How easy/difficult is it for an author to plan a virtual book tour?
Ask my authors. I have an article called “The Real World of Virtual Book Touring” where I’ve had my recent authors give me input on how much work there is even when having someone plan their tours for them. Most of them said they had no idea it was going to be a lot of work. I put in 81 hours a week setting up and maintaining tours for about seven or so authors a month. The authors themselves put in an incredible amount of time answering questions and writing guest posts. If you do a month's worth of tours, you have approximately twenty interviews and guest posts to get done. One of my authors told me it took a half hour just to answer one interview because they are really concentrating on making those search words count.
But, back to your question, it is hard but very doable. If you are setting up a tour yourself, you are querying blog hosts, keeping track of dates, answering questions, and more than likely writing guest posts, then you are following up. When I was on my own virtual book tour back in November ’06, I remember it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. And I do remember breathing a sigh of relief when it was over.
How can authors find out which blogs have the higher traffic for their book's genre?
Ahhh… trade secrets revealed. Alexa.com gives rankings for blogs (or websites) and compares them to other blogs of similar content. Someone told me recently that so-and-so blog must not have a lot of visitors because no one comments there. You can’t judge a blog by comments. I know a lot of high profile blogs where people just don’t comment, so you can’t judge a blog by that.
If you go to Technorati, for instance, and put in your key search words, you’ll have blogs come up related to those words. Take the URL of those blogs over to Alexa and do a comparison. Takes time, but it’s the only way you’ll at least get an idea of the blog’s status. Technorati is the world’s largest blog search engine, but there are many blog search engines out there where you can do this.
Book trailers can be very expensive. Are they really worth the cost in terms of book sales?
Book trailers are just like anything else you spend money on to promote your book. Will you make it up in sales? The jury is still out whether or not they are convincing people to buy these books, but they most definitely couldn’t hurt. The way I look at it is, if you’d spend a hundred bucks on bookmarks, why not book trailers? Will you get your money back? Well, the thing is, you want to be noticed and book trailers are one way to do it. Authors spend an incredible amount of money on book promotional items, so why not trailers?
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.