Kaylin's Virtual Book Tour

April 22, 2010, 10:04 am

Eight months ago, I went to a friend’s book signing event. I looked around in this large chain store and was amazed by the small turn out. In fact, had this USA Today best-selling author not been stationed near the coffee bar, there would have been eight people to welcome her release. Even though she performed a reading and answered questions, she sold only five books. Now I’ve been told this isn’t typical. Should authors send out invitations in their communities, they might sell as many as two hundred books. Yet as I considered the possibility of sitting at a table for hours on end, hoping someone would notice me, I came to the conclusion there had to be a better way.

I contacted Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours to connect my book with interested readers through the medium of weblogs and personal websites. In a nutshell, this three-month tour consisted of visiting a given number of websites in a given about of time, the same as I would do at stores during a real book tour. At these stops, I was interviewed on line, participated in radio podcasts, took over sites for the day, answered questions from readers, and had my book reviewed many, many times

Is it true that word-of-mouth is the best means of advertising? I would venture to say yes - there's no doubt about it. And this is definitely a way to get a jump start on it. If you're looking for immediate gratification, exposure, books sales and fun without sitting behind a wheel or in an airport, consider virtual book tours. My travel arrangements were made for me, I had no luggage to pack, and there were no empty book stores or filled boxes to content with. :D