Tell us a bit about your company, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, and your mission.
I started Pump Up Your Book Promotion in April ‘07, so we haven’t been in business very long but business is booming. To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure what happened except one thing led to another. I started out by getting a call from an online friend who wanted me to promote her book online. She was a member of a couple of my writing groups and had listened to the various ways I was showing people how to promote online and she insisted on paying me to promote hers. I thought she had lost her mind because I wasn’t a publicist. Little did I know, but this was the beginning of my career as one.
I had just finished a virtual book tour myself, which I think was successful, so I suggested setting up one for her but I wanted to test my wings first. A lovely woman, Marilyn Celeste Morris, was my guinea pig. I sent her out in April on a virtual book tour for her book, Once a Brat, for my newly established company, Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours and I just loved it. While Marilyn was on tour, I was getting emails from authors all over who wanted me to set up their virtual book tours, too. And it hasn’t let up since.
Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours is part of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a public relations firm specializing in online promotions. There are lots of reputable public relations firms that deal mainly with offline promotion and I thought why not fill that void – that online book promotion that most public relation firms are not concentrating on.
What we do is aim for extensive recognition in the search engines by showing these authors how to get their books in the # 1 position in the search engines for their key search words. By the time their tour is over, if they have properly used these search words in different areas I have instructed them to, it’ll happen.
The main purpose in this is that your virtual book tours are perpetual. They keep on promoting you long after your tour is over if the blog host keeps your interview/guest post/review/whatever on their blog. By creating this enormous online presence, your virtual book tour will be a success.
What is the hottest thing in book promotion right now? Why?
Great question, Mayra! The hottest thing in book promotion right this very minute I have to say would be videos and podcasts. Readers love visual and audio. If they go to a website or blog and there’s a visual or an audio, they feel as if they’ve gotten more value out of their time spent there than if they were there just reading text. You need to appeal to the senses. Virtual book tours are hot right now and combined with the visual and audio aids, you’ve got a real good chance at creating a great campaign.
Article comments
1 - Prada Jones
Very good article!
2 - Mary Emma Allen
Wonderful interview! You had some great questions, Mayra, that brought forth much helpful information from Dorothy that every author can use. Every time I read something Dorothy has written, whether in her blogs or in an interview, I learn something more about book promotion. I host many of Dorothy's authors on my blog and enjoy working with her...and have ever since my story was published in her first anthology.
3 - Linda E. Austin
Great interview with Dorothy, and very informative. Good links, too. There's so much out there in the way of promotion that it's almost overwhelming, but presentations and internet marketing are the way to go.
4 - Alma Bond
Please let me know your fees.
Thank you,
Alma Bond
5 - Dorothy Thompson
Thank you everyone and especially Mayra for being so kind to ask me over here. As for my fees, all you have to do is go to my site and the fees are right there on the website. [Personal contact info deleted]. ;o)
6 - Toby Heathcotte
I enjoyed the article very much. It has helpful ideas.
Best,
Toby
7 - Kathleen Gage
Wow Dorothy! Great information. Very detailed and truthful. You certainly don't sugarcoat the reality of blog tours for authors.
Enjoyed reading your information.
Kathleen Gage
8 - heather (errantdreams)
There's so much incredible information in here. I think virtual book tours are a brilliant idea.