New Frugal Author Aids Offered By Veteran Author Advocate

I have been recommending Denise Cassino’s services in my books and to my client for years. Especially for her skills with book tours and making Amazon sell books more effectively. I am thrilled that she has added to her battery of book-marketing aids. Here is a letter I just received from her.

Hi,

It's been awhile since we worked together but I wanted to let you know that I've added quite a few new aspects to my Bestseller Program. I have a more extensive social media development program with blogging, Pinterest, and much better Twitter training. I also have some great connections for inexpensive or free promotions - a CBS radio broadcaster, a company does outstanding promos for $35/year and some book awards. If you or any of your friends or contacts need help with a book or any of the above, please reach out or share this.

MORE ABOUT DENISE 

"She makes it look easy!"
Now Financing Options Available!

"Make your book an Amazon #1 Bestseller"
As a Publicist & Book Marketing Specialist listed in the Top 100 Internet Marketers to Follow on Twitter, Denise has promoted hundreds of books to #1 Bestseller on Amazon. 
"All my experiences with you have superseded my expectations and you gave me more value than the cost of your program. For your professionalism, skill and plain fun personality, I thank you!" - Michelle Podlesni, author of #1 Bestseller Unconventional Nurse
"Denise Cassino is exquisitely brilliant!  She has simply stripped away all the clutter and the noise, and changed the world of marketing and promotion into a fun new game for me. ~ Deb McTiernan, author of the #1 Bestseller, Lilly Noble and Actual Magic


303 838 3399

Skype :  denise.cassino
https://paypal.me/DeniseCassino
www.BestsellerServices.com
zoom.us/j/4596320530
Schedule an appt with me

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and the many classes 

she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the first and second editions ofThe Frugal Book Promoterand The Frugal Editorwhich won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethicallylaunched to rave reviews from Jim Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Book Reviews and others: 

“How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically[and other books in the series] could well serve as a textbook for a college Writing/Publishing curriculum.”

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts. 

                  

The author loves to travel. She has visited eighty-nine countries and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal wherever she goes. Her website iswww.howtodoitfrugally.com 

How to Help Bookstores You Can't Visit for a Signing

This Q&A from a coaching client of mine is a reprint from my SharingwithWriters newsletter. I often recycle articles I write and other work I do. If you are like me and don't have an assistant, it's may be  time to break Google's rules or preferences or whatever they call them. It seems to me the world wide web is big enough to accommodate a whole lot of valuable information twice.  And I figure my newsletters are long enough that there is still plenty of new material in it if I occasionally borrow from it for this blog. Ahem!   

QUESTION from a COACHING CLIENT: 

My friend Tracy, a writer on the West Coast, offered to drop off my media kit at bookstores in the Berkeley area this month. This is too far away for me to travel for readings; not a cost-effective way to sell books, unless they pay my expenses (dream on!). What should I ask for in my cover letter? For the store to order the book for their shelves? Anything else?

Jendi Reiter

Author of Bullies in Love (Little Red Tree International Poetry Prize) and a new LGBT novel released this month, Two Natures.

Follow me on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/jendireiter 

ANSWER:

Oh, I agree! Even in San Francisco where your book is sure to have a loyal following, you would not make up for your expenses with book sales, even  very good book sales. Yes, ask them to carry your book. But also suggest they feature your book in their newsletter and be sure to offer as much help as they can possibly use. 

Example: an article or an excerpt? You might also tell them that you have small 12 x 14 posters for them to post in their windows or on their doors, which you would be happy to send them at no charge.

Even better, why not print up your posters and have your friend just deliver one along with your kit. And a reminder: does your kit include high res digital images of you and your book cover? Is there a chance that we missed that detail when we were talking about kits before? And do you have a glossy headshot as described in the Frugal Book promoter in your kit?  After all, these will not be delivered digitally!

And for this kind of long-distance promotion, maybe you should think about providing some of the things that you would provide if you were in attendance. Like fliers.

If you got an offer you couldn't refuse, would your friend be willing to host you so you wouldn't have to cover hotel bills?  

Speaking of fliers. No need to make them expensive. Light weight is good if you'll be mailing them, right?  I wish I had a copy of the big (expensive plastic coated poster) I made for my first novel, This Is the Place, back in 2000. Use your book cover on both your fliers and your posters. Use the greatest and very brief excerpt/endorsement/blurb you have. Include your Website address. And your name—BIG. Especially since your name is recognizable by a huge audience.  Think Danielle Steele's book covers. 

When you choose quantities, also think businesses you might approach, particularly in LGBT communities.  Yep, walk in. And ask.  I have one little Armenian grocery store that posts my local readings and also a beauty shop—every time I ask. I just ask when I happen to be in the neighborhood.  Oh, and the local carwash can use the same fliers on the bulletin boards most of them have. Maybe your friend will ask businesses she frequents as long as she is there anyway.

You might also contact local radio stations (there are probably many LGBT targeted stations in San Francisco). Pitch an interview and mention the bookstores that stock your book.

Great question! I encourage people to use the frugal way when they can make it work as well—or almost as well—as being there in person.

ABOUT YOUR SHARINGWITHWRITERS BLOGGER

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Gillian Felix Shares Top 10 Things Learned from Do-It-Yourself Book Tour

I’ve been doing my own modified online book tour for the release of the second edition of The Frugal Editor and was intrigued by Twitter Pal’s mentions on what she’s learned about the process.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

Top 10 things I’ve learned from arranging my own blog tour

 By Gillian Felix

I guess I should start by introducing myself. Hello everybody my name is Gillian Felix and I am a citizen of the world, daughter, big sister, entrepreneur, and author of 2 novels; Changes and The Banovic Siblings, both make up the Family Portrait series of novels.

 

I published Changes back in October of 2013 and The Banovic Siblings on December 3, 2013. As you can see I am new to this business, and I’m sure if you ask me ten years from now, I’ll still say I’m new to the business because I am learning new things everyday.

 

What I’m about to share with you are things that I have learned from putting together 2 book blitzes and my current full blog tour.

1. Research your prospects. Before sending out a query to a blogger, be sure to check their review policies. Some may not be accepting reviews or tours at the moment. Bloggers have lives outside of the internet and sometimes they need to catch up. Also make sure their blog is suitable for your book. If they mostly post erotica, it makes no sense if you send them a query for a self help non-fiction book, unless they state that they are open to that in their policy.

 

2. Addressing your query letter. In your query letter I suggest addressing the blogger by name. I usually tailor my letter to the individual blogger. By learning who your prospect is you can find common ground, that blogger may even turn into a reader or friend. I’ve developed friendships with a lot of bloggers based on common interest. I’ve had many instances where a blogger didn’t have time during my tour to read my book, contact me to read it after the tour.

3. Be flexible. If you are putting together your own tour you have the option of tailoring the dates of your tour. That is a HUGE advantage over doing it through a tour company. Sometimes a blogger may be booked and cannot do it on your dates, in that case, give them to option of scheduling it at a later date. I’d rather have a blog post months after my tour have ended, than not at all (think about the benefits of that for a moment) ;-)

4. Give smaller blogs a chance. The thing that I have found with large blogs is that they host multiple tours a day. They have a bigger audience BUT your post will get lost in the shuffle. With smaller blogs you have a better chance of being the top post for a longer time. To me smaller blogs are niche marketing opportunities.

5. Time and work. Understand that hosting your own tour takes a lot of time and is a lot of work. If you don’t have the time to plan your blog tour, I suggest hiring a tour company. If you have the time, begin planning your tour at least a month in advance (I’ve already started planning my tour for my third book).

6. Be organized. I use Excel to create a spreadsheet of all the bloggers who participate in my tour. The first time you do a tour it is the hardest and takes the most time because of all the research. It gets much easier as you do more tours; I’ve used some of the same bloggers from my blitzes for the tour. Some bloggers have asked to be included in my next tour. To me that’s equivalent to a 5 star review!

7. Make it easy for bloggers. Make it as easy as possible for bloggers to sign up for your tour. I’ve started using Google forms and embedding it into my email to potential bloggers. Google wonderfully compiles the signups in a handy dandy spreadsheet which can be incorporated into Excel. This saves so much time!

8. Be prepared. Prepare all your materials before hand, (hence point 5). Some of the materials that you will need are guest posts, jpgs, a banner, biography and anything else you want to include. If you are doing a review tour, have your manuscript converted into 3 formats: .pdf, .mobi, .epub.

9. Links. Do not forget to include all your links; purchase, newsletters, blog etc. I also hosts tours on my site, and you will not believe how many authors send me their post info without the all important PURCHASE link. It takes time to track down their book on Amazon (I’d rather be doing something else). It’s the same for bloggers.

10. Drop box. Utilize drop box. It is free, easy to use and saves you the time of having to upload the same information over and over to different bloggers.

So there you have it. Top 10 things I’ve learned from putting together my own book tour. Like I said I am still learning and figuring out quicker and more efficient ways of doing things. My hope is that this information helps another person just like the many teachers on the web who have helped me. “When the student is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.” This rings true to me because I am always ready to learn and teachers have always appeared.

