Virtual book tours have become the new hype for independent writers. Many authors fall for this – and they end up expecting the sales of their book to increase considerably during the tour. However, this isn’t exactly true. One of the best things that a virtual book tour offers is exposure, or, the kind of exposure you wouldn’t be able to get on your own as an independent writer. This, of course, leads to more book sales in the long run, especially for your subsequent books, but, you need to be careful when it comes to book tours. To help you with this, we’ve gathered below the 5 most important things you need to do to ensure you get the maximum out of your virtual book tour.
1. Plan in advance
Most marketing devices that you use to promote your book take time and effort, and so do virtual book tours. They take a lot of time to plan properly, especially since you have to do a lot of research. You need to research what exactly you will get for the kind of book tour that you will pay for. This phase can get even longer if you’ve decided to organize your own virtual book tour – which you can totally do, if you have a list of bloggers that are ready to give honest reviews for your book, or have you on their blog as a guest.
2. Choose the right virtual tour
In order to make your tour a success, you have to choose what kind of a virtual tour would be the right kind for you and your book. There are many combinations and variations out there – from reviews on blogs or Amazon, to having Q&A sessions and weekly Tweets with the cover and blurb of your book. You need to also choose wisely the duration of the book tour. Most virtual book tours last from one day spotlight tours, to several weeks, or even months. The optimal duration of a book tour is four to six weeks. If it seems too short, you can always go for a longer tour – but the truth is that the contents of the virtual book tour will be accessible to anyone even after it was finished.
3. Choose the right virtual tour company
You should choose the right company to organize your tour. There are many out there to choose from, and you need to be careful, because your tour will not be successful if it isn’t organized by the right company. A good way to know this is through their communication with you. If it takes them more than 24 hours to reply to you – then that means that they’re not communicating with the reviewers and bloggers as well. Check out their testimonials. See what type of impact their work has had for other authors who have used their services.
4. Make sure you reach your target audience
Make sure that your virtual book tour is targeted towards the right kind of audience for the genre you’re writing in. For example, if you’re writing science fiction, look for companies that have done virtual book tours for science fiction books. This means that the company already has a number of bloggers and reviewers that focus on science fiction, and that means that their readers, or their audience matches yours. This will ensure your exposure to the right kind of audience – and this will benefit you for your future books as well.
5. Be patient
As previously mentioned, virtual book tours have an indirect, long-term effect on book sales, rather than a direct one, since they help you increase your online exposure and create a buzz for your book and other work on social media platforms. This means that you need to have patience, and to continue promoting your book even after the book tour is over. Remember that your book sales will not increase overnight, and that even when you reach the desired number of book sales, you need to continue marketing yourself as an author, and your work, to ensure you never lose your spotlight.
Image credit: Amberr Meadows on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.