Just what is a Virtual Book Tour? We're finding out . . .

Not every author wishes or is able to do an expensive book tour, driving or flying around the country promoting their book at appearances and signings at bookstores and elsewhere. Out of that fact was born the "virtual book tour" (also known as "blog book tour"), which has the author and his or her book traveling from blog to blog, writing a post here and being reviewed in another post there during a defined period of time.

Our company is helping our business associates WME Books with a virtual book tour (VBT) for a book published by WME in November. This is our first foray into the "virtual book tour" and it is a work in progress, but quite exciting as we work through the process and make it work for this particular author and book. Dr. Reid's book, Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success, is about reaching inside yourself to discover an inner samurai—a warrior that will guide you on your journey to entrepreneurial success. Primarily written for women entrepreneurs going through changes in their life (Susan calls them "accidental preh-hers"), the book is a mystical, informative and inspiring exploration of that concept.

The virtual book tour concept has been around for a few years and it is a great way to get an author's work in front of thousands of new potential readers and, hopefully, drivr sales of their book. By researching the book and its author, we have identified a number of bloggers who focus their writing on subjects that dovetail with that of Discovering Your Inner Samurai and asked them to participate. Soon, those who have joined the tour will be participating in one of several ways (although they are not the only ways that are possible), such as:

• Writing a review of the book and publishing it on their blog,
• Doing an interview of Dr. Reid via email or by phone and posting it in written form
• Doing a podcast interview of the author and posting it, or
• Inviting the author do a guest post on their blog about the book or its subject.

Over a number of days, we'll schedule their posts to appear and will link to them from multiple places to maximize the effect. In the left panel, you'll see a draft of a "badge" I developed for Dr. Reid's VBT. You'll see that on some of the other sites that WME maintains. Click on that and you find yourself on the VBT's page on the WME Books blog and follow the tour from there.

Comments

[Susan Reid of]

Virtual Book Tours are a great way to take your book on tour without ever having to leave home. For the busy entrepreneur, this is a great way to get your book known and talked about. It is also a wonderful way to meet new friends and foster relationship with like minded folks.

Thank you, Greg, for setting up such a wonderful VBT for me.