 

More about Gillian Felix:

Contact links:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gillianfx

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Plaintalkbm/posts

Plain Talk Book Marketing blog: http://Plaintalkbm.com

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Blog Tour Tips: Reminder or New Ideas for a More Successful Tour

I'm getting ready to do an online tour of the second edition of my multi award-winning The Frugal Editor, soon to be released as an e-book on Kindle. I am trying to take my own advice; that is, look up all the nitty-gritty tips on any given promotion I'm doing in my own first book in the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter so I won't forget anything.

In doing so, I ran across these blog tour tips from a recent SharingwithWriters newsletter.  I thought maybe you'd like to copy and paste them into a spot where you can refer to them when your next book is ready for a tour. 

 

Blog Tour Tip #1: When you do a online book tour (also called a blog tour), don’t miss an opportunity to post your appearance via a thank you on the Facebook pages of the blog owners who have consented to post interviews, reviews, or contests they’ll be running for you.

Blog Tour Tip #2: Another blog tour marketing idea. Ask fellow authors who have newsletters to publish your blog tour special, especially if some of the stops on the tour benefit their audience.

 

Blog Tour Tip #3: Consider using postcards sent by snail mail that lists your blog tour stops with a pitch for each one, perhaps with an additional special discount or benefit for those loyal enough to be on you contact list. You will find a section in The Frugal Book Promoter on why postcards are still effective and how to use them to their maximum benefit. You’ll also find names and links of some blog tour services in case you’d rather not tackle a blog tour on your own.

 

Blog Tour Tip #4: The most obvious, most forgotten and easiest #blogbooktourtip: Go to your post on each participating blog to comment (preferably valuable additional information) and extend your thanks.     http://dld.bz/bQ5gR 

 

Blog Tour Tip #5: Don’t forget to follow up with a thank you to your blog host after the fact. And then with another contact a few weeks later that includes another idea for a future guest post or some other way to collaborate with your blog benefactor.

 

PS: Anyone who would like to be part of my blog tour may contact me at hojonews@aol.com. Please put FRUGAL EDITOR BLOG TOUR in the subject line. I'd be pleased to supply an article for a guest post or do an interview or even do a giveaway or supply a gift for a contest for your readers.

-----
Blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Keep Your Book Tour Promotion in the Spotlight

Yvonne  Wu is helping me while I take a couple weeks off for  inspiration. I love promotiions that keep on giving so this post is a favorite for me, but you'll also want to read yesterday's post on making your blog tour bling!

Keeping in the Spotlight after your Virtual Book Tour

There are so many reasons why you should have a month virtual book tour, but the best is that you can keep the connection going with your readers after the virtual tour.  Here are the benefits of having a virtual book tour  and how to keep spreading the word about your book after the tour is finished.

Some benefits and ongoing marketing opportunities are:

•           You are given the opportunity to increase your reviews, which can be posted on Amazon or niche sites like Goodreads during your tour.

•           Google never forgets. Your review or interview will stay up on the internet past your tour date. Not only do you enjoy the benefits of search traffic but also the sites readership base even after your tour.

•           Sending a press release about your tour invites media attention and event pickup from other sites that will advertise your book. Many sites are looking for new news to report.

•           Viral marketing opportunities. An opportunity for your articles, reviews, podcasts and videos to be shared.

•           Virtual book tours provide the readers with an opportunity to get to know you and your work, including your other published work, and services you offer.

•           Business Partnerships opportunities to advertise your book after the tour.

•           Good reviews can bump rankings higher for your book on vendor's sites.

•           Tours let you increase your sites seach engine optimization (SEO)  by having relevant back links.

•    Your tour posts will get picked up by search engines.

•           During your virtual book tour utilize the advertising and have a live book tour during or after the virtual tour.

~Yvonne is a internet publicist, certified author and speaker assistant. She works with individuals who wish to share their message with a global market. Yvonne loves to see authors and speakers attract more clients and sell more products.  Visit http://theyppublishing.com to learn practical marketing tips.

-----

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Bling Your Virtual Book Tour

Yvonne Wu is helping me with two great guest posts this week while I take some inspiration and writing time. She is an expert at helping authors market so learn more about book tours today and come up tomorrow and learn how to let them keep working for you after the fact. (-: 

Creating the Bling during your Virtual Book Tour

by Yvonne Wu

Since the mid 1990s, the Internet has been a powerful way to advertise your products or services to a global market. Virtual book tours—or virtual product tours—is a popular online promotional campaign for authors, speakers, entrepreneurs and coaches and about anyone who uses a book penned by them to advance their careers. Virtual book tours date back as early as2000. Virtual tours are commonly used to promote DVDs, CDs, ebooks, audio ebooks, downloads, memberships, community sites, training webinars, and train-the-training programs and many of these marketing tools are used by authors.

