Book tours are a traditional promotional tactic for authors when launching a new book. With the COVID-19 crisis making in-person promotional events unsafe, authors have been finding creative ways to circumvent the pandemic’s challenges and interact with fans. One tactic helping them connect with readers is virtual book tours!

To help you plan and publicize your own virtual book tour events, we’ve compiled a list of strategies we’ve seen authors use when launching their virtual tours. While missing out on IRL tours might be a bummer, there are many benefits of online events beyond just saving on travel expenses. Going virtual provides greater accessibility, allowing more people to tune in than ever before and leading to great opportunities for fan engagement.

We hope the following examples provide inspiration for your book marketing and reader outreach approach when launching a new book, both during the pandemic and beyond.

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I’m what you call an early adopter. Way back when in the Stone Age of Romance — you know, before 2000 — I loved audiobooks; you know, those CD versions you could get from the library. There was something about someone reading me a story that really clicked. Maybe because I’m from Ghana and we have a big oral tradition. Or maybe because if you get the right narrator, it’s like a movie in your ears!

When I started writing, I might not have known much. Honestly, I knew next to nothing. But I knew it was probably smart to have my books available in as many formats as possible. Any way a reader could find me, I wanted them to find me.

Fast forward to today, and I have 29 audiobooks with more on the way. I’ve sold some audio rights, tried my hand at going direct with audio on Audible and Kobo, and I’ve even tried cool audio distribution channels like Findaway Voices. And over the years I’ve sold more than 30,000 audiobook copies.

Would I recommend other self-published authors turn their books into audiobooks? Absolutely. Here are my top five reasons why all indie authors should produce audiobooks.

read more https://insights.bookbub.com/why-indie-authors-should-produce-audiobooks/ #blogging

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When I was Reading Dale’s book, instead of my voice in my head, his voice was there, encouraging me that I could master keywords and giving me layman’s terms I could understand and conquer this journey I’ve been frustrated with for years.

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In the first twenty pages, I learned an amazing technique that really changed my books keywords and increased the sales on books I hadn’t gotten touched in a couple of months without any other marketing to them.

I truly know this book is so needed in this day and age when meta data will rule the next bestseller. Dale has made it understandable and given me a winning solution to reaching my target market and selling books

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This blog post is based on episode 235 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Starting a new blog can be a bit of an uphill battle. You need to create lots of content, and then use that content to bring traffic to your site.

But what’s even tougher is building authority and influence in your niche. After all, why would people believe you’re an authority in your niche when you’ve barely talked about it?

Sure, you may know a lot about your chosen niche. But talking about how much you know and what you’ve achieved doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. These days anyone can call themselves an expert, and so people expect more than just self-promotion and a list of achievements .

Which is why I’d like to share 13 tips for building and influence through your blogging.

read more http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/daT2TFN99Cc/

Does the idea of “branding” yourself or your work make you cringe? (I’m an artist, dammit—not a corporate sleaze bag!) Are you confused by what “branding” for novelists, essayists, poets, or even general non-fiction writers even means? Or, conversely, are you sold on the necessity of branding your writing and excited about the opportunity, but completely intimidated by how exactly to go about it? 

I confess I was solidly in the cringe camp for much of my early writing life when discussing authors as brands. But that’s because I was (as my above “corporate sleaze bag” comment might have hinted!) operating under misconceptions about what branding is (and possibly being unkind to sleaze bags too . . . but I digress).

Thankfully, around the same time I decided to launch my own small town contemporary romance series, I came across gold star advice in James Patterson’s Masterclass.com workshop. He explained branding in a way that clicked for my stubborn brain and totally made sense to me.

In a nutshell, he says to think of “brand” as a relationship you have with your readers. What can readers turn to your books for—and never be disappointed? What can they depend on you for that you will always deliver?

I also really benefited from Mike Loomis’ take that “personal branding does not mean a fake façade.” Rather it’s “the public expression of your calling.”

Thinking of brand that way—as a promise and a commitment rather than a hard sell—eased my concerns about seeming overly “salesy” or gimmicky.

I already knew in my heart of hearts what I hoped to give my readers via my stories, so making sure that my covers, book blurbs, website, ads, and content of my social media posts, etc. consistently show potential readers the same thing—what they can always turn to Ev Bishop for—seemed natural and right, especially since doing so is actually helpful to readers. 

And while developing brand is sort of like honing one’s craft—an ongoing process, hopefully forever—I say with confidence and great conviction that determining your brand and consciously meeting your brand promise with every book is as crucial for your writing career as your actual writing is.

Why YOU (and every author) needs a brand

read more https://annerallen.com/2020/11/branding-101-by-ev-bishop

Over the past 10 years, I’ve written more than 40 books and learned countless lessons along the way. I’m both traditionally and self-published, which is one of many factors that can affect marketing possibilities. Readers also react differently between genres — or even between books or series by the same author. Testing is critical, and things can change.

My top nine list below contains the tactics that consistently deliver the best results for me when marketing a new book release. If you feel overwhelmed, remember: All marketing is optional, so please only do what you have time, money, and energy for, and experiment to see what works the best for you. read more click below

Are you having trouble crafting an engaging email newsletter? There’s no doubt that email newsletters are the best way to drive traffic, engagement, and conversions. It’s an easy and cost-effective way to stay in touch with your readers