📚 Most Asked Questions

MOST ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PUMP UP YOUR BOOK VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOURS

What’s a virtual book tour?

Let’s begin by explaining what a virtual book tour is.  Some may call them blog tours, author tours, online book tours or even online publicity tours.  No matter what you call them, they are perhaps the best book publicity venues out there.

A virtual book tour is similar to offline book tours in the respect that you are promoting your book.  That’s where it stops.

An online tour has many advantages and they are:

1. You don’t have to go anywhere for thousands of people to find out about your book.
2. No gas spent, no hotel bills, no getting in front of people hawking your wares.
3. All of your interviews, guest posts, reviews, etc., will be archived and seen by those putting your key search words into the search engines years down the road because of our optimization techniques.
4. You’ll reach more people. There are a lot more people browsing the Internet than it is walking in a bookstore at any given time and at any given day.
5. Shy? No worries!  A virtual book tour lets you connect with thousands all in the comfort of your own home.
6. Virtual book tour supersedes any other kind of online book promotion.

Here are 10 things you need to know about virtual book tours:

1. Virtual book tours are the BEST way to get the MOST online exposure for your book. Not only are you presenting your book and yourself to thousands of people, all of your interviews, guest posts and reviews are archived which means months down the road, you’re still selling your book because of that one tour.
2. Virtual book tours ARE a lot of work. Not only are you searching for the perfect blogs to host you, you are acting as the middle man between you and the blogger unless you are using a paid service such as Pump Up Your Book who will do all the work for you.  Even if you do sign up with Pump Up Your Book, there is still lots of work to do completing assignments – filling out interviews and writing guest posts unless you choose an all review tour.  Even though it requires a little bit of your time to fill out interviews and write guest posts, it’s well worth it. However, it all depends on the author. If the author wishes more reviews and no guest posts, that’s fine. If the author wants just interviews and reviews, that’s fine too. Just communicate that with your tour coordinator.
3. You will learn more about your book than you ever did. I had an author tell me that through the interviews and guest posts she had to complete, she never learned so much about her book which caught her off guard.  Now when she is interviewed on radio shows and makes television appearances, she is better prepared.
4. Virtual book tours will build up your author platform. No matter if you’re a fiction author or a nonfiction author, virtual book tours will build up your author platform using your key search words.
5. Your reviews are guaranteed. Offline publicists while they mean well do it all wrong.  They query a book blogger, make arrangements to send the book, then that’s where it stops.  The review is not a guaranteed thing.  The reviewer can post the review anytime they see fit.  With virtual book tours, your review is guaranteed on a certain date unless the reviewer’s house burns down (true story), they lose Internet (hey it’s happened to everyone) or for some other reason they can’t post. If this happens, we make arrangements for them to post the review on another day.  I had an author tell me she signed up with an offline publicist who sent out many books and only one or two reviewers actually came through for them.  That was money loss for the author.  Books don’t come cheap these days so coming up with a date you and the reviewer can agree upon guarantees that review will be a given thing.
6. Many reviewers now take ebooks which save you money. Thank goodness someone was smart enough to invent a device that automatically loads a book in a few seconds (no waiting to go to the book store anymore my friend) and makes it fun to read.  When Amazon lowered their price of the Kindle, sales soared and book lovers started talking about getting one.  What that means is that it opened up a wonderful way to get these books to the book reviewers quickly and less expensively.  Have you noticed how much books are and how much it takes to ship them?  Not saying all reviewers will take ebooks, but as time goes on, most will have an e-reader and, as a matter of fact, will prefer an ebook.
7. More website hits, more blog hits, more Twitter hits and more Facebook Fan Page hits. All authors should have a website or blog and accounts at Twitter and Facebook.  No matter if you think they’re all a waste of time.  A virtual book tour will definitely give you more hits at all places as long as your links are in your bio.
8. Going on a virtual book tour raises your Alexa rankings. What is Alexa?  Alexa measures how well you are doing in the search engines.  By going on a virtual book tour, and including interviews and guest posts during that tour, your website and blog links are included in every bio (or should be!).  Those are incoming links which Alexa uses to measure your ranking.  The more your website or blog link shows up on other sites, the more valuable your site is to them and thus, your rankings soar.
9. You will learn how to sell your book through media exposure. Not all authors take advantage of their interviews and guest posts by gearing them toward their audience, thus luring them to their book and/or website/blog.  I’ve had many authors on tour and the ones who really take the time to make their interviews and guest posts effective selling tools are the ones who profit the most.  The key thing here is to make your audience curious.  One liners in the case of interviews may not cut it.  Of course there are only so many ways you can answer “What’s your book about?” but take your time and get your audience’s curiosity peaked so that they do make your way over to your website or your book’s buying link.
10. Virtual book tours teach you how to connect well with others. There is no better way to learn how to network.  All these wonderful book bloggers who agree to host you are your new friends in your extended network and they will be there for you the next time you have a book to promote (unless they completely hated it of course).  You’ll also learn how to use the social networks effectively as you study how to get people over to your stops by persuasive wording.  Remember to talk to your audience, not at them.

