Q: What is the Virtual Book Tour?
A: A book tour where the "stops" are websites instead of bookstores. More at our About the VBT page
Q: How much does it cost?
A: as little as $100 for consulting and blogmatching, as much as $5000 for a month long online fiesta for your book. Please visit our rates page for more information.
Q: How tech savvy does an author have to be to have a tour?
A: Not very. Virtual Touring mostly consists of typing in a box and hitting "send", not much different than sending email. Each tour sites will brief you on how to participating on their site. The tour director will be available throughout the tour to answer your questions. That said, it is an online project so complete technophobia won't work.
Q: If my book is selected for the tour, how much time will it take up?
A: 3-6 hours per week during pre-tour preparations (2-4 weeks), at least 2 hours a day during the tour itself.
Q: Why wasn't my book selected?
A: Could be any number of things, but most likely it comes down to the VBT being a tiny shop run almost completely by director Kevin Smokler There's an enormous amount of labor involved in touring and we simply don't have the man/woman power to put on tours for every author that wants them. Also many books fall out of the scope of our expertise and therefore wouldn't benefit from a tour anyway.
Q: What kinds of books are those?
A: Fiction, narrative nonfiction and some memoir. It's all we know. Self-help, how to, spiritual, business, politics, technical, straightforward genre lit and romance are out of our realm. We simply wouldn't be helpful.
Q: Why don't you do self-published books?
A: We can't guarantee their quality or distribution, which makes giving them a tour rather silly.
Q: Do I need to have access to a computer and the Internet for the length of the tour?
A: Yes.
Q: What if the tour sites don't like my book?
A: The VBT only uses sites where the owners will be fair and honest. Anyone deliberately cutting up a book for their own enjoyment will be automatically banned from the present and all future tours. That said, the site owner doesn't always like the touring book and we can't ask them to lie. We simply ask them to be respectful because, fundamentally, the tour is meant to bring together readers, authors, and books, not use the web as a shilling platform.
Q: What kinds of results will this have on my sales?
A: On our first tour, reported Amazon sales were up 25%. More recent tours have seen spikes not only in sales but requests for interviews, speaking engagements and festival invitations. Moreover, the benefits include exposure to new readers and being at the forefront of how books will be promoted in the 21st century.
Q: If my publisher won't pay for the tour, can I?
A: Sure.
Q: Is it tax deductible?
A: Please ask your tax professional.
Q: I like the idea of a Virtual Book Tour but I can't afford it. What then?
A: Let talk, strategize, come up with a plan you can implement yourself. It's easier than it seems. Please see our consulting services page for details.
Q: Shouldn't my publicist be doing this sort of thing?
A: We love publicists. They make our job possible. But they are busy, overworked people. Rarely can they devote the energy to a book they would like too if only there were 96 hours in a day.
That's where we come in. We're experts in a segment of the marketplace. It's one less thing for your already swamped publicist to think about. With the Virtual Book Tour on board, it frees them to focus on what they'd like to do for your book, which is a lot.