Have you ever thought about a doing a virtual book tour, but weren’t sure how to get started? If so, we’re delighted to introduce a true expert in this area and special guest, B.K. Walker. B.K. runs an organization called Virtual Book Tour Café. We interviewed B.K. to learn about her work, to get some insights into virtual book tours and to find out about Virtual Book Tour Café and what it does. Read on to find out what she had to say.
Hi, B.K. Walker! Welcome to e-Books India! We’re extremely excited to have you with us. Can you please tell us about you, where you’re from, and your background?
Hi! It’s great to be here, thank you for having me. I’m married to a wonderful, supportive man and have three beautiful children. We currently live in Northeastern Pennsylvania on a 65 acre farm – yes, we have plenty of animals to keep us busy and entertained. I’ve written 17 titles, my first one while I was a full time nursing student. I’m currently finishing my degree in Graphic Art Design and living life to the fullest.
You’re a published author. Can you please tell us a bit about the books you’ve published and what genre(s) they are in?
Well, like I said above, I’ve published 17 titles. I’ve written short stories and novellas in several genres – YA Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance and a couple of non-fiction how-to books for writing, publishing and selling books.
You’re the founder of Virtual Book Tour Café. When did you start this organization and why did you start it?
The Virtual Book Tour Café was started in April of 2010, when I put 30 authors on tour over two months. I had
started a group for authors on Ning and one author mentioned how she was doing a virtual book tour and I just thought that was brilliant. So, I approached other members in the group and organized my first tour ever for 30 of us.
What started out as an experiment soon turned into a thriving business as more and more authors contacted me about setting up tours for them.
For those who are new to the concept of virtual book tours, what are they and how can they help authors?
A virtual book tour works much like that of a live book signing, like an author would do at a bookstore or other place of business, but instead of going to the bookstore and hoping that people show up to buy your book, you appear on blogs during your book tour on assigned dates sharing guest blog posts, interviews or reviews of your book. This gives readers a chance to get to know authors on a more personal level over a period of time.
What are 3 key things an author should do when thinking about setting up a virtual book tour?
1. Build a strong author platform.
2. Start marketing 6 months before the release of your book.
3. Get people excited about your tour and ask them to follow you to learn more about the book, you as an author and win awesome tour prizes.
What specific services does Virtual Book Tour Café offer to authors?
The Virtual Book Tour Café offers a variety of tour packages ranging from one day book blasts to 3 month tours. We promote each tour via our social networks and mailing list reaching over 300,000 viewers and some packages include extras like media appearances and social media management.
What do you feel is unique about Virtual Book Tour Café compared to other virtual book tour providers?
The uniqueness that we bring to the table is that we also offer coaching packages and training to teach authors how to properly build their author platforms, and how to set their book momentum so that they will become a bestselling author.
How can people find out more about you and Virtual Book Tour Café?
We’re all over the Internet. You can find us at our main website – www.virtualbooktourcafe.com, on Twitter @VBTCafe, on Facebook www.facebook.com/VBTCafe, or simply Google the Virtual Book Tour Café or BK Walker.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]