Unless you’re a bestselling author backed by a huge publishing house, you are going to find most of the promotion lies on you.  Those who come to us do so because a) they don’t have the connections or b) they don’t have time.

A virtual book tour isn’t as complicated as you think.  If you have chosen a one month tour, you will have between 15 – 20 “stops.”  If you have chosen the two month tour, you will double that.  By “stops,” we mean appearances on blogs, websites, online radio shows in which you are interviewed, you’ll write guest posts, or you will have your book spotlighted.

Virtual book tours are fun!  All that is required of you is to fill out out interviews or write guest posts and leave the rest to us.  We will find book bloggers who love the type of book you have written and will arrange an interview, guest post or review with them.  You send all material to us and we send it to them.  See?  So let’s pump up that book!

So what can I expect you to give me or do for me?

Every author will receive the following:

• Official tour page

• Tour banner

• A spot in the revolving book banner on the first page of our site

• Daily promotions of your blog stops at social networks, blogs and websites using specially made graphics for your book

• Book exposure which is seen by thousands

• Brand recognition

• Build author’s platform

• A real person to ask anything concerning your tour or promoting your book online

What exactly goes on my tour page?

All authors are given their own personalized tour page which can also be called your own media page at Pump Up Your Book.  All tour pages are required to be up no later than the weekend before the tour starts; however, your tour page may go up sooner to start getting you and your book into the search engines.

Your tour page will consist of the following items about you and your book:

Introduction

Your tour page will begin with an introductory paragraph stating who you are and with what book you are touring.  Your book will be linked up to your selling page (Amazon, etc.) so that when one of our book bloggers need your bio to go with the interview, etc., it will include the link to where people can buy your book.

About the Author

In this section, we will place your author’s bio.  Your bio needs to be written in 3^rd person and must include the book you are touring with.  Also include your website and/or blog links, as well as links to your Twitter page and Facebook page.  I’ve had reviewers ask me how to contact an author for an interview (free) if there’s no contact info to be found on their website.  Contacting an author through Facebook is an easier way.

The bio shouldn’t be more than 3 or 4 paragraphs long.

About the Book

For this section, we include the book synopsis, book cover and selling links.

Tour Schedule

Your tour schedule will be posted on your tour page.  Always check your tour schedule in the morning each day to see where you will be appearing.  As sometimes it happens, we may need to move stops around for whatever reason so checking first thing in the morning guarantees you’ll know exactly where you are heading.

Miscellaneous Items

After your tour page goes up, you are asked to take a look at it to see if there are any changes that need to be made.  If there are, those changes will be made immediately.

Where is my tour page?

As soon as your tour page goes live, we will email you immediately with the direct link.  If you lose the link, just refer to the main website at www.PumpUpYourBook.com and put your name in search.

What’s a guest post?

Think of a guest post as an article.  All guest posts must be over 300 words and have a title unless specified no title is needed.

When promoting your tour, your guest posts give readers and book buyers a chance to see not only your writing style, but they also get to know more about your book, you, or a subject related to your book.  Keep in mind when titling your guest post, the words in your title are what the search engine spiders land on first.  The first word, then the second word, and on down the line.  Don’t waste this opportunity to rank high in the search engines with needless or irrelevant words.  Make them count.

