Virtual Book Tours

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Today I got a message from BronzeWord Virtual Book Tours, a website that promotes Latino/Latina literature.  Okay, it's cool that someone is promoting a branch of literature that often gets overlooked.  I was also really intrigued by their idea of virtual book tours.  They organize the dates so that each day the author is featured on a different host blog, and will be available to make comments on that blog and interact with the audience during that day.  Definitely check this site if you like this kind of literature.

I've been doing a series in "Hypatia's Hoard of Reviews" where I feature an excerpt from a crowdfunded project.  So far those have been ongoing serials, though I'd like to branch out.  I've also reviewed a few hardcopy books that were crowdfunded.  It occurs to me that virtual book tours of crowdfunded books would be another effective tool for promotion.  Although that would seriously benefit from a hub site, I think we could start  doing it here.  We can always upgrade if we ever get a dedicated crowdfunding site established.  Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in the idea of virtual book tours for crowdfunded books, let's discuss possibilities.

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

What are you thinking? Interviews? Signings? How do you sign a web-page for an individual purchaser?

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Interviews would work, not just for crowdfunded books but for ongoing serials and other projects.

Signings would probably have to be for books. Although, your question gets me thinking ... perhaps it would be possible to make a graphic page that would "collect" digital autographs. Another option would be for a creator to make a digital autograph badge that could be posted on a host blog, or even on a patron's site.

I never thought of this before, but what if crowdfunded projects offered "Patron" badges? Then people could collect them and display them on a page: "I am a proud patron of cyberfunded creativity. These are some of the projects I have supported. Please visit them!" People like collecting things. If your badge was really cool, or you changed it periodically, then that might help boost your patronage.

Re: Hmm...

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what great ideas.

A "signature" for a special event could be digital art that's only available to copy for a limited time, or that's e-mailed to people.

Authors sometimes carry personalized bookmarks to conventions if they can't carry books, so people can get an autograph and then place it in the book. That could be done digitally. Scanning a personalized signature on a piece of art wouldn't be hard. With a piece of clear plastic and a dry-erase marker it wouldn't even be expensive.

And patron badges are a great idea too!

We have a prizewinner badge on Torn World; a Patron badge to go along with one's user icon might be good too. Though I'd make it half-height, to limit scrolling when posts are short.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>A "signature" for a special event could be digital art that's only available to copy for a limited time, or that's e-mailed to people.<<

That could work; some webcomics do that.

>>Authors sometimes carry personalized bookmarks to conventions if they can't carry books, so people can get an autograph and then place it in the book.<<

Yep, I made bookmarks for Composing Magic (not a crowdfunded project, though) and bought a package of gold-framed sticky labels so I could autograph those and mail them to folks who already had the book and wanted it signed.

>>We have a prizewinner badge on Torn World; a Patron badge to go along with one's user icon might be good too. Though I'd make it half-height, to limit scrolling when posts are short.<<

You should definitely suggest that on Tuesday!

[ceciliatan.livejournal.com]

I'm on a "blog tour" right now supporting a romance novel ebook of mine that just came out, but I hadn't thought before about doing one for Daron's Guitar Chronicles. (http://daron.ceciliatan.com)

What the "tour" consists of is 4-6 weeks where I am doing guest blog entries on various writer & reader blogs, and also some online chats via Yahoogroups and some live in IM/Meebo.

In the world of romance this isn't that hard to accomplish because there are SOOO many romance-related blogs and fan/reader sites. I imagine for sf/fantasy it could be accomplished also, I just haven't researched the places to approach yet.

For Daron's Guitar Chronicles, which is neither romance nor sf/f, and although it has sex isn't erotica, I'm probably going to have to take a slightly different tactic to find places to guest blog and chat about it. Any virtual tour probably needs to really work on the "niche" aspect of the work, if there is one.

Much to ponder here.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

What about several related niches? Frex, "Daron's Guitar Chronicles" features a particular timeframe in history, so you could look for blogs that focus on that time. It's full of music and musicians, so you could include a few of those blogs. It's cyberfunded creativity; we have bunches of people here who are into that. I'm not sure you could get 4-6 weeks out of this, but you should be able to manage 2-3.

Re: Hmm...

[ceciliatan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. There's also no "rule" that says you have to do it like a tour and bunch it together, but I think there would be some advantage to it only in that I'd be more organized and focused, and a large growth in traffic all at once (if all the appearances resulted in more readers) might be more measurable, too. Plus it's easier for me to organize a campaign/project at once and then let it lie for a while rather than just trying to do it constantly or every few weeks.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

There are also the factors of momentum and buzz. If you can get people talking about what you do, they're more likely to look for more of your stuff -- and that's easier to find when you hop from blog to blog promptly instead of spreading them out. Also, you can make a "tour page" and show people when you plan to be at each blog, so they can follow along. They're more likely to get into the habit if the posts are frequent than if those are spread out.

Re: Hmm...

[ceciliatan.livejournal.com]

What I might do is wait until the chapters accrue enough to be worth making an ebook download or something. I'm thinking of selling it for 99 cents -- basically if people want the convenience of downloading a whole chunk instead of clicking through post after post -- and then when that is ready to go, do a blog tour "promoting" the "first volume."

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea!