A virtual book tour takes place on your web site, and in special “appearances,” articles, blog posts or interviews on your own and other’s blogs, web sites, social media sites and on Internet radio and podcasts. Your virtual book tour can include web audio and video, photos, excerpts from your book, special bonus downloads of material that isn’t in the book, articles or research than extend your book content—plus downloadable gifts and bonus items.
Don’t be fooled: a virtual book tour takes as much time to put together as a real tour, and it requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work to identify good online partners, create content and publicize. On the other hand, a virtual book tour lasts until you or your other online partners take down the content, where a live event lasts only an hour or two.
Start by thinking about what elements you want to include in your virtual tour and who you can tap to help spread the word. At a minimum, most virtual tours include an excerpt from the new book, cover art, a fresh interview or two with the author, a related article or blog post, and links to where the book can be purchased.
You don’t have to stop there. Your virtual tour is really limited only by your imagination, web programming skills (or budget) and your time for preparation. You can use a program like AudioAcrobat.com to create an audio greeting readers or an online reading from your first chapter. Use a digital video camera like a Flipcam to upload a short video of you answering questions about your book and upload it to your own site and to YouTube. Offer a drawing for a signed copy of the book. If you write fiction, interview one of your characters. Twitter tips from your book, or even a whole chapter! Use your Facebook or other social media sites to preview new copy and related articles. There are lots of possibilities.
Start with your own web site. Make it the anchor site for your tour, the place where your main content will be posted. You should also include your blog and social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any specialty sites such as Shelfari, RedRoom, AuthorNation, etc.
Look for partners. Find out whether your publisher would be willing to let you do a guest blog post or would publicize your online tour. If you’ve made friends with other authors, see if they’ll swap a guest blog with you. Find other bloggers who cover your topic or genre and ask if they’d like to participate. You can offer them unique content, a contest, or answers to a Q&A. Look for sites that already draw readers who would like your book and see if they will participate.
Then write a press release and send it out to the traditional and online media covering your topic. For best results, start your planning and begin making contacts about six months in advance and send out your press release about three weeks in advance, after you’re certain everything will be posted and working.
If you want to get a little fancier, try a “push page.” A push page is a special web site or web page that offers bonus goodies to anyone who orders through a link on that page. If you have friends who offer other books or products of interest to your readers, you can ask if they would offer an online, downloadable freebie on your push page in exchange for the visibility being featured provides them. If Amazon offers an affiliate program in your state, use your affiliate link for the online order button.
The idea of a push page is more common for non-fiction than for fiction, but I used it very successfully for the launch of my third book, Dark Haven. To encourage early pre-orders, I got several author friends to provide links to free downloads of short stories or chapters from their books, and a specialty coffee company even offered an online coupon!
I do two annual online events each year, my Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek and my Days of the Dead International Blog Tour. One event is where I preview the newest book in my series, and the other takes advantage of the natural tie-in between the week leading up to Halloween and my fantasy series focus on ghosts. The online events allow me to connect with readers in places where I can’t reach through live tours, and I incorporate bloggers and web sites from all over the world to make sure all my readers feel included. The events grow in popularity year to year and have been popular with the media that cover my genre.
You can plan your online tour to coincide with your live tour, or you can plan it for a lull in your tour schedule. Either way, your virtual tour provides a great opportunity to visit readers all over the world and provide a lasting impression of your new book.
Gail Martin's brand-new book is The Thrifty Author’s Guide to Launching Your Book Without Losing Your Mind. Gail is the author of The Summoner, The Blood King and Dark Haven fantasy adventure novels in the bestselling Chronicles of the Necromancer series. Find her online at www.GailMartinMarketing.com and on Twitter at GailMartinPR and GailZMartin.
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