How to create your own book tour
Why not connect a series of timely online networking opportunities together to create a virtual book tour to go with your launch.
Have a tight schedule. Offer an incentive to make sure your host is timely. So many times business book authors get a booking, but the event date can slip if the host decides to change their schedule to suit them – which is not helpful for you.
Keep detailed notes of your apperances
To plan your book , set up a spreadsheet to store the key details. Make a list of places and note down how they feature authors, for example, expert interviews, tips posts, advice columns, book reviews. If the features happen on a particular day of the week, or week of the month make a note of that too. Jot down URLs, contact details and names so you can follow up later.
The early bird catches the worm
If there is time, start interacting with those outlets before you need to ask for a feature. Leave comments. Share their content on social media. By building rapport first you are much more likely to get a favourable response when you ask to be featured, rather a nasty shock that kicks them in the shins and asks “how about it then?”
Once you have some responses, start to put a schedule together, then reach out to each person in the list individually and suggest some dates.
Where to seek author appearances
Have a look for people who share the following content. A quick Google search will yield some results quickly.
Online
- guest blog posts
- book serialisation sites
- business and entrepreneurial influencers
- “Cliff notes” sites
- book reviews
- social media contests
Interviews
- written
- podcast
- vlog
- webinars
- radio
- TV
Give something away at each event
Boost your chances of being featured by offering books as competition prizes. People love to give away free stuff, so add a new promotional copies to you marketing budget.
Share your content in lots of formats on your tour
Create as many different types of content you can – it means that however, your audience like to be entertained and informed, you have it covered. It adds variety for them and for you. Also if your book includes advice on how to use a piece of software, why not create a training video about that? Some people love an over-the-shoulder demo rather than reading instructions.
Personalise your request for coverage
You need to be targeted and very proactive with your approach. You are not going to hit a home run every time. Adding a personalised request will go a long way to boosting your chances of success. Make it clear to each person you approach you understand their audience and how they like to learn more about a topic of interest.
Grow a thick skin
You also need to be resilient. Get ready for rejection, and worse silence. Not everyone is going to be interested in featuring you. Don’t take it personally. Maybe they just had book review month and you missed the boat? It’s a good rule of thumb to assume 10% of the people who you contact will feature you, so if you want a one-month tour, you’ll need to approach around 100 people.
Keep your mood high by focusing your attention on the acceptances you get, not the declines.
See ya.
