My Interview with Blogger Thomas Nixon
Yesterday I traveled to Fresno, California, for the first stop of my 10-Day, 10-Stop Virtual Book Tour Challenge. I was interviewed by author and blogger Thomas Nixon of Small Press Blog where Tom shares some great tools and resources on independent and self-publishing.
Tom and I chatted about how I came to write, My Virtual Book Tour Secrets! and why an author should consider organizing a virtual book tour for their own book. We also talked about some of the different types of content authors can provide to hosting blogs, the pre-tour setup needed before embarking on a virtual book tour of your own, and even why I choose to release the book as an e-book instead of a print book. Please join us.
Tomorrow I’m heading up to Seattle, Washington, to visit with Dorothy Lemoult, I hope you can join us!
Day 5: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
I finally made it to Day-5! I thought today would never get here …
Did I succeed in setting up my 10-Day, 10-Stop Virtual Book Tour? I don’t know yet. It’s still early in the day and I’ve got several more bloggers to contact. Check here for itinerary updates.
In this video I review the previous 8 steps in setting up a virtual book tour and then I show you the email I use to contact bloggers asking if they’d be interested in participating in my virtual book tour. I explain each section of the email and why it’s included. You don’t want to skip a paragraph. I encourage you to copy my email formula, not my words. Put your personality into your email, you’ll be more successful.
Good luck in setting up your own virtual book tour.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll be glad to help you in any way that I can.
Until next time …
No day without a line.
Day 4: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
Welcome to Day 4! We’re over the hump … but we still have a lot to cover before the Challenge is over, so get your pen and paper out. Ready?
Today’s lesson is Step 8: Determining a Blogs BR. In this first video I explain my Blog Rank (BR) Formula and how it works. When you’re ready click play …
In this video I demonstrate the BR Formula in action and show you how to evaluate the blogs that we’ve been receiving in our Google Alerts emails. Once you get the hang of it you should be able to evaluate and categorize 10 blogs in about 30 minutes.
Whenever you’re ready, click play …
Tomorrow in Step 9, we finally start contacting blog owners! I’ll show you the email I send them that gets around an 83% positive response rate. After you get good at determining a blog’s BR, you may even get a higher response.
That’s all for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Until next time …
No day without a line.
Day 3: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
Welcome to Day 3!
Today marks the half-way point in this challenge; there’s still a little work to do before we actually contact blog owners to ask if they’d be interested in hosting a stop on our virtual book tour. Let’s get started …
Today’s lesson is Step 7: Creating Your Media Kit. The earlier you get this step done the better. This is where we’ll direct the blog owners we contact to for additional information.
Your Media Kit should contain these 8 items:
1.) Your Authors Bio
2.) Your Photo
3.) Cover images
4.) Reviews of your book
5.) Testimonials
6.) Press Release
7.) Sample Chapter/Excerpt
8.) Contact Information
You can include your Media Kit as a page on your blog, that’s what I did. Or, you can make a static web page on your web site. It doesn’t matter.
In today’s video I reveal several ideas for each item in your media kit. Got your pen and paper handy? Good, let’s get started with today’s video …
NOTE: Don’t forget to go to Google Alerts and set up the other 3 Alerts that I mention in the video.
That’s all for today.
Until next time …
No day without a line.
Day 2: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
Welcome to Day 2!
I’m going to cover a lot of information today. But first, I’d like to give you an idea of where we’ve been and where we’re going …
Today I’m moving from the planning stages - Steps 1, 2 and 3 - that I discussed yesterday, into the data gathering stage. I’ll spend today and tomorrow morning on data gathering - covered in Steps 4, 5 and 6. Tomorrow afternoon - in Step 8 - I’ll introduce you to my secret technique for evaluating a blog to determine if it would be a good stop for your virtual book tour.
In the videos that follow you’ll see that after you put Steps 4, 5 and 6 into place, the data we’ll be evaluating will be delivered right to our email inbox. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
This first video covers Step 4: Listing Your Book’s Keywords and Phrases. We’re going see how to use this list in Step 5 to locate blogs that our potential readers visit or blogs that are already discussing the topic of our books.
Get out your pen and paper for notes. Here we go …
That was easy, wasn’t it?
