I’m starting a virtual tour this week for my book, 21 Simple Things You Can Do To Help Someone With Diabetes
I’ve been planning this for a couple months now, and this week is the fun part. I get to log on each day, visit a new site, meet new people, and talk about my book and why I wrote it. In short, this is very much like a “non-virtual” book tour except that I will be interacting with people online rather than in person.
Virtual book tours are a cost-effective option today when trying to promote a book. It’s difficult to gather the resources and time to take your show on the road. I like doing virtual tours because the links also stay behind. If someone misses you at the bookstore, that’s it. They can’t meet you or hear what you had to say. But in a virtual situation? They simply log on at their convenience and read your interview, review, or guest post.
Just like a regular book tour, I’m very excited and slightly nervous. I’m still “appearing” in front of people and I want my appearance to be a positive one for them. I want them to feel that my visit benefited them in some way. As I mentioned on a previous post, I’ll be writing about this subject in greater detail, but for now, I wanted to talk about preparation. As I sit here today I have already done a lot of hard work to get ready for this. I have:
- Written ten guest posts
- Answered eleven sets of interview questions
- Sent out nine copies for review
All this is to prepare myself for a month’s worth of virtual appearances. It took some time, but I was grateful for every single opportunity. Preparing for a virtual tour can be a little overwhelming, but authors should take their time on each guest post and interview. When you have several of each lined up to do it can make you want to rush through it all just to get it done, but you have to remember that people will see these posts separately. They won’t understand why you seem short in one interview, or seem to write about the same things in every guest post. So it pays to take your time on each one. If you’re feeling too rushed to concentrate, take a step away and go back to it.
Communication is always key with a virtual tour. Making sure everyone is on the same page is required to make sure it all goes smoothly. As I said, it’s a lot of work. But now, as I sit on the eve of my tour, I am happy knowing that because of all this hard work I can visit blogs and genuinely connect with new readers. What a thrill and honor! Wish me luck, and don’t forget to say hi at one of my tour stops.
