[Guest Expert] D’vorah Lansky: Take Your Book on Tour… Across the Audio and Video Airwaves

I’d like to thank Kristen for graciously hosting me, as a guest blogger, in celebration of the launch of my newest book, 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour.

It is common for authors of print books, to participate in book signings and book talks to celebrate the publication of their new book. This requires them to travel from venue to venue in hopes that they will have an audience and sell their books. Did you know that you can now take your book on tour, around the globe, without leaving home? It’s true! With the advance of today’s technology there are numerous ways that authors of both print books and digital books can participate in book signings and book talks, virtually.

Virtual Book Tours

Online book tours, which are referred to as virtual book tours, are where authors create written and/or multimedia content to share on a wide variety of blogs across the internet.

The best blogs to include in your virtual book tour are those that write on topics of interest to your target audience. This will make you an appealing guest to your tour hosts, as you’ll be providing relevant content to their readers. This will also become a powerful marketing opportunity for you as you will have the opportunity to gain exposure to many new audiences.

Written blog posts are a great way for you to share ideas, book excerpts, and content related to the topic of your book. As part of your book tour, you can also share multimedia content.

Audio Book Talks

An extremely effective way to share your message is with a live audio presentation or an audio recording. There are many services available for this purpose.

For live conference calls, which can also be called teleseminars, you can use a free service such as FreeConferenceCalling.com. With this service you can have your listeners call in to a conference line to listen in live, or you can provide them with a link to the MP3 audio file. You are also provided with the embed code so that you can add a video player, of your recording, on your website.

During virtual book talks, authors can share about their book and their author journey, either on a solo call, or with someone else on the line. Having someone with you on the line, increases engagement with the audience, and having someone on the line with you, who is considered to be an expert in your field, increases your credibility.

Video Book Talks

It is easier than ever to produce online videos. You can fire up your Web cam, or a free software program such as JingProject.com, and either speak your message to the camera, or record a PowerPoint presentation. The beauty of JingProject is that your videos need to be less than five minutes in length. This makes it easy to crank out videos or jump online and share a thought or a tip.

Video provides you with a powerful way to connect with your audience as they can both see and hear you. You can share with them about your journey as an author, give a book talk which provides an overview of your book, or even read them a section of your book.

With both audio and video content, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Feel free to be creative. It’s “your show!” What do you want your readers to know about you and your book?

Virtual Book Signings

Believe it or not, it is actually possible to sign books, virtually! There are several services available, which I’ll be getting into in more depth in future blog posts. Today I’d like to share with you the KindleGraph virtual book signing system.

KindleGraph is simple, free, and fun. You can sign up for a free account at KindleGraph.com. Add your book listings and let your readers know that they can get a signed, digital, bookplate with their purchase of your Kindle book.

What are your thoughts about virtual book tours, virtual book signings and virtual book talks for authors? Scroll down and share your thoughts, questions, and ideas below.