Virtual Book Touring with Author Patricia Rockwell

Patricia Rockwell has spent most of her life teaching. From small liberal arts colleges to large regional research universities and even a brief stint in a high school; her background in education is extensive. She has taught virtually everything related to communication. Patricia was on the faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years, retiring in 2007.

Sounds of Murder, her first novel, is a cozy mystery which follows the exploits of amateur sleuth and acoustics expert Pamela Barnes, as she attempts to use her knowledge of sound to solve the murder of a university colleague strangled in the departmental computer lab.

Recently, Patricia organized her own virtual book tour and is here to chat with me about that experience.

Carol Denbow: Welcome Patricia, so glad you are here to help our visitors understand what a “virtual book tour” is and how it works to promote your books. Please start by offering us your definition of a virtual book tour.

Patricia Rockwell: Carol, my understanding is that a “virtual book tour” occurs when an authors “tour” around the blogosphere visiting different blogs and at each stop to promote their books. It takes the place of a “real” book tour in which authors would actually travel around the country from bookstore to bookstore promoting their books. The major benefit is that the “virtual” tour is less expensive and less time consuming.

Carol Denbow: You set up your recent virtual book tour yourself. How did you locate and make contact with online sites for your tour stops which would be suitable to your genre?

Patricia Rockwell: Well, for me it was a no-brainer. I have two blogs and a number of followers; a number of whom I’ve gotten to know quite well. I put a request up on both my blogs for hosts for my book tour, indicated the dates and what would be involved. I received responses from six bloggers which covered most of the dates I had planned for the tour.

Carol Denbow: When contacting potential tour stop sites, how receptive were the Webmasters to your requests?

Patricia Rockwell: Very. As I said, I posted the request on my blogs and bloggers responded to me—so I knew they were willing.

Carol Denbow: Did you set up individual interviews at each stop, post book reviews, or what?

Patricia Rockwell: I gave each blogger the choice as to what they preferred. They all chose interviews so that’s what I prepared. Some gave me prepared questions, and some let me create my own.

Carol Denbow: How did you promote your virtual book tour?

Patricia Rockwell: Mostly, I just posted about it on my blogs, mentioned it on Facebook, and tweeted on Twitter.

Carol Denbow: In your personal opinion, how hard was it and how much time did you need to invest to set up a successful tour?

Patricia Rockwell: I found it was less time-consuming than I imagined it would be. The important thing for me was to maintain a calendar of each date of the tour and know exactly what was to happen on that date and make certain I was prepared and had delivered the appropriate material to each blogger in time for the visit of the day.

Carol Denbow: Was there any monetary expense in putting together your virtual book tour?

Patricia Rockwell: No.

Carol Denbow: Where did you learn how to put your tour together and make it happen?

Patricia Rockwell: Mostly from your blog and other online sites.

Carol Denbow: In your eyes, was the tour a success and would you recommend other authors try it?

Patricia Rockwell: It’s hard to evaluate how successful it was because it’s difficult to attach book sales to one particular event. I can’t say I saw a dramatic rise in book sales from the tour, but I certainly got more press that week than I had previously.

Carol Denbow: Is there anything you would do different if you decide to do it again in the future?

Patricia Rockwell: I think I might expand beyond just the followers of my blogs—maybe investigate some book bloggers or other book sites, particularly sites oriented to my genre.

Carol Denbow: Thank you Patricia, great interview!

Patricia Rockwell’s publications are extensive; with over 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several textbooks, and a research book on her major interest area of sarcasm published by Edwin Mellen Press. In addition, she served for eight years as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal.

Dr. Patricia Rockwell is presently living in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband Milt, also a retired educator; the couple has two adult children. Visit Patricia’s Blog at http://subjectivesoup.blogspot.com.

If you are interested in learning more about organizing a virtual book tour of your own, read the e-book, How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour, available at Authors Box.

BOOK DIFFERENTIATION

Contributed By Hank Quense
© 2010
This three-part article describes one aspect of marketing and selling books. With the gazillions of other books available, authors need something to make their book grab the reader's attention. Book differentiation is one way to do this.

Part One: The Differentiation Process
Getting a book published means you can call yourself a "published author." You may not know it yet, but it also means you can add the titles "marketing manager" and "sales manager" to the title of "published author." In other words, you, the published author, are in charge of marketing and selling you book. Surprised? I was.

What do these new titles mean? As marketing manager, you have to spread the word on
your book and create a buzz about it. This will get some folks interested in or curious about the book. These folks will visit your selling site. As sales manager your job is to convert these visitors to customers. Your differentiation statements are the key to converting the visitors. These statements tell the world why your book matters and why readers should buy it.

This is a vital aspect of self-marketing. Consider this: thousands of new books become available every month. Consequently, your book is competing against all these other books for the readers' attention and money. Your book has to stand out from all the others and persuade readers to shell out money to get a copy.

I've read a number of books on self-marketing and using the internet as a marketing
platform. While they all contain good ideas, many ignore this subject. When it is
mentioned at all, it is covered rather quickly and shallowly. I intend to cover the subject in depth because I believe it is of paramount importance.

For many years, I worked selling high-tech telecommunications equipment. If I wanted
to talk about a new product or new features on an existing product, I'd call a customer, explain what I wanted and the customer would set up a meeting with other interested departments. Later, I'd give a presentation and answer any questions. The critical point to make is this; I knew the customers and could get a face-to-face meeting whenever I needed to. Marketing and selling on the internet are entirely different processes for several reasons. First, you are selling from websites, not in-person. You don't know the website visitors and the majority of them don't know you. A second reason is that I presented my product to what amounted to a captive audience. Website visitors are not captive; they are capricious and fleeting.

To sell your book, you have to devise a sales plan. Yeah, a sales plan. You're the sales manager in charge of selling the book and sales managers develop sales plans. After you develop the plan, you then implement it. The sales plan consists of two parts. The first part is to develop your differentiation statement. The second is to develop the means to use the statement most effectively. That is, place the statement where potential customers can see it.

The good news about the sales plan is, that unlike many other marketing activities, it's free. It can also be completed before the book is published. I start working on a differentiation statement for a new book long before the book is finished. This gives me ample time to tinker with the messages and to perfect them.

Part Two: Differentiation Development
Essentially, what this process entails is developing three sentences or short paragraphs that can be used to sell your book. The pitch line is the hook to grab the readers' attention. Its purpose is to persuade the reader to keep reading the other two statements. It should be simple, a few short sentences at most, and it must make a clear statement about your book. What's in it for the buyers? is a statement that explains what the reader (i.e. a book buyer) will get in exchange for money. This must be explicit. This statement is not the place to get cute. Don't come across like the legendary used-car salesman. Tell the readers what benefit they'll get from buying the book. Think of this statement in this way: If your
book is surrounded by hundreds of similar-sized books on a shelf in bookstore, what would persuade the buyer to choose your book instead of one of the others?
What's different about this book? With all the books published every month, what
makes your book stand out from the others?

These dry descriptions are difficult to grasp so I'll use examples from my published
books. Tunnel Vision is a collection of twenty humorous short stories. Here is my differentiation statement.
Pitch Line:
Live longer. Laughter is good for your health. Read this book and you may live longer.
What's in it for the buyer?
Unusual characters, settings both strange and familiar, and bizarre plots are a few of the things you'll experience and enjoy.
What's different about this book?
Aren't you tired of reading scifi and fantasy stories that take themselves too seriously? Well, you won't find any stories like that here. It doesn't take anything serious. Politics, Shakespeare, Lord of the Rings, the military, aliens, the undead, they all get cut down a notch or two.

Fool's Gold is a retelling of the ancient myth of the Rhinegold. The story involves a magical horde of gold and ring of immense power. Sound familiar? Tolkien borrowed part of the myth to write Lord of the Rings. My version takes place in the future and uses aliens instead of fantasy creatures. Here is how I worded my differentiation statement.
Pitch Line:
A Ring of Power? That is soooo yesterday. Now it's the Chip of Power and it produces
laughs.
What's in it for the buyer?

Differentiation-2
Aliens, ancient Gods, humor, beautiful Valkyries, heros, conniving nobles, betrayal,
greed, incest, a magical gold horde; this story has something for everyone.
What's different about this book?
This is the only retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth that is set in the future and is a humorous scifi tale.

Finally, there is my nonfiction book Build a Better Story.
Pitch Line:
Have a story that needs to be told? Here's the best way to go about doing it.
What's in it for the buyer?
The book describes a process that eases the work involved in developing a story. This
reduces the time spent in reworking flawed and imperfect drafts. Following the process allows more time to be spent on the creative activities and shortens the time spent on less creative work.
What's different about this book?
Besides the process, this book takes a unique approach to character building and
plotting. It identifies problem areas that inexperienced writers struggle with and explains how to address those areas. Two of them are character motivation and scene design.

Of course, when you use the statements don't use the questions, just the answers. So
my complete differentiation message for Fool's Gold looks like this:
A Ring of Power? That is soooo yesterday. Now it's the Chip of Power and it produces laughs.
Aliens, ancient Gods, humor, beautiful Valkyries, heros, conniving nobles, betrayal,
greed, incest, a magical gold horde; this story has something for everyone.
This is the only retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth that is set in the future and is a humorous scifi tale.

Do you get the idea? How do you start? Take a blank sheet of paper or a start a new
mind map file on your computer. Jot down every possible idea that comes to you for each of the three statements. Don't eliminate any ideas because you think they are too dumb. This 'dumb idea' may trigger a great thought or two later on. Keep refining the ideas. Add more ideas, combine others. Eventually, suitable statements will evolve out of this exercise, but it may take more than a single session to get it.

Once you develop the complete statement, don't sit back and relax. You need at least
one, preferably two paraphrases of the message. These are used to repeat the message -- to emphasize it -- without using the same words.

Part Three: Using the Message
What do you do with these statements after you develop them? You stick them
anywhere they'll fit. On your website, on blogs, on ads, press releases, in your trailer. If you can't fit the entire statement someplace (such as Twitter), use the pitch line by itself.

WEBSITE USE
On your book-buying page, make the pitch line the opening statement followed by the
rest of your differentiation message. Why? Earlier, I mentioned captured audiences when I made a sales presentation. On the Internet, no one is captive and their attention span is too minuscule to measure. When these visitors land on your Web page, you have a second or two to persuade them to read beyond the first line of text they see. That is the job of your pitch line; to get the visitors to read further. The next statement (what's in it for the buyer) has to tell them there is something of value here, something they can use or enjoy.

Finally, your page tells them what is different about your book, what is in it that they can't get elsewhere. If this works, the visitors will read even further where they can learn how to get a copy and how much it'll cost. If you get a sale, you have accomplished the difficult process of converting a visitor to a customer.

TRAILER USE
Make sure your differentiation statements are clearly visible and emphasized in the
trailer. Get the message in the beginning and the end of the trailer. Innumerable people from all over the world will view the trailer and you want them to understand your message.

INTERNET ANNOUNCEMENTS
Log onto social media sites and post an announcement that your book is available.
Include the differentiation message in the announcement. Log onto book sites like Goodreads and Librarything. Add information about your book. You can upload the cover and add descriptive text about it. Make sure that text includes
your differentiation messages.

PRESS RELEASES
Display your differentiation messages prominently. Make them the opening statement in
the body of the release. Rephrase the message and place it a second time further down in the body.

EMAIL
Use the signature capability in your email program to build a unique signature using the pitch line by itself. Link that pitch line to your book-selling Website. Now, every time you send an email, you'll also be pitching your book.

Once the differentiation statements are completed, you've taken a big step toward
getting people to buy your book. Keep going! You can do this.

Hank Quense writes humorous fantasy and science fiction along with an occasional article on fiction writing. He lives with Pat, his wife of many years, in Bergenfield, NJ. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.

To date Quense has over forty stories and articles published. His novel Fool's Gold is a sci-fi retelling of the ancient Rhinegold myth. Tunnel Vision, a collection of twenty previously published stories. Both books are available in e-book and print formats.

Build a Better Story is non-fiction and will help fiction writers with a process to develop a story.

His latest, Tales from Gundarland, is a collection of humorous short stories and novellas.

He is presently working on a novel that is a blend of fantasy and science fiction and a second novel that is pure fantasy.

Visit Hank’s Website at http://www.hankquense.com or his Blog at http://www.hankquense.com/blog.

Follow-up; How to create a Widget for Entrecard

In the previous post, I suggested adding an Entrecard link on your Blog or Website; many of you responded. It really is the best way to get new visitors to your site but I hadn’t thought much about the fact that many of you are not computer experts and creating a suitable Widget for Entrecard might be a challenge to some. So here’s my suggestion to get your ad up and running.

If you already have a logo to use, skip down for instructions on how to resize it for Entrecard.

For Entrecard, you don’t need text on your ad as long as it will attract attention. You can go to http://www.istockphoto.com/ to find an image that will work for you.

1) Search for a usable image
2) Right click on the small image and save to your “pictures”

To resize to 125 x 125 using Microsoft Software;

1) Open the Picture file
2) Click on “Open”
3) Go to “Microsoft Picture Manager”
4) Click on “Picture”
5) Scroll down and click on “Resize”
6) On the right you should see a box with options, in the “Custom Width x Height” box, enter 125 and 125. The click “okay.”
7) Go to “file” in the top left of your screen and click on “save.”
If you would like to add text to the picture;
1) Start over and open the Picture file.
2) Click on “Open” and scroll down to “Paint.”
3) In the left editing box, click on the letter “A.”
4) At the bottom of the option box you should see 2 choices for your text, one is to add text over the image and the other is to add opaque text (probably the one you want).
5) When you click on your image, you will see a marker to create the text box to whatever size you choose.
6) Type in your words. To edit the font or size, go to “view” and click on “text tool bar.”
7) When finished, remember to “save” your work.
8) You are now ready to upload your image to Entrecard.

SAMPLE:

Send me an email when you’re up and running and I’ll advertize on your site!