Virtual Book Tour - Progress Report

Hello All.

Just checking in to give you an update on my November/December Virtual Book Tour for The 19th Element.

We're almost at the midpoint of the tour. I'm not ready to pass any judgments. I want to see the full benefits of the tour strategy and the order of appearances before I do that. But I do have some observations to share.

Scheduling SNAFUS.

First of all, shortly in advance of a Virtual Book Tour, you post a "Tour Page" that contains a schedule of your appearances, so your followers are able to . . . well . . . follow. So far, my book tour schedule, although professionally organized by Pump Up Your Book, hasn't exactly helped my followers as much as I would have liked.

I'm not blaming anyone. I think it's just a reality to be recognized. Out of 16 originally scheduled and publicized blog stops thus far, my posts have failed to appear as per the schedule three times. Emails to my tour guide were not able to keep these appearances on schedule. To be clear . . . my appearances either were or will be posted sometime -- just not per the schedule.

Blog Selections.

In my opinion, some of the blog tour stops were not very well matched up with the thriller genre of my book. I make this observation based on other books recently appearing on these blogs. For example: If the blogger constantly reviews chick lit, she may not appreciate a thriller. And her audience may not appreciate one either. Moral: I would recommend that, if you're planning on touring, you might ask for the reasons why each blog is appropriate to your genre.

Other Technical Difficulties.

-- On one occasion, a blog book reviewer lost my book. I had to prove convincingly that it had been sent. Then she managed to find it. Okay. Nobody's perfect. Moral: It's a good idea to keep records of when, where and how you sent off your materials to the bloggers (or the tour director).

-- On another occasion, my tour director asked for posts for four different blogs in a single email. I managed to not notice one of them. As a result, even though I had subsequently asked whether my director had received all the needed posts, the omission resulted in a missed post. Moral: Double check all your assignments and don't expect the tour director to catch them for you.

-- On another occasion, my Author Interview was posted on the right site and on the correct date, but the introduction to my interview indicated that I was going to tell about the time I met Stephen King. Since I've never met Stephen King, my post was obviously on a differing topic. I didn't catch this one until later in the day. So the blog post was incorrect for the majority of the blog's followers. Moral: Check your blog posts early on the day of posting and look for errors.

What About Results?

As I stated at the outset, I'm going to allow my tour director to complete her job before I pass any judgments on results. Sorry. That'll have to wait 'til then.

Thanks for hanging with me during this Tour. I will be posting more frequently when we get into December.

Happy Holidays!

John