These campaigns provide opportunities for interaction with readers and potential buyers. The virtual tour has a specific timeframe for the tour, which is usually a month.  Appearances are scheduled in advance. These scheduled online experiences create awareness about your products and services.

Here are five tips to create and keep the bling during your virtual product tour:

Approach sites for reviews, interviews and guest blogging opportunities, whose readership would have a specific interest in your product.

For example, CD’s that talk about relationship advice would be ideal on relationship sites or sites whose target market is women or families. Write articles that reach your target audience by having them posted on sites that have a similar readership. Make sure that your articles share enough information that directly relates to the product you are selling. This will entice the reader into buying your book.

Spice up your sales page. 

Your squeeze page—or sales page—can be on your homepage or anywhere on your site. Create content about your book to draw your readership in, create a buzz but not overwhelm them.  For example, Apple products have branded themselves to represent quality, that you are part of a club, and you are cool.  Create trust, make sure that you show your expertise by including a sell sheet or flyer and endorsements.  Provide links to press releases and scheduled speaking events that relate to the product. Social Media share buttons help visitors spread the word with pertinent information such as how to purchase your product, and pictures and dates of your scheduled tour.

Create the loving feeling with flashy videos.

When creating your tour page, consider having a video on the sales page that shows the features and benefits of using your products—a video that gives a feel for the product so that the user can imagine how it feels to own the product. Or a video that solves a problem and fulfills a need for the potential buyer. This www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mQOQX2V7KT9ZY“>Kindle video is a great example.

Look for bonus providers. Look for thought leaders, collaborators that can provide you with downloadable bonuses or premiums that enhance your product offerings. These products can be included when they purchase your products. The advantage to you is that bonus providers will advertise your tour to their mailing list or Social Media Contacts and you will do the same.

Make your contests shine.  Holding contests (eg. scavenger hunts, free downloads and free products) throughout your tour is a quick way to attract traffic to your sales page on your website, create interaction, and expand your mailing list. The contest participants may be asked specific questions or asked to join a mailing list to enter into the contest that is held for a short period of time.

Yvonne is a internet publicist, certified author and speaker assistant. She works with individuals who wish to share their message with a global market. Yvonne loves to see authors and speakers attract more clients and sell more products.  Visit http://theyppublishing.com to learn practical marketing tips.

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

The Big Virtual Book Tour Question: Dana Lynn Smith Give You the Answer!

Dana Lynn Smith is the amazing possessor of two related skills, marketing and Internet know how of the tech dimension.  Today she is my guest in honor of her own book tour for her new book on, yep! Book Tour Magic!

Should You Hire Someone to Organize Your Virtual Book Tour?

Today's guest post from Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, is part of the virtual book tour for her newest book marketing guide, Virtual Book Tour Magic.

The beauty of a virtual book tour is that you can reach a large audience of targeted book buyers by appearing on blogs, podcasts, social networks and other venues, all from the comfort of home.

Organizing a virtual book tour isn't difficult, but it does require good planning and organization, along with an investment of time. Some authors plan their own tours, while others turn to outside help. Here are three ways to organize your virtual book tour:

Do It Yourself

The main advantages of organizing your own virtual book tour are that you will save money and you'll have complete control over the entire process. As the author, you're in the best position to understand your audience and who would make ideal tour hosts. You'll also have more opportunity to develop relationships with your tour hosts, who may be valuable contacts in the future. The disadvantage of the DIY approach is the investment of time.

Hire Assistance

Another option is to use an assistant to help you. You'll need to consider all of the tasks involved in planning and executing the virtual book tour and decide which ones can be delegated. Researching tour hosts is one task that's commonly delegated.

Hiring help will save you time, but you'll still need to do some of the planning yourself and you'll probably need to write all or most of the content for the tour.  If the person you're working with isn't familiar with researching venues and organizing virtual book tours, you'll need to educate them.

If you don't already have an assistant, you can search online for an "author assistant" or "virtual assistant" or hire someone from a freelance service such as Elance or Odesk. 

Hire a Tour Manager

If you don't have time to organize everything yourself, or you'd just prefer to have someone else handle the details, you can hire a virtual book tour manager. But keep in mind that you will still need to devote time to creating content and promoting the tour.

One advantage of hiring a tour manager is that someone who specializes in doing tours in your book genre may have valuable contacts with bloggers who would be good tour hosts.  The disadvantage is the cost and the lack of control over details.