Now let’s see how to use our list of 20 keywords and phrases.
That’s it for today.
Oh, what about Step 7? I’ll cover that tomorrow morning … it’s what you should have in your media kit.
Until then …
No day without a line.
Day 1: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
It’s finally here … Day 1 of the I Can Set-up a 10-Day, 10-Stop Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge, event that I’m hosting on Facebook. This was suppose to be posted this morning but, I’ve been unable to get my computer to record the audio portion of my video. I ended up having to pick up a different microphone to record these videos. Don’t you just love technology?
Anyway, in this clip we “begin with the end in mind” and do a little backwards planning in setting up our virtual book tours.
In Step-1, we review and set S.M.A.R.T. Goals for our virtual book tours.
In Step-2, we give our virtual book tour a name and discuss its importance in tracking posts and getting readers to our virtual book tours.
Finally, in Step-3 we decide how long our virtual book tour will be and block out the time on our calendars or planners.
Don’t skip over these 3 steps, they may appear simple, insignificant even, but the success of your virtual book tour begins on a solid foundation.
Tomorrow we’ll put steps 4, 5 and 6 in motion.
Until then …
No day without a line.
Day 0: Setting Up a Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge
This is the introduction of the I Can Set-up a 10-Day, 10-Stop Virtual Book Tour in 5-Days Challenge, event that I’m hosting on Facebook. I explain how the challenge originated and what participants can expect in the 5 days. I will also be making posts here on my blog. so stick around and see if I can set up a virtual book tour using my system outlined in “My virtual Book Tour Secrets.”
Can I Schedule a 10-Stop, 10-Day Virtual Book Tour in Only 5 Days?
… I sure hope so! Let me explain.
I’ve been challenged by friend and writer Amy Munnell to put my money where my mouth is. You see I’ve just released an ebook, “My Virtual Book Tour Secrets! – A Self-Publisher’s Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Own Successful Virtual Book Tour in as Little as 30-Days.”
And, Amy is a bit, shall we say, skeptical of my claim that I can set up a virtual book tour in 30-days … she knows how much work is involved in setting up a successful virtual book tour, she frequently hosts tour stops for other authors. Anyway, in my enthusiasm - ok, maybe I was shooting off my mouth - I said using my system I could set up a successful virtual book tour in about a week. And, she said, “Prove it.”
The gauntlet had been thrown and I accepted the challenge.
So, during the week of July 7, 2008, I will set up a virtual book tour for, “My Virtual Book Tour Secrets!” And your invited to watch over my shoulder as I document every step along the way and the results I receive. Good or bad.
If I fail to set up a 10-Day, 10-Stop virtual book tour I promise to contribute a minimum of $100 to Amy’s Event: Kia’s Birthday Benefit, which is a really good cause I might add. If you’re on Facebook, you can learn more by visiting her event page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21496451465. Anyway, if I succeed, I’ll be able to point to this event as proof that my system works.
You can watch me succeed or fall flat on my face in 1 of 3 places:
1.) My Facebook Fan Page
2.) The Official “My Virtual Book Tour Secrets” Readers Group on Facebook
3.) Or, here on my blog. Bookmark it pressing “CTRL + D”
I’m sure Amy will have something to say too. She blogs at “3 Questions…and Answers: a Blog/Zine about Writers.”
There’s one thing I’m worried about though … I’m scheduled to go on vacation with my family starting July 12th. So my wife will be expecting me to be doing other things, like mowing the grass, changing the oil in the van, packing, etc. Who knows what else?! So I’ll have to use my system and time wisely.
You’re also invited to follow my 10-Day, 10-Stop virtual book tour that will begin on July 21, 2008 and run to August 1, 2008. See the itinerary, which I will post on my blog, Fan Page and Group.
During the virtual book tour I will be interviewed by host bloggers, answer reader’s questions, write and submit guest posts, possibly even do a live teleconference or an interview on SecondLife. All with the intent of generating buzz (and sales) for the book.
If you want to learn how to set up your own successful virtual book tour and sell more of your books, please attend this event … and invite all of your friends to do the same. You won’t be disappointed.
Until next time …
No day without a line.
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