Marketing, Self-Publishing > What Authors Need to Know About Virtual Book Tours

by Dana Lynn Smith (@BookMarketer)

Today’s guest post from Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, kicks off the virtual book tour for her newest book marketing guide, Virtual Book Tour Magic. Be sure to see the end of this article for details on how to win a free copy of Virtual Book Tour Magic.


You’ve probably heard that virtual book tours are a great way to promote books, but did you know that there are several different ways to showcase authors and their books through a virtual tour?

Virtual book tours can include book reviews, guest posts on blogs, interviews on podcasts or radio shows, social network events, contests, book giveaways, and more. These tours are sometimes called book blog tours or virtual author tours, or abbreviated as VBT.

Tours are often done as part of the launch of a new book, but they can be successful any time after the book is published. They are just as effective for fiction and nonfiction books — only the venues and the type of content will vary.

Types of Virtual Book Tours

A traditional virtual book tour typically lasts about one to three weeks, with a different tour stop each day.  Original content is provided to each tour host and you can continue promoting the tour stops even after the tour is over.

An extended tour goes beyond the traditional tour and can last for several weeks or months.  One variation is to publish a series of articles on each blog you visit. Or schedule one guest blog post or interview per week on an ongoing basis.

A short “blastoff” tour of one to five days on lots of blogs at once is designed to push up the book’s sales rank on Amazon within a short period of time. One option for this type of tour is to provide all of the blog owners with standard content, rather than providing unique content to each blogger.  The content could be a book excerpt, an author interview, or a book review by the blog host.

You can design an entire tour around social media, or mix social media appearances with other tour stops on blogs, podcasts and online radio shows. Social media tour events can include Twitter chats, organized discussions on Facebook, and video chats on Google Plus.

Another strategy for a virtual book tour, especially during a book launch, is to combine a tour with an “Amazon bestseller campaign.” In these campaigns, people who buy a book during a certain time frame receive bonus gifts from the author or from JV partners who contribute bonuses and help promote the event.

Virtual Book Tour MagicNo matter what type of virtual book tour you plan, it’s important to be well organized and to get started with the planning at least two months in advance.

To learn how to organize your own successful virtual book tour, check out the new Virtual Book Tour Magic guidebook.

Book Tour Special:  Order Virtual Book Tour Magic by December 12 and you’ll get an invitation to an exclusive book tour Q&A session with Dana on December 15.

Win a Free Copy of Virtual Book Tour Magic!
Just enter a comment on this post to enter our drawing for a free copy of Virtual Book Tour Magic. A winner will be drawn at random from all entries received through Saturday, December 3.  The winner will be announced here on December 5, along with a review of the Virtual Book Tour Magic book.

Dana Lynn SmithDana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. For more book promotion tips, get her free Top Book Marketing Tips ebooks at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com

Joel Friedlander

Written by
Joel Friedlander

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