Tell us a bit about your latest book Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home.
Virtual Book Tours are a great way to create a buzz for a new release or to put life back into an older publication. In this book I take you through everything you need to know to be able to set up and carry out a successful virtual book tour. The book is divided into 4 main sections for easy navigation: 1) What is a Virtual Book Tour? 2) How to organise your own tour 3) Promoting a tour 4) Useful resources. You'll find it packed with links, tips, and advice to help make your tour a hit.
Why do authors need your book?
Marketing is part of being a writer. Regardless of how you're published (traditionally or self-published), you will, at some point, need to do some marketing. Virtual book tours are one of the most effective methods of creating a buzz about your book and have numerous benefits. In this book I cover everything you need to know to organise and carry out a virtual book tour. Even if you decide not to do a virtual book tour, you'll still find this book useful as it's packed full of marketing ideas and links to resources.
Why did you decide to write a book about virtual book tours?
I've done several successful virtual book tours for my own books and have worked with book tour companies and authors for years hosting them on my sites. Over the years I've therefore gained a lot of experience in doing virtual book tour both from the author and host point of view. As I often get asked for advice about doing them from other authors I decided to put all the information together and created Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home.
What is the first thing you recommend authors do when they decide to organise a virtual book tour?
Put together a media kit. In creating a media kit you have all the information regarding your book, you as an author, and your virtual book tour, all in the one place. This makes it a useful reference tool for you, but also a valuable tool you can use during preparations for your tour. It looks professional and creates a good impression. I also makes life easier for your hosts as they have all the information they might need for your post all in the one place.
You created the cover art for the book yourself. What was your inspiration for the design?
I wanted a cover that was thumbnail friendly as, more often than not, it gets seen online in that format. That meant the text needed to be easy to read and the whole look needed to be clutter free. Too many details or fancy fonts don't look good in thumbnails. I also wanted an image that quickly portrayed what the book was about. I choose the theme "sending your book around the world" and played around with some ideas based on this idea. I'm really pleased with how the cover came out.
Why did you choose to self publish using Amazon's KDP program?
I've always been very pro self publishing. For me, it's always been my plan A. I choose Amazon because it's the leader in its field. Everyone knows Amazon. Using the site is super easy and through KDP your book can be available to the public in just 12 hours from hitting the publish button.
I like that through KDP setting up a free day is easy. It's a great way to spread the word about your book and get readers to take notice. I like that you can update your book information as and when you please and have full control over pricing. They also have one of the best customer services I've come across. If that's not enough, they bought Goodreads earlier this year (one of the top sites for book lovers).
You're best know for your best selling children's picture books. Why the change in genre?
For me, it's not about thinking outside the box. The box simply doesn't exist. I like to experiment with my writing and although I've had most success as an author and illustrator of children's picture books, I'm always trying out new genres. When I get an idea that gets me excited, like this book about virtual book tours, I go with it.
You're a mum to a 5 year old and a 2 year old. How do you find the time for writing and marketing?
My kids definitely keep me busy but I've learnt to make the most of the time I get. I do most of my writing in the evenings once they've gone to bed. Sometimes my husband will take the kids out for the morning to give me a break and give me a few hours to work on bigger projects.
During the day I hop on and off my social media pages to network. I have the apps installed on my phone so I can visit and engage with my contacts even when I'm not near my computer.
I use sites like Social Oomph to program some content to post at scheduled times. I do the same for some posts to my Facebook pages. This gives me a constant online presence without needing to actually be online all the time. I also program my blogs ahead of time. When you have young kids anything can happen and so you need to prepare for the unexpected. By having some content programmed in advance I give myself a safety net and so don't need to stress about keeping up with things as much.
What's next?
I'm currently working on another children picture story book The Bedtime Book, a series of non-fiction books for writers and authors about using social media, and some new collaborations as an illustrator. I like to keep myself busy ;)
Where can people find out more about you and your books?
On my website www.JoLinsdell.com
Anything else you'd like to add?
Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home is available to buy at the discounted price of $2.99 for the whole month of September to celebrate its release (normal price $4.99) http://bit.ly/VBTKindle
Ready for more? Here is the best way to get in touch with Jo Linsdell and get a copy of her book!
Full Name:
Jo Linsdell
Bio:
Jo Linsdell is a best selling author and illustrator and internationally recognized marketing expert. She is also the founder and organizer of the annual online event "Promo Day" (www.PromoDay.info) and the Writers and Authors Blog (http://WritersAndAuthors.blogspot.com). To find out more about Jo and her projects visit her website www.JoLinsdell.com.
Links to twitter, facebook, blog, and website
Title:
Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home
About the book:
Virtual Book Tours are a great way to create a buzz for a new release or to put life back into an older publication. In this book I'll take you through everything you need to know to be able to set up and carry out a successful virtual book tour.
The book is divided into 4 main sections for easy navigation:
1) What is a Virtual Book Tour?
2) How to organize your own tour
3) Promoting a tour
4) Useful resources
You'll find it packed with links, tips, and advice to help make your tour a hit.