Some book publicity and promotion firms offer virtual book tour management as part of their services, and there are also individuals and companies that specialize in organizing virtual book tours.

Tour services and prices vary widely, so be sure to compare services and be clear about exactly what you're getting. Also, find out if the company specializes in any particular type of book and how much experience they have.

Regardless of which method you choose, you'll still benefit from a thorough understanding of virtual book tours and how to produce compelling content to showcase you and your book.

If you're organizing your own tour, you'll find everything you need to know about planning and creating tour content in my new Virtual Book Tour Magic guidebook. It's also a good tool to educate your assistant in how to help you.

If you hire a tour manager, the information in this book will give you a thorough understand of the process, help you find the best tour manager and work effectively with them, and guide you in choosing the style of tour and creating great content.

About the Author

Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. For more book promotion tips, get her free Top Book Marketing Tips ebooks at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com 

-----
  Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

D'vorah Lansky Rills on Online Book Tours

I am concudcitng an online seminar for D'vorah Lansky and I'm in the process of planning an online book launch with Denise Cassino--all in one week. So when this from D'vorah landed in my e-mail box, I thought you needed to see it--with her permission, of course:

 Conducting an Online Virtual Book Tour: One of her numberd tips!

The 3rd mistake that even smart authors make when marketing their books online is that they don't participate in an online virtual book tour.

Rather than flying all over the country, paying for travel expenses and for hotel lodging, to give book talks to audiences who may or may not show up, consider holding an online virtual book tour. A virtual book tour is where the author participates in posting articles as a guest blogger, audio interviews, video interviews, and online book talks.

 

Arrange to be a guest blogger on popular blogs in your niche. In this way you will be exposes to new groups of your target audience, and those that serve them. Building relationships with blog owners in your niche are best established well before you begin planning your virtual book tour.

 

A guest blogger is someone who shares an article at someone else's blog by permission or invitation. By being a guest blogger at blogs that would be of interest in your topic makes the best use of your
time and marketing efforts.

 

When it comes time to arrange your blog tour schedule, it is easy to reach out to people you have an established relationship with.You can of course approach blog owners that you don't yet know.

 

Introduce yourself, your book title and your topic, and mention the names of a few experts in your field whom have invited you to be a guest blogger on their site.

 Let them know that you are setting up your upcoming blog tour / virtual book tour, and would like to know if they might consider hosting your for a destination on your tour.

  I have found it helpful to mention that I have a tour schedule page which would list their name and the URL to the page on their site where your article will appear and thus generate fresh traffic to their site.

 

When setting up a virtual book tour, I've found it helpful to use a spreadsheet to keep track of the details. Alternatively you could use a pen and pad of paper. You can track things like:

• The date your article will appear on each blog
• The date your article is due
• A checkbox to keep track of the fact that the blog owner has sent you the url to where your post will appear. They can post your article today and postdate it to appear on the prearranged date.
• The URL to where your post will appear
• A checkbox to indicate that you've sent your hosts a thank you  card.
• Etc.

 

Written blog articles are only one aspect of a virtual book tour.You can share audio and video interviews as well as an audio book review or book study.

 

I recently participated in a virtual book tour for my new Amazon bestselling book, Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online. (www.BookMarketingMadeEasy.com)m(http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=I.rnA&m=3vDzAmHFd5IhvZf&b=KHtb5SsqQMkzUAblArdZhw ).

 

If you'd like to see an example of a book tour in action stop  by and check out the virtual book tour page as well as the blog articles which outline the process and share tips on how to set up your own virtual book tour.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

 

Stay tuned for strategy #4, where you'll find out hoq  authors can benefit from Facebook fan pages. E-mail D'vorah and ask her how to get your tips in your e-mail box: Dvorah@AuthorsMarketingCircle.com. Please tell her The Frugal Book Promoter sent you.

 

Be sure to mark your calendar and listen in to the free pre-conference call series. You'll learn more "vibrant" online book marketing strategies and how they can help you to grow your brand and your book sales.

 

To access the calls, as well as details on how to get your access pass for the full series visit: http://bookMarketingConference.com/details_ (http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=I.rnA&m=3vDzAmHFd5IhvZf&b=U_v39tODBMCdj3TC_F1xOA)

 

Here's to your book marketing success,

D'vorah Lansky, M.Ed. and author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling your Nonfiction Book Online,  http://bookMarketingConference.com/details

 

BTW, learn more about what I call UN Book Tours and online book tours like these in the new edition of my The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).  There's a whole chapter on the subject. You can never know too much about online promotion!

-----

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog: