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Do Virtual Tours Really Help?

I'm happy to say the World of Ink Author/Book Tours that we started at Stories for Children Publishing have been pretty successful. We did two in December and now we have one going on this month as well. Both authors in the Dec. 2010 World of Ink Tours said they had a lot of traffic to their sites, sold a few books and felt they really made a dent in their online presence/social networking.

For those who have been wondering if virtual tours help or not, I have to say they do help. But they are only one tool in your marketing plan. I also did a virtual tour last month for my picture book "Babysitting Sugarpaw". I sold a few copies, did a couple of giveaways on mommy blogs, but what I noticed was the traffic to my author site and the emails from schools for visits increased by 15%!

That was really nice. I'm currently lining up some visits for the Spring, so I'll have to let you know how those turn out later.

Anyway, if you would like to follow a virtual tour to see what they are about here is a blurb on the one I currently have going on through Stories for Children Publishing.

Cheryl Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. A regular contributor for Writer2Writer, her articles focus on increasing productivity through time management and organization. A founding member of Musing Our Children, Ms. Malandrinos is also Editor in Chief of the group’s quarterly newsletter, Pages & Pens.   

Cheryl is a Tour Coordinator for Pump Up Your Book, a book reviewer, and blogger. Little Shepherd is her first children’s book. Ms. Malandrinos lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two young daughters. She also has a son who is married.

Jan. 2011 World of Ink Tour Guest Cheryl Malandrinos is doing a virtual book tour of her children's picture book, "Little Shepherd". Learn more about Cheryl and her book at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/CherylMalandrinos.aspx

You can find her tour schedule at the link above. If you do stop by, please leave a comment so we know you did.

I'll also keep you up to date on how the virtual author/book tours go with the World of Ink Tours along with my own trails and successes this year.

Also, don't forget every Wed. is our guest post and every Friday is an interview with others who are traveling down the road to publication. I'm planning to share some insight on the SFC Team this month so be sure to stop by so you can learn about those who help me behind the scenes of Stories for Children Publishing, LLC.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2011 at 5:31 AM

    Glad to hear that the Virtual Tours are helping authors and their books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CherylJanuary 7, 2011 at 8:21 AM

    Excellent news, Virginia. I'm glad you found your tour helpful. Thanks for sharing.

    Cheryl

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. MeredithJanuary 7, 2011 at 8:28 AM

    Though I don't write for kids, I too have to agree that blog tours do help. (And Cheryl is a sweetheart.)

    Marilyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. thewriterslifeJanuary 7, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    I love how you noted the other advantages to tours. While authors (and rightfully so) are counting on book sales from it, a lot of things can happen that would be advantageous to the author which could lead to even more book sales down the road. You mentioned offers for school visits were up by 15%. Now see? When authors go on these tours, sometimes their mindset is too narrow. Lots of great things happen - fan base increases, networking base increases, website hits increase, online presence increases, I could go on and on. A journalist might see one of your interviews come up in a search for certain search words. A TV producer might see your book trailer or a big time publisher might note they read where you sold 100,000 copies of your self-published book and offer you a deal. I'll stop, but a lot of times authors are too narrow-minded and don't look at the big picture. They expect vbts to be this magic ticket that will sell lots of books for them, but it's just a vehicle which could lead to sales of course but also to even bigger and brighter things.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CherylJanuary 7, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    Aw, Marilyn, you're the best.

    ReplyDelete

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