The book is divided into 4 main sections for easy navigation:
1) What is a Virtual Book Tour?
2) How to organize your own tour
3) Promoting a tour
4) Useful resources
You'll find it packed with links, tips, and advice to help make your tour a hit.
Product Details:
File Size: 384 KB
Print Length: 83 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00ELNAQ92
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Purchasing links:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ELNAQ92 (Kindle)
Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18340947-virtual-book-tours
Thanks for hosting me for this interview Mary Ann. I love the content you put out on this site and I'm super happy to be part of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being here Jo! This was a good interview and I look forward to reading your book. I've done several virtual book tours and found they helped me a great deal.
ReplyDeleteOne of the great things about virtual book tours is that the benefits of doing them are numerous. They can get you reviews, obviously help spread the word about your book, build your author brand, drive traffic to your sites, allow you to connect with readers (new and old), and do an amazing job for SEO too. A virtual book tour starts a snowball effect for your book marketing and can make a big difference in your overall results. I've seen lots of books make it on to the best selling lists thanks to virtual book tours (including my own books). They're also a great opportunity to get authors to be more active and imaginative with their marketing efforts.
DeleteI had a horribly bad experience with my book tour - an operator who thought it was OK to just place my book with any blog owner, irrespective of what genre they specialised in. Net result was a complete and utter waste of time, money and effort.
ReplyDeleteUnsurprisingly, the vampire and werewolf lovers did not enjoy my white collar crime novel. I wouldn't expect them to anymore than I'd want to choose a book belonging to their preferred genres.
I also got placed with a number of sites which were 'dead'. When I complained, I was essentially told that I'd paid so that was that. As a favour, she then offered my wife a free (shortened) tour for one of her books - probably needless to say, that was also posted with the wrong type of operator and it did precisely nothing.
Obviously there are good operators out there but I'd urge authors to insert a condition into their contracts that they be placed with blog operators that cover their genre and who have sites which are active.
Sorry about your bad experience Clive but thank you for sharing. As I point out in my book, your tour needs to reach your target audience. Posting on sites that have nothing to do with your topic can actually do more damage than good.
DeleteWhen it comes to using tour companies to set up your tour it's important to do your research. I've worked with lots of companies over the years and unfortunately not all of them have been good. Partners in Crime do a great job. I've worked with them for years as a host and they are always very professional.
The best way to make sure your tour is targeted to the right sites though is to set it up yourself. You'll be happy to know it's not as hard as a lot of writers think. I hope you enjoy my book and can use it so that you don't repeat your bad experience. Virtual book tours are a fantastic way to market your books but they do need to be done right in order to get the right results. I hope you and your wife have more success in the future.
Thank you, Jo. Some good has come out of it (and I didn't want to put this in my first posting for fear of appearing tacky) - we now offer blog tours as one of our services. Because of my experience, we promise to place people with appropriate blog sites.
ReplyDeleteThere was no point pursuing the operator who dealt with my original tour. I clearly wasn't going to get a refund without a protracted legal battle and that's even more difficult when you're in different countries.
I did actually do my research - but was misled. Lots of promises about relevant sites and then dumped on blogs for YA's and vampire-fanciers.
Glad you did well and I wish you all the best.
Thanks Clive and all the best with your tours.
DeleteJust wanted to let you all know that the book is available as a free download today only. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ELNAQ92
DeleteAwesome!
DeleteSomething you may be interested in, Jo. We're selling books for independent authors on our site (secure hosting preventing multiple downloads) in Epub, Mobi (Kindle) and PDF formats. We're paying authors EXACTLY the same rates as Amazon and the book would be priced the same. There's no catch, no reason why you can't continue with Amazon, Smashwords et al and it's utterly painless. If you think you might like to run with this, email books!!!at!!!any!!!subject.com Removing all the !!!'s, of course!
ReplyDeleteThus a $5.00 book would pay you $3.50 in royalties and be offered in epub, mobi and pdf formats.
I hope Mary Ann doesn't mind me touting our services but this is actually a fair offer to authors (no set-up fee, by the way).
Sounds interesting. I'm currently signed up for the KDP Program and so I'm exclusive to Amazon for the next 90 days. I'll think about it for the future though.
DeleteThanks Jo for telling us about today's free offer. I'm going to get my copy! I also wanted to add my thoughts on virtual touring--I've done it four times and found each time to be successful for me in some way. Sometimes its helped with sales and other times its boosted my personal visibility with readers. I would do it again, but like Clive, agree that research is key in making sure you hook up with the right virtual tour.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary Ann. As the benefits of doing a VBT are numerous and the outcome really does depend on the goals you set for your tour and the stops you schedule. A lot of time the impact isn't necessarily immediate. Whilst you will probably see some results during the tour, the big difference usually happens in the weeks following your tour once you've sent your message viral. Targeting your audience is key though.
DeleteOh and I just wanted to let you all know that Virtual Book Tours: Effective Online Book Promotion From the Comfort of Your Own Home is currently #9 in the best seller list for "marketing" and has received its first review... and it's 5 stars :)