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Monday, November 22, 2010

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

7 comments:

  1. I'm in the middle of my blog tour also. So far I haven't had the problems you did, but I am very anxious to see how it all plays out.

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  2. Tamara,

    What's your book name? I'll check out your tour and tweet it.

    John

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  3. Nevermind. I see tha Tamara is currently touring with her brand new book, "Perilous." And she's got a cool trailer you can watch as well. Here's a link - http://ow.ly/3dTRv.

    Great job, Tamara!

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  4. Hi John,

    Interesting post. I'm a self-pubbed author as well and I'm currently undergoing my virtual book tour. However, I'm the one doing all the leg work researching blogs that would be a good fit for review as well as sites willing to do a Q&A or host a guest post. I think the disadvantage in doing it this way is that I don't have a set schedule of appearances and have to keep my readers constantly updated.

    Anyway, thanks for the behind-the-scenes look. Good luck on your continuing book tour!

    (Note: my googleid links to the wrong site. You can find me at http://www.somewhereoverthesun.com)

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  5. adialsaid,

    Thanks for stopping in. I would be very interested to hear of the results of your self-scheduled tour. I considered it. But the time commitment seemed overwhelming.

    Maybe you and Tamara will do me the honor of guest posting your VBT experiences?

    Cheers!

    John

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  6. sure John, I wouldn't mind at all. I also set up my own tour. I set it up about 2 months in advance.

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  7. Thank you, Tamara. I'll get in touch with you guys after my tour is over and maybe we can work out a joint -- or consecutive -- post. If you wish, I'd be happy to reciprocate with any sort of guest post you might want from me -- if you want anything.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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