Today, I start my first virtual book tour. Instead of physically traveling from place to place, I will electronically appear in different places. It is an exciting endeavor as I hop from one website to the next. Jump on board and follow my virtual book tour.
I learned about virtual book tours last summer when I was researching different ways to market my memoir, MAY THIS BE THE BEST YEAR OF YOUR LIFE. The idea seemed intriguing, but at the same time intimidating.
- Who was I going to contact?
- How many people would I need?
- Would total strangers be willing to participate?
- How many stops would I make on my first tour?
- How soon after publishing my book would I start?
I contacted people who I met on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Had I met them in person? No. Who responded to my first inquiry? About 75% answered my email. Most of the people who responded were interested. Soon I had commitments for the first week. Shortly thereafter the second week was filling up. Now I am working on scheduling the third week and starting to plan my second tour.
Deciding the launch date was problematic. Since I am a self published author, my publishing date was never preset. The actual date was dependent on whenever I felt that the manuscript was ready. Unexpected formatting issues caused numerous delays. I had to be patient. I was not willing to give the go ahead until the text and the formatting were totally acceptable.
Initially, I planned the tour to begin mid-December. The holidays caused many of my participants to cringe. I ended up delaying the tour until January. This gave everyone a giant sigh of relief and made me panic over no marketing for my newly published book.
Check out my tour schedule of events. I will be adding more soon. This is the schedule for this week.
January 7 Guest blog at 9 Lives for Women (Kathryn Sollmann)
January 8 Book Review by Lisa Niver Rajna at Wandering Educators
January 9 Q & A with Kim Yaris Literacy Builders
January 10 Q & A with Shannon Young
January 11 Guest Blog at Mom It Forward
Anyone making a blog post comment on sandrabornstein.com from January 6-13 will be eligible for my first website book giveaway. One randomly drawn winner will be selected on January 14 for my first virtual book tour.
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