Whether you want to launch your new release with a bang or put some life into an older publication, virtual book tours can be an effective marketing strategy. They can be done from the comfort of your own home and at little or no cost. The benefits of doing a virtual book tour are numerous. They do however need to be done correctly in order to see good results. For your tour to be successful it's important that you work with your hosts to promote each of your tour stops in order to reach as many people as possible. As with any other kind of marketing campaign, you need to put together a plan and create a schedule for each activity. In this presentation, international best selling author Jo Linsdell, shares some of the ways you can promote your virtual book tour and maximise your chances of success.

1. Ways You Can Promote Your
Virtual Book Tour
Presented by Jo Linsdell

2. • Do social media posts, blog posts,
newsletter articles, etc... prior to the
tour. Let your fans know that you have
a tour coming up and the sort of thing
they can expect. Get them excited
about what's to come.

3. • Write up a press release about your tour
and submit it press distribution sites.

4. • Post invitations to follow the tour in
relevant groups that you're a member of.

5. • Make an event page for your tour on
Facebook and invite people to join. Here
you'll post the links to each of your tour
stops. Posting some exclusive extra
content for those who follow the tour can
be a good way to get people involved.

6. • Make an event page for your tour on
Google+ and invite people to join. Giving
people a variety of options for how to
follow you tour can mean you reach a
wider audience.

7. • Create a board on Pinterest to pin all your
tour stops. This is a nice alternative way
for people to follow your tour and gives
them another way to share your posts.

8. • Create a tour banner and post it
everywhere with a link back to your books
landing page. This doesn't have to be
anything fancy. A simple tour banner with
your cover art, author pic, the dates of the
tour and your website url is enough.

9. • Create a hashtag (# symbol followed by your
keyword) for your tour and announce your
upcoming tour letting people know they will be
able to follow it using that hashtag (you'll use the
hashtag during your tour on posts too).

10. • Create banners for your social media profiles
that promote the tour. Make both page banners
for the top of your profiles and smaller banners
to use in status updates.

11. • Record and share
some video's letting
viewers know about
your upcoming tour
and why they should
be part of it. Post it to
YouTube so it can
easily be shared and
embedded.

12. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGRuCtsEDk
• Post behind the scenes content of you preparing
for the tour. Photo's of you working on guest
posts or interviews, how to video's showing what
you're doing to prepare for your virtual book tour,
or status updates letting your readers know what
you're doing (with a picture of the books cover
art attached).

13. • Create a media kit for your tour and make it available for
download on the media/press page of your website.
Include as much information as possible. A few things
you might want to consider adding are; your book cover
pic, book title, author name, book details (publisher,
ISBN/ASIN, etc....), purchasing links, links to the books
page on review sites e.g. Goodreads, Shelfari,
LibraryThing, etc..., your book blurb or synopsis, an
author photo, your author bio, links to event pages
you've created for the tour, your social media links, a
selection of the best reviews your book has received, a
sample interview, an excerpt from the book, and some
click to tweets and some easy copy and paste status
updates for other social media sites to make sharing
about your book and tour simple. You'll should also
include your full tour schedule.

14. For more information
about virtual book tours
check out
Virtual Book Tours:
Effective
Online Book Promotion
From the Comfort of
Your Own Home.
(Now available in both
print and e-format)

15. All images used in this presentation are either from my personal
collection or from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/