When an author signs up for a virtual book tour with us, s/he more than likely will have to write a few guest posts (unless s/he specifies an all-review or all-interview tour). While it depends on how long his tour will be, he might be asked to write two, three, sometimes more guest posts.  The one thing the author needs to remember is that this is going to be one way to show everyone how well they can write.  Sometimes the reader picks up a certain style which may determine whether they may or may not buy their book, believe it or not.  What pressure!

And sometimes the author’s mind goes blank.  What to do?

I have compiled a list of blogging topics an author might want to go through to give them some ideas on what to blog about. I send this list to my authors just in case they need ideas and you might get some benefit from them, too, if you ever need a topic to blog about while on your own virtual book tour. While this is not an all exclusive list of ideas to write about, it might jump start ideas within you!

Blog Topics:

1. Pet Peeves of the Publishing Industry
2. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Becoming a Published Author
3. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About (author’s name)
4. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About (author’s book)
5. How to Avoid the Slush Pile
6. How to Meet Deadlines and Remain Sane
7. How to Avoid the Rejection Blues
8. Why Book Covers are So Important
9. How to Write Nonfiction (or other genre) Like a Pro
10. What to Look for in an Agent
11. What to Look for in a Publisher
12. 10 Tips for Finding a Publicist
13. 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer
14. How to Sell Your First Novel
15. Practical Advice for Beginning Fiction (or other genre) Writers
16. Five Mistakes Writers Make When Querying Publishers
17. Booksigning Tips to Sell That Book
18. How I Made My First Sale
19. A Day in the Life of (author’s name)
20. How to Promote Online
21. How to Sell Your Book Online
22. Why Social Networks are the Keys to Good Networking
23. How to Network Online to Promote Your Book
24. The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Promote Your Book Online
25. How to Make Your Characters Believable
26. What Inspired Me to Write My Book
27. My Publishing Journey or How I Became a Published Author
28. Why Blogging is Important
29. What Makes the Perfect Book Blog
30. How to be a Good Guest Blogger
31. Finding Your Voice: Writing in First Person (or Third)
32. Why Mentors Are Important
33. Inside the Mind of the Author
34. The Footsteps I Follow: Authors I Admire
35. How to Overcome Radio Stage Fright
36. Why Writing is a Form of Personal Therapy
37. Why Winning Awards Helps Author Recognition
38. How to Write a Winning Writing Competition
39. Beware the Procrastination Demons
40. Booksigning Horror Story
41. Publishing Horror Story
42. How to Put Your Best Foot Forward at Conferences
43. How to Find a Critique Buddy
44. How to Create a Great Work Area for Inspiration
45. How to Write by the Seat of Your Pants: Outline or No?
46. How to Research Your Story Before Writing Your Book
47. How to Handle Pressure: Writing Under Deadlines
48. Why Choosing Your Setting is Important
49. 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Being an Author I Didn’t Know Before
50. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published

What I am finding is that blog hosts love for their guests to give them quality content that will help their readers and perhaps be linkable. What I mean by linkable is that if it is something of value to a blogger, they will write about your blog post and link to it. This means more exposure for the blog host which is always a good thing.

You can use the above topics as you choose or change them to suit your needs.

Do I send the guest posts to you or the blog host?

You send them to us and we will take care of the rest.  Please note that it would be very helpful if you would put the name of the blog in the subject line when sending the guest post back to us so we can find it easier.

What’s the best way to send these to you?

The best way to send your guest posts and interviews to me is by word doc (not docx or pdf) or cut and paste into an email.  In order to make sure I see them; however, you need to put the name of the blog in the subject line.  When I scan my email looking for what you’ve sent, I look at subject lines.  If I don’t see it in the subject line, I have to email you to send it and if you’ve already sent it, this makes more work for you.  So, please put the name of the blog in the subject line.  It’ll speed up the process tremendously.

Is there some kind of deadline for all these interviews and guest posts?

The general rule is to have everything back to us at least one week before your tour starts so we can concentrate on the promotion end of it.  However, if an interview or guest post request comes in late, then we give you extra time of course.

How much time is it going to take to prepare for my tour?

This varies.  It all depends on how many interviews and guest posts you have as opposed to reviews which requires no preparations other than to send a book out.  If you choose an mostly reviews, your workload is cut considerably.  If you only have a few copies to send out, then you’ll have more interviews to fill out and guest posts to write.  And again it all depends on how fast you can type.

Do I have to learn how to blog?

No, you don’t have to learn how to blog if it’s not for you.

What if I’ve signed up for October expecting books at the end of August and the publisher found something wrong and it has to be delayed?  Can you move my tour to the next month?

Books should be available to send to reviewers one month before your tour. If there is a production delay and we have already set up your tour, we will make every effort to move your tour for a fee of $25. If a request is made to move a tour for any other reason than a production delay, the cost is $50.

How do you choose the blogs?

When we sign up an author, we get to work setting up a tour page which will have a form for bloggers to fill out. After your tour page is live, we send your info along with the link to where people can sign up to our blog host lists. Interested bloggers email us and we contact them and set a date for them to host.

Before a blogger can host, they must past certain criteria. Blogs must be updated frequently – at least 3 times a week (daily is even better) – and they must have a full set of archives which means they are showing up well in the search engines. To add to this, we also go on a search and contact potential bloggers to host you.

What’s all this about social networking?  Do I need to join social networks to promote my book?

It’s not mandatory but in your favor if you do.  It’s not hard.  And best of all, it’s FREE.  Free promotion for your book.  Sure, you can pay someone to tweet your book info or set up a Facebook page and run promo through it for you now and then, but the networking is really what it’s all about.  Social networks is where you form your fan base online.

I read a story about the casinos in New Jersey losing their shirts off.  Back in the early seventies, a bunch of entrepreneurs decided to put up a string of casinos and because that was the nearest one back then, they were living the good life.  Now all of a sudden, they’re losing money instead of making money.  The problem was that they didn’t look into the future.  While they were living high off the hog, new casinos were being built closer to home.  The thing is, the casino owners in New Jersey didn’t keep up with the times.  They just let the casinos bring in cash while they spent it and never thought about keeping an eye out on the competition (there wasn’t any when they opened) and because of this, they’re losing their businesses.  What does this little story have to do with social networking?  While you aren’t learning how to network, other authors are and where they are mainly doing it is on Twitter and Facebook.  You have to start somewhere and build up.  As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day but in time you’ll see what I’m talking about.

What do I need to do to promote my tour?

The following suggestions aren’t mandatory but highly recommendable.

Get Your Website/Blog Ready

What some authors fail to realize is that there are going to be a lot of guests coming over to your website and/or blog during your tour.  Your link is in every single piece of promotion we send out.

So let’s say they check out your website and/or blog and they’re not impressed?  What you have to do is grab’em while you got’em.  How do you do that?

Make sure your website and/or blog is attractive and the book cover is staring at them when they get there, along with the buying link.  How many are going to stop and go try to find it at Amazon, etc.?  You don’t want to take that chance.

Make sure your navigation bar is working and includes more information about you or your book.  For example, have a button that leads them to your bio.  Another button leads them to where they can read an excerpt of your book.  Another button leads them to more books you have written.  Other buttons can include:

• Press Kit
• Writing Tips
• Contact Information

Tweet Your Tour Stops

For those with twitter accounts (www.twitter.com), go into your daily blog stops and look for the twitter or tweetmeme button.  It’s usually at the top right.  If not, it’ll be directly underneath the blog post.  It might have other social network buttons with it.  All you have to do is hit it and it’ll automatically generate the text so all you have to do is hit the button once you get over to Twitter.  Believe it or not, that’s all there is to it.  You can surely spare half a minute to hit a button, right?  Now let’s say there is no button.  Some bloggers haven’t gotten on the social network bandwagon yet so what do you do?  Take the direct link of your tour stop, copy it in your browser, go over to www.tinyurl.com and put the link in the box there.  It’ll give you a shortened version as Twitter doesn’t allow over 140 characters.  Copy that and go over to your Twitter account and paste it into the box at the top and hit send.

Tweet Your Tour Page Daily

Along with tweeting your tour stops, go into your tour page and hit the twitter button on the upper right hand side.  Blatant self-promotion is okay!

Facebook It

Again, most blog hosts will have these social networking buttons on their blog posts and for Facebook, it’s usually at the bottom of the post.  If you have not added a book page to your Facebook account, do it now.

Tell Your Publisher’s Group

If your publisher has an author group set up online, get their support by telling them about your stops and asking them to comment.

Tell Other Online Groups

Without going against any rules, let your friends in your writer’s groups online know about your tour and ask them to leave a comment on your posts.

Display Your Book Banner

All authors receive a promotional tour banner that they are welcome to use in any way they like.  One way of getting good use of it would be to add your banner to your blog or website and have it directed to your tour page.

Blog It

If you have a blog, blog your tour stops daily. This gives you daily content as well as getting you into the search engines.

Blog at Goodreads     

A blog at Goodreads (www.goodreads.com)  is easy to set up.  You might even already have one by now.  In a google alert for “blog tour,” one of many google alerts I have set up to keep me informed about different aspects of my business, I found this guy blogging about his virtual book tour:

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1382444-blog-tour-day-17-the-finish-line

Here’s the important thing.  For my search words at Google Alerts “blog tour,” it brought his tour up which means it’s showing up in Google.  If you do the same, it’ll show up for you, too.  Remember – we’re out for EXPOSURE.  This is a good thing. ;o)

Cheryl Malandrinos, previous tour coordinator with Pump Up Your Book, wrote an interesting article giving 5 tips to help you make your tour a success:

Years ago, book promotion was different. Book signings, library readings, radio and newspaper interviews, and book reviews from well-known publications could help get your book noticed. For new authors, however, it was tough to get their books into the hands of readers outside of their local areas.

Then things changed.

The Internet arrived and blogs soon followed. People from all walks of life were using these online journals to write about all sorts of things, including the books they liked or didn’t like. This paved the road for a new way to promote books—the virtual book tour (VBT).

A virtual book tour is when an author visits a certain number of blogs during a specific period of time. The author’s book gets reviewed, he might be interviewed, and in many cases, he can be a guest blogger, where he writes an article that appears on someone else’s blog.

Virtual book tours are a great way to create an online presence for your book. Unlike in-store book signings, potential readers can access your blog stop (when you appear at a blog during a VBT) many months after you’ve been there. As long as the blog remains online, readers can find out about you and your work.

There are a few tricks to help you coordinate a successful virtual book tour. I’ll share some of them below.

Tip # 1 – Decide on the right time to tour your book.

It takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks to coordinate a VBT. One of the main reasons is that there must be enough time to ship books to those who are reviewing them. This time can be shortened if you’re touring an e-Book.

Another thing you must consider is your schedule. If you’re already struggling to balance your workload, it might not be the right time to coordinate a virtual book tour. I tell my clients to expect to spend half an hour to an hour a day working on VBT items—interviews, guest posts, and mailing out books. And don’t forget, once the virtual book tour starts, you need to allot time to promote it.

You might also want to consider what time of year is best to promote your book. When creating a marketing plan for my first children’s book, Little Shepherd, I decide to coordinate a VBT for the last three months of the year because it ties into Christmas.

Tip #2 – Provide bloggers with the information they need to decide if they want to host you.

In addition to being a virtual book tour coordinator, I am a blogger and book reviewer. I can’t tell you how many times I receive an email that reads this way:

“Dear blogger,

I am an author looking for a good blog to review my book, (title). Please let me know if you’re interested.

Sincerely,

Susie Author”

How can I decide if I want to read a book without knowing anything about it?

All correspondence to bloggers should be professionally written and include the following:

• Your name
• The book title
• A book blurb
• The genre
• Link to your website or where the book can be purchased
• If you are looking for the book to be reviewed within a certain time frame (important if you’re coordinating a virtual book tour)

Use the blogger’s name instead of addressing your email to, “Dear Blogger”. If you’re unsure of the name, you could open your email with, “Dear Editor of (blog title)”.

Remember to spell check your email before hitting send.

Tip #3 – Include a Thank You note and a business card with your review copy.

While some might feel that a free book is thanks enough, the blogger is still agreeing to spend some of his/her time reading your book and putting together a review. Whenever possible, send along a note of thanks with your review copy.

It’s also smart to include a business card if you have one. I add all names and addresses for books I review into my Outlook contacts. That way I can email the author a direct link when I complete the review. I stash all those business cards in a desk drawer, which means I can look up an author’s website at a future time to see if he/she has a new release coming out.

Tip #4 – Be creative with your interviews and guest posts.

This is your chance to shine; to tell potential readers why they should be plunking down their hard earned cash on your book. Boring interviews filled with one or two sentence answers won’t provide enough information for a reader to make a decision. You want the reader to feel like you and the blogger are sitting down having an actual conversation.

When writing up a guest post, take a few minutes to browse the blogger’s site. Draft an article that will engage the reader. Try not to use the same guest post more than twice during your virtual book tour. People who are following along will soon get bored reading the same information over and again.

Tip # 5 – Tell people you’re going on a virtual book tour.

Virtual book tours are a wonderful way to reach potential readers all over the world, but if you don’t tell anyone you’re on a virtual book tour, who will know?

Post your VBT schedule on your website or blog. Email your contacts and let them know when your virtual book tour will start and give them a link to where you’ve posted your schedule so they can follow your tour.

Don’t have a website or blog?

Start one before your virtual book tour begins. Experienced bloggers will look online for more information about you and your book to supplement their blog posts. In addition, you want to give potential readers a place to learn more about the book you’re promoting.

Use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to promote your blog stops on a daily basis.

Coordinating a successful virtual book tour is time-consuming, but it’s also a lot of fun. Making sure you have the time to dedicate to a VBT, providing bloggers with all the information they need, saying thanks, being creative, and letting people know you’re on a virtual book tour, will make your experience a lot easier too.

What exactly will you be doing to promote my tour?

Good question!  We will be out there promoting each stop in social networks and blogs.  We will be designing graphics to go along with your promotion ads to give readers a visual along with the text. Anything that we can do to help sell your book, we do.

Am I guaranteed positive reviews with your service?

Don’t I wish we could do that, but what reviewers we do have on board know not to post a terrible review for the world to see.  Not saying your book is awful, just saying that this particular reviewer found something they didn’t like about it.  And that’s okay, too.

What if one of my negative reviews ends up on Amazon?  Can we ask you to get the reviewer to take it down?

No.  Once it goes up on Amazon, we don’t have any control over it.  As long as it isn’t legally damaging, there’s not much you can do except get good reviews to overshadow that one negative review.  You can try contacting Amazon to see if they’ll take it down but more than likely unless it’s a review that is harmful, they won’t do anything about it.

What’s your refund policy?

There is no refund once you have made payment as we will already have started work on the tour.  With that said, if you are disappointed with anything Pump Up Your Book is doing or hasn’t done, let your tour coordinator know immediately so we can smooth things out.  That’s what we’re here for.

Okay so what if my tour sucks and I don’t sell any books?

Your tour will not suck.  We have been doing this for years and know where the best places are to place you.

We cannot guarantee your books will sell.  However, we will do everything in our power to make sure the masses see it.  Then we have to leave it up to the individual on whether they want to buy.

What if the tour coordinator takes my money and doesn’t fulfill her part of the bargain?

If we don’t meet your expectations, please let us know and we will try to rectify things.

What if the blog host doesn’t post my interview, etc. on the scheduled date?

If this happens, we are on it before you even notice it.  We contact the blog hosts the night before to remind them.  If there is something going on that is out of their control (they lose Internet, e.g.), we will make arrangements with the tour host to move the stop.

When is the best time to tour?

The best time to tour is when books are available to send out one month prior to touring.  If we have to move a tour to the next month once we have put the tour together and you realize books aren’t available to send out yet, there will be a fee of $75 to move your tour.  Your other alternative will be for the reviewers to post spotlights and say the review is coming.  It is very IMPORTANT not to book your tour too far ahead not knowing for sure when books are going to be available to send to reviewers.

Is there a deadline for sending everything back?

As long as you have been given sufficient time to work on your to do items – interviews & guest posts – the deadline for sending everything back to us is before the tour starts so that we can work on the promotion end of it.  If they do not come back by the deadline, there is no guarantee they will go up. If there is an emergency, let your tour coordinator know right away.

Who sends the books out for review – me or you?

You or your publisher are responsible for sending out books.  As soon as you sign up for a tour is the time to order books if you don’t have any.

What if the reviewer doesn’t get the book in time?

If the reviewer doesn’t get the book in time, we make arrangements to move the review to later in the month or post it at a later date or we just cancel altogether.

What if the reviewer doesn’t get the book at all but I know I have sent it?

We can’t be responsible for the postal system failing to get the books to their destinations but it’s rare that it does happen.

All these interviews and guest posts – whose property are they?

If it is an interview, it’s the blog hosts’ property but you are welcome to add your interview to your blog.  If it is a guest post, it is your property.  My suggestion to you would be to take full advantage of these guest posts and submit them to ezines and article banks to keep the promotions ongoing.

I’m an early riser.  When will my interview, guest post, review be posted?

Keep in mind that not everyone is in the same time zone you are.  The general rule is to email your tour coordinator if the interview, etc., has not been posted by noon eastern time.  Your tour coordinator will have already checked on your “stop” by then and can let you know whether there is a delay.

I am booked with another tour company for the same book. Will there be a conflict of interest?

Absolutely not! We encourage you to get promotions going in all directions. If a certain blogger has signed up with the first tour company, they know not to sign up with us when we send out to our email lists.

I released my book last year. Does your service only cover new releases?

One of the things I get a big kick out of is trying to promote a book that’s already been on the market. I love giving older books new lives!

What if I want more reviews than anything else?

That’s fine!  Just let your tour coordinator know as soon as you send back the application or make a note of it on the application. As a matter of fact, let us know if you want more reviews, interviews, guest posts or book spotlights or a combination of the above.

What exactly are your book teasers you advertise on your site?

Book teasers are snippets from your book with images added that are hosted at YouTube. Those authors who purchase the Silver, Gold, Platinum or Platinum+ packages receive one book teaser for free. These are hosted at http://www.youtube.com/pumpupyourbook. These aren’t book trailers per say. We usually take a small excerpt from your book to make them; hence, book teaser. We can make a book teaser for you for a small price of $25 if you purchase the bronze package. Please let us know if you have bought a bronze tour package and you’d like a book teaser. Book teasers can be imbedded into your own site and blogs using the code from YouTube.

 

My tour is coming up. Is there anything I should be doing in preparation?

Since preparing for your upcoming tour can be just as important as what to do while your tour is in session, I prepared a handbook that is sent to all authors who book a tour that will give you ideas on what to do before your tour starts. You will receive this handbook upon signing up and I suggest you read it thoroughly. It covers everything you need to know.

What’s the best thing I can do to make sure my tour is a success?

I always consider a tour to be a success when all the bloggers have fulfilled their obligations and everything went up on time. The best thing you can do to make sure your tour is a success is follow your stops and leave comments on each blog. Aside from that, promoting your stops in the search engines will guarantee more eyeballs.

And there you have it.  Not scary, just a lot of hard work in preparations but once you have finished completing interviews, writing guest posts and sending your book off for review, there’s that satisfaction that you have done the best for your book and then it’s our turn to get that information in front of as many people as possible.  A word of advice.  Even though you are in front of a computer and not in front of these people, you have to remember that these people are the very ones you want to buy your book so court them.  Seduce them.  Have them yearning to read your book and not just this book, but your subsequent books and the only way to do that is to communicate with them.  Become their friends.  Thank them for hosting you in the comment box of your blog post.  Take the time to find their email and personally thank them.  Find them on Facebook and leave them a note.  Make them feel appreciated.  Show them you’re not just a blip on the screen.  You’re real and you write damn good books.    Once you give them that personal touch, it’s like the whole world opens up and THIS is the way to sell books (I’ve seen it done many, many times).  You can go on as many virtual book tours as you want, buy as many ads in big time magazines and newspapers as you want, appear on live TV even, but NOTHING will sell your book more than that personal touch. Once you have gained just one person’s friendship, it’s like a snowball effect and before you know it, you’ve built up a fan base of thousands.  And THEY are the ones who will buy your next book.  If you want to sell books in the thousands, you need to start off with that one friendship and grow it to thousands so that when your next book comes out, those thousands who have grown to love you and your work, will die for the next one.  And more importantly, don’t be a one time wonder.  Keep writing, keep cranking those books out.

I hope this answers most of your questions; however, if there is a question that has not been answered, please feel free to email your tour coordinator.

Good luck to you and thank you for letting us help you pump up your Book!

Dorothy Thompson

CEO/Founder Pump Up Your Book

www.PumpUpYourBook.com

 

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