We’re having a great week at the Virtual Book Tour website and I’d like to extend an invitation to each person to visit us. We have three great authors touring this month and they have posted a wealth of information about their books. You will find book summaries, excerpts, information about how current events tie into their books, why they decided to write that particular book and much more.

For people who haven’t heard of the Virtual Book Tour website – let me share a few details. Each month a variety of authors are featured on the site and they share all sorts of information about their books. The website is www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion. Each touring author has their own tour page and all information about their tour can be accessed from that page. This is the page for February – http://inspiredauthor.com/promotion/....

Feature Authors for February 2008 -- Click for tour details

Earl Ofari Hutchinson - The Ethnic Presidency
http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promot...

Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promot...

Virginia Vassallo - How The Stars and Stripes Began
http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promot...

We invite you to visit each author to learn more about their books.

The Ethnic Presidency by Earl Ofari Hutchinson - Who hasn’t heard about the presidential primaries this week? In many of the news programs, one of the topics of conversation is the part that voters’ race and gender will play in their vote. This is the topic of The Ethnic Presidency. Take a look at the part race plays for each and every candidate in 2008 and he provides many examples throughout the last century to show how race affects the elections. On Thursday February 7th, Mr Hutchinson is making a guest appearance on several different sites. You can visit him at any of these links - http://philipharris.blogspot.com/200..., www.americanchronicle.com/articles/51521 and http://community.myfoxmaine.com/blog...

Nimrod Rising by Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising is a book about the history of life itself and the origin of evil. The story and the geographical and historical background, centered around current events, will cause readers to pose such profound questions as, Who are we? Where did we come from? What was here before us? Where are we going? Are there answers to the question of why the world faces its current condition today? Nimrod Rising offers “possible” answers to those questions. It will awake the imagination and the cause self perception as they read. I am convinced it will hold your attention to the very end.

How The Stars and Stripes Began by Virginia Vassallo – Have you heard of the military newspaper, the Stars and Stripes? Have you ever wondered how it was started and who was the driving force behind its birth? If so, you must visit with Virginia. Her grandfather, Guy T. Viskniskki, the dynamic first officer-in-charge and editor-in-chief of The Stars and Stripes newspaper. This book is partially based on his autobiographical notes, family history and military records.

Any questions, feel free to contact me at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com. You can also visit the website to learn more about book promotion. There are over 100 promotional articles and interviews posted at http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promot....

Nikki Leigh

www.nikkileigh.com/promo.htm

I may be crazy, but not about this.

Any author can do a book tour from the comfort of their home. Even if there are two feet of snow in your driveway, you can still have a book tour. It is critical that you have a computer, an internet connection and electricity - but it can definitely be done.

One of the authors that will tour with me in February is even going to be traveling for one week during the month, but she will still be promoting her book.

We've all had book signings where very few people attended. Sadly, book signings with authors aren't the big attraction that they used to be. It can be very expensive and disheartening to plan to book signing and to have only a handful of people attend.

But, there is another way. I suggest that you have a virtual book tour. These are also called virtual blog tours. There are a number of ways to conduct these tours. You can visit a bunch of different blogs throughout the month and encourage potential readers to chase you around. Or, there is a brand new option that I'm very excited about.

With a friend, I just launched a new and different virtual book tour website. I like new, unusual and creative promotional activities because they are more fun and more memorable. That's one of the reasons I'm excited about this new site and a new way to hold a virtual book tour.

Another reason is because this program gives the author control of their tour. Now, if you're an author who doesn't want any control, that's fine. Our authors have the choice to control their tour personally or to have me coordinate each aspect of the tour for them. The possibilities will increase over time and I'd be happy to discuss any ideas with you to customize the tour for you.

Definition of a Virtual Blog or Book Tour

1. Simply, a virtual blog tour is a cyber “tour” of various blogs and websites. These blogs and websites usually have themes that are within the book that is being promoted on the tour. This “tour” allows authors to reach many people as they travel through the blogosphere.

2. A tour contains a set of blog, website interviews, reviews or guest posts that are posted on a series of blogs during a set amount of time. Various blog owners host you and many ask you interview questions about your book or they may request that you write a piece about a specific part or element of your book.

3. Virtual blog tours are a wonderful alternative to a “live” bookstore tour. A bookstore tour can be very expensive, consume a lot of your time, take you away from your family and job and there is no guarantee that it will be successful. A blog tour can be done from home and in your pajamas if that’s what you prefer.

The Virtual Book Tour Website

I'd like to invite each person to visit the new site. The address is www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion. This is a site that was created to promote and host author book tours and to make it easy for potential readers to learn more about a wide variety of books and authors.

Each touring author is given a section of the website to promote their books. For a couple of examples, feel free to visit - http://inspiredauthor.com/promotion/.... This page links you to each author that is touring in February and I will create a similar page for touring authors each month. In February, we have three authors touring at this point and I'm talking with several more. For more information about the February authors, visit that page and click on their name. These authors include: Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Steven Clark Bradley and Virginia Vassallo.

This page takes you to Earl Ofari Hutchinson's information http://inspiredauthor.com/promotion/... and all information throughout the month will be in this same location. In addition, the various posts will remain in our archives for people to view even after the tours are over. The site is designed in a way that attracts the search engines and that will generate li

The Virtual Book Tour site offers something for anyone who loves books. Readers have a chance to meet new authors. Authors get a chance to create a profile page to promote their books. Authors can opt to be a feature author and their work will be promoted on the site for a specific period of time. The site also allows any person, author, business to promote their products or services on the site - free.

Virtual book tours give authors to opportunity to travel the internet, without leaving their home. Many authors visit various blogs, websites, and they may be mentioned on newsletters or review sites.

This approach offers a number of benefits:
• Much more cost effective than a physical book tour to different cities
• You don’t have to leave your home, job and family in order to tour
• It is a way to get information about you and your books circulating on the internet
• Virtual book tours generate book sales and a buzz about your book
• You will have additional search engine links to your website and to details about your books
• The Virtual Book Tour site is part of InspiredAuthor.com which had over 3,000,000 hits in 2007

I’m happy to announce a new way to accomplish these same benefits for you and your books, but this option offers more control for you and the tour coordinator who works with you.

Here are some problems I’ve seen with typical book tours:
• Tour stops on websites with low traffic
• Blog hosts forgetting to post your interview or posting late in the day
• Blog hosts posting the wrong information on the day when you are scheduled

What happens when people see the information about your tour and they go to the daily tour stop and your information isn’t online? This makes you look bad and often people don’t return to look for your post. The new Virtual Tour site gives you and your coordinator complete control over the information is posted and when it is posted. If you control your tour, post the information at any time that suits you. If you hire a coordinator, this person makes sure your information is posted on the right day.

Another benefit is that people don’t need to chase you around the internet. They can return to the same site during the month to visit you and to learn more. But, you might wonder how they will hear about your tour. That’s the beauty of our book tour site sponsors. We are always on the lookout for sponsors. These people post promotional information about the Virtual Book Tour site each week to circulate current details for their website or blog visitors. In return the site sponsors are given a dedicated page on the Virtual Book Tour site to promote their website, their blog, their book or their business. The site offers free and easy promotion for you and/or your business. Contact me about being a sponsor – I can be reached at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com and please put “Sponsor” in the subject line.

To visit our site, click www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion. There’s a wealth of information about how the site works, how to post information, and about 100 promotional interviews and articles for you.


Nikki Leigh
Author of the Book Promo 101 Series
www.nikkileigh.com/promo.htm