How to Go on a Virtual Book Tour

A virtual book tour is similar to a traditional book tour in that the author makes several appearances in an attempt to promote and sell their books. On a traditional book tour, authors make contact with several bookstores or other suitable locations to spend a few hours at those locations talking about and selling their books to visitors or regular customers. The event is often referred to as a “book signing.” Most authors will agree, for the effort and expense involved, book signings don’t sell many books.

A virtual book tour is very similar to the traditional physical book tour. The biggest difference being, there is no travel or travel related expense. Virtual book tours are accomplished 100 percent over the Internet.

Authors make contact with related Website and Blog editors to schedule a one-day visit. An interview or article of book related subject matter is prepared in advance for posting on an agreed upon date. The tour stop is advertized well in advance of the posting date. The day of the post, the author will usually make themselves available for comment responses and answering viewers posted questions (within the comment link section). Often times, virtual book tours will include radio or video interviews as well. These tour stops require more precise timing, therefore are a little more difficult to schedule.

There are agencies you can hire to organize a virtual book tour for you. The cost ranges from $200 to $3,000 depending on the number of tour dates and how extravagant you want the tour to be. To date, there are only a handful of these agencies in existence. But eventually, they will spring up like flowers in May.

You do have the option of organizing your own virtual book tour. The process is not as difficult as it might first appear. The most important part of a successful do-it-yourself virtual book tour is having good organizational skills. The ability to politely and efficiently communicate with others is a plus as well.