As CEO, founder and tour coordinator for Pump Up Your Book Promotion, I get many questions that run the gamut from “What is a virtual book tour?” to “How many books will I sell during my tour?”

To explain virtual book tours, it’s simply an online tour where you will be stopping off at various blogs giving interviews, receiving reviews for your book, or guest posting during a set time.

Sounds easy, but it’s a lot of work that the author may not realize until he or she does one.

The beauty of virtual book tours is that your book will be appearing all over the Internet without ever leaving your home. Everyone by now has heard of them and quite a few of you have been on one.

But, for those who have not, I’m going to explain what virtual book tours can do for you and how you can make full use of one if you are going it alone.

I have been running Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours for a scant three months and already we are booked solid with great names such as Jane Green, Caridad Pineiro and Sandi Kahn Shelton. But, right along with these bestselling authors are unknown authors trying to pave a way into the vast book buyer’s territory; namely, those readers out there who have never heard of them because they aren’t well-known authors and perhaps would have never known about them if it weren’t for online book tours.

And that’s the beauty of online tours. Anyone can do them.

Whether you set one up yourself or you hire someone to run your tour for you, you start out by targeting book blogs and bloggers who write the same genre. The reasoning for the latter is that if that particular blogger has friends who visit because of the genre, your book will be more appealing to them.

However, that’s not a die hard rule.

The key is exposure to all audiences. While John Smith might like to read a good horror book, he might enjoy a good art book. Even though the two genres are completely different, don’t pass up a chance to appear on a blog that doesn’t match your genre if the host invites you because you just never know who might stop by.

Which brings me to the point of this article. A virtual book tour is perpetual. Even though your tour may last a month and you may or may not sell books (although not selling any is highly unlikely), as long as the host keeps your interview in their archives, your stop will be linked up in the search engines forever.

The key to making your tour successful is to get on as many blogs as you possibly can. The more blogs you appear, the more links go into the search engines and this ups your rankings for your particular key search words.

So, not only is your tour perpetual, your rankings in the search engines go through the roof and that’s the sole purpose of a virtual book tour. While it’s fun to watch your tour in progress, what’s really going to matter is afterwards when your tour is long over.

The beauty of virtual book tours is that, if the bloggers have thought to use tags in your interviews, your tour stops should come up on the very first page of the search engines using your key search words. It’s a known fact that if your book does not come up on the first three pages of the search engines using any given search words that describe your book, you’ve just lost a customer.

Millions of people use the Internet each day. By incorporating SEO (search engine optimization), which our company is known for, your tour stands to outshine the rest.

Virtual book tours can be fun, but they can also be a crash course in finding out how blogs and the search engines work and how you can make it work for you to make your tour something to be proud of.

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a full service public relations firm specializing in online book tours. You can visit her website at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com.

PUMP UP YOUR BOOK PROMOTION VIRTUAL BOOK TOURS
“Leave your tour in our hands!”
http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com
http://www.virtualbooktoursforauthors.blogspot.com

by Sophfronia Scott

A few years ago having a website was a nice little feature to have for your business or to keep your family and friends up to date. But these days, especially in the book business, having a smart website is a necessity. The site has to do many things: get you known, get your subject known, get people to buy your book on the subject.

Unfortunately most writers aren’t internet experts, much in the same way that they aren’t marketing experts. But to be successful with your book these days you have to be both. This primer will get you going. FYI, one of the smartest writer’s websites I know belongs to Tim Bete of http://www.TimBete.com. He won the 2005 Writers Digest Award for Best Writer’s Website and he provided a few of the tips below when he spoke to The Book Sistah Inner Circle in September 2006.

Don’t Wait: Put Your Website Up First

A lot of writers tend to think of a website as a promotional tool that they’ll put up after they sell their book to a publisher. But here’s the thing: if you don’t have a website it’ll be really hard, if not impossible, to sell your book to a publisher. As we’ve discussed in this newsletter before, when a publisher buys your book, they’re really buying your platform, or the audience that you can bring to the table. One writer recently emailed me that her agent had been told, “Why would anyone buy her book? No one knows who she is.” Unfair or not, that’s the way most publishers think.
But you can use your website (or blog) to get yourself known. You can start servicing your audience, posting articles and soliciting publicity for yourself and your work. This is where you start.

Use Your Name

There’s a big trend around having a domain name that reflects your subject matter (LivingWithToddlers.com) for instance. But remember, as a writer, your brand is YOU. You want to get your name known. So no matter how many domain names you own or use, make sure one of them is YourName.com. It’s easier for people (especially editors) to find you when you use your name. When you have an unusual name, like mine, you can also use your first name alone as a domain. I do both!

Connect With Your Audience

A website is your opportunity to engage your reader. Get them talking to you! Publish a newsletter that provides valuable content for your audience. Give them insight on what you’re working on, let them in on your thinking process. Once they know you and your work, they’ll be all the more excited about buying your book or books when they come out. Your audience can also help you write your book–ask them what they want to know, what they need help with. Send a brief survey telling them you’re gathering information for the book. Here’s a great secret: people want to help! They’ll be more than happy to pitch in–and more likely to buy the book because they helped create it!

Put Up Writing Samples–And Distribute Them

Your website is a great place for editors to find you. You may not have to work as hard seeking out a publisher or freelance assignment because when you have a solid website, chances are the editor will find you first. To be ready for them you’ll want your site to have lots of writing samples available. Perhaps you post your newsletter articles on your website as well. You’ll want an editor to be able to see immediately that you’re able to deliver the goods.
Here’s another tip: allow your newsletter articles to appear on sites other than your own. Distribute your work on sites such as EzineArticles.com or iSnare.com. Your work will appear all over the web on other people’s blogs, newsletters or websites, making it that much easier for your name to turn up when an editor is searching for a writer.

Learn How to Update Your Own Site

You’ll want your site to be alive–meaning fresh material, updated information and correct information. That can be difficult to do if you’re constantly having to find someone to make these updates for you. Do yourself a favor: purchase HTML editing software such as Macromedia’s Dreamweaver and learn how to make simple updates on your own. It’s not as difficult as you might think–many of these programs are similar to or as easy to use as your average word processing program. I bet you’ll be creating your own pages before you know it!

© 2007 Sophfronia Scott

Author and Writing Coach Sophfronia Scott is “The Book Sistah” TM. Get her FREE REPORT, “The 5 Big Mistakes Most Writers Make When Trying to Get Published” and her FREE online writing and book publishing tips at http://www.TheBookSistah.com

Sophfronia is also author of the bestselling novel, All I Need to Get By. If you liked today’s issue, stay tuned for more because The Book Sistah also offers FREE audio classes, FREE articles, workshops, and other resources to help aspiring authors get published and market their books successfully.

The Book Sistah
261 South Main St.
Ste. 319
Newtown, CT 06470
866-834-3942 [mailto:Info@TheBookSistah.com]Info@TheBookSistah.com
www.TheBookSistah.com

by Brad Grochowski

Obviously, Youtube and Myspace, as well as other similar sites, have revolutionized the way that video is presented on the web. Used to be, you had to host bandwidth-hogging, giant-file-sized videos on your own web server, and embed them in your site with HTML code that you wrote yourself.

It was tricky, and it took the right setup to make it work.

But now, not only can you, simply, upload your video to someone else’s server, your video is search-able, view-able, rate-able, and comment-able within a community that is out there just looking for new video material to watch.

Not only that, but these sites offer cut-and-paste embedding that make it really so simple to get your videos onto your own site - again, without a band-with or disk space cost to you.

This is all happening at a time when video promos of indie-published books are really catching on as a way to get attention for your book.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of time/money or resources to pull together a pretty great promo video. Especially now with the suite of applications that come standard with a Mac - including GarageBand and Imovie - with a little bit of savvy you can pull together a nice teaser.

Or, if you would rather not do it yourself, or would rather push it to a higher level of professionalism, you could always hire a video promotion company to put it together for you. This will cost you more, of course. But it may well be worth it when you consider the time and effort you will save, to say nothing of the higher production quality you are likely to end up with.

One company that specializes, in fact, in promo videos for books recently contacted me. I took a look at StoryPromos.com, and generally liked what I saw. Their sample videos look really well done. They seem more comfortable producing “scary” videos with baritone voice-overs and chilling music - but this may be a function of the material they have had to work with.

But in any case the pieces work. There is a great promo for a screenplay called “Malled” which, considering the stretched pun of the title, and the fact that it seems to be about a shopping mall that comes to life and eats people or something, I probably wouldn’t have given it much of a second though.

I have to admit that “Malled” is presented so well in the short clip - the voice talent sounds top-notch - that I am far more intrigued than I would ever have been had I seen only a website.

You can see some of their samples at their MySpace page, or look up their services and rates that their website.

So anyway, all of this to point out that I would be foolish to not recognize this trend, and incorporate it into AthorsBookshop.com. Because you have control over your book’s information, and because most of the fields are HMTL enabled, you can embed your promo video right into your book’s page! So, you can place the best tool for selling your book in the exact spot where shoppers are going to have the option to buy it!

In the near future I plan to set up a more integrated method of posting your videos to your book’s page, but in the meantime it seems to work really well. Here is an example which, though it isn’t a promo (it’s a clip from a local news program) it demonstrates how effective the combination of YouTube and AuthorsBookshop.com can be:

www.authorsbookshop.com/thisbookcooks/

I certainly don’t think video promos are the end-all marketing tool that will, alone, push your book sales into the best-seller stratosphere. But, combined with the many other tools and strategies that are surfacing, they can be a powerful tool to hook people into what your book is about.

About the Author:

Brad Grochowski is the founder and owner of AuthorsBookshop.com. He is also the author of The Secret Weakness of Dragons.

by Bill Stephens

The Good Book says, “Cast your bread on the water and be sure it will return to you.” The publishing industry seems to be hueing to this philosophy more every week as the number of free serialized novels available on the internet increases exponentially.

I have been offering my novel, Horizons Past, for free in serialized form ( www.horizonspast.com ) for about five months. I had no illusions of inventing the wheel with this unusual approach, because I knew a handful of authors had preceded me. Now I read several times a week of yet another novel going out in e-book serialized format for free.

Many of the comments I get speak to the question, “Why would you give your book away.” The answer to that depends on how established the author is. Established authors create markets for their backlist of books and interest in their upcoming releases. They also now get paid for their serialized books from sponsors who display the books on their websites to attract business.

M. J. Rose in the article “Serial E-Authors Make a Killing” told of authors Doug Clegg, Steven Lee Climer, and Charles Compo leveraging their published books by building readership with free serialized novels. Apparently Internet marketers like Cybergold also have latched on to serialized novels as a way to draw customers to their site.

Booktrade.info reports that Headline Publishing’s Contact, the debut novel from British comics writer Simon Spurrier, will be published online for free starting on May 24th. The book will be released over a six-week period coinciding with the release of the print edition. Headline claims to be the first mainstream commercial publisher to make such a move.

For wannabee and lesser authors, the free serialized novel serves to generate visibility and name recognition, but apparently for established authors, giving your book away seems to generate big cash returns.

Bill Stephens has written for newspapers and periodicals for over 20 years. You can read his novel, Horizons Past, for free on http://www.horizonspast.com His essays appear on his Blog, Read It and Weep http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/billstephens

by Michelle Dunn

I could write an entire book about Amazon.com and how to use it to make money. There are so many options, most are free and you should utilize all of them. Many authors complain about the percentage Amazon charges when they list their books for sale and make sales. They complain about the shipping charges and packaging specifications. I do not understand this. If it were not for Amazon.com I would not have as many sales and customers as I do. I am grateful that Amazon is there for me to utilize and make money with. There is nothing else like it, look at Barnes & Noble for example. They are not just a chain of book stores but have an online presence just like Amazon. They do not have the audience, power or free tools for authors that Amazon does and therefore are not as successful. In my opinion you are missing out if you don’t utilize all Amazon has to offer you as an author.

You may be familiar with the Amazon emailing campaign that some authors have tried and say really works. I have not followed this campaign but thought it was interesting enough to mention. I heard from an author that after sending out an email to many people, his ranking went up considerably and his book reached number one status on Amazon.com The email he sent out starts out by saying that he is doing an experiment and wants help in becoming an Amazon.com bestseller. It is almost like a chain letter asking the recipient to send the email on to 10 of their friends and family or more if possible and ask them to pass it on and on and on. The email then goes on to explain about the book, and thank the reader.

Getting reviews on Amazon.

The easiest way to get reviews on Amazon or anywhere else is to ask for them. When my books became available on Amazon. There were a few people that wrote reviews for them. I wanted more. I personally wrote to each of my customers that had purchased my books and asked them if they would be interested in writing a review for my book on Amazon. I had a great response and made sure to send them a hand written thank you note in the mail after they posted their review. This goes a long way.

Giving reviews on Amazon.

Another way to get more traffic to your books is to give reviews on Amazon for similar books or for your competition. People who look at those books will see your review and may click through to your book or website. I review every book I read, no matter what the topic. I know how much I appreciate getting a good review and so I try to do the same for others.

Amazon Advantage.

Amazon Advantage is a great way to get your book seen. Some people automatically go to Amazon when they are looking for a book, they may not necessarily search a search engine for a book topic they are interested in to find your website. This is a very good reason to have your book on Amazon. If your webpage is on the first page of a major search engine for your keywords, you might not be so interested in doing this but I would highly recommend listing your book with the Amazon advantage program. Another reason to list your book with Amazon is that people trust Amazon, so they are more likely to input their credit card information and order your book. They may not know who you are or fully trust you or your website so having this option will help boost sales. Also, Amazon will sell your book at different prices, they offer sales or discounts but don’t worry and you still get the same amount of money regardless. So for a bargain hunter Amazon is where they will go. You can offer autographed copies on your website which is something Amazon does not offer or even bundles of your book with other authors’ books or special reports.

Another reason people visit Amazon for book purchases is that they can combine their purchases with other book orders and get free shipping, your book could be included in that promotion. The best reason to sell through Amazon is that it gives you credibility when your book is on Amazon as well as your website. Even if your website is the first one that comes up for your keywords, you can make many more sales through Amazon.

List mania.

List mania is a great way to showcase a list of books you like and why. You can network with other authors and both create lists that include each others books to help promote each other. You can have as many lists as you like under as many topics as you like. This also lets your readers see that you are a real person, just like them and have opinions about different books and authors.

Search inside the Book.

I highly recommend you sign up for Search Inside the Book; this gives someone who is trying to decide if they should buy your book a glimpse into what you have to offer. They may read your table of contents and a specific item they are looking for might jump out at them causing them to buy your book. You are only showing a few pages, and this can be a great way to get more sales.

Sell yours used! Using Amazon Marketplace to make more money.

I use this feature all the time and sell many books this way. You can sell a brand new book, an out of print edition, an autographed copy or a returned or damaged copy and still make some money. If you receive any returns back or have any book copies that are not “perfect” list them on Amazon marketplace for a cheaper price. I actually make more money on those sales even if the book is selling for less than a perfect copy on Amazon.

It has been my experience that Amazon offers great customer service, through email. They pay you in full and on time at the same time every month. You can go online to check the status of your account, how many copies they have, how many have been sold and how much money you are making. I have also had reporters find me through Amazon and then interview me for stories, so having a presence on Amazon is a big plus in many ways.

Michelle Dunn, author of an award winning book has spent the last 18 years stepping into dangerous debt collection potholes. She shares her hard-won expertise on debt collection with the titles in her “Collecting Money Series.” She is the founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC and her 10 year old Credit & Collections Association with over 1075 members. Michelle started and ran M.A.D. Collection Agency for 8 years.

Visit http://www.michelledunn.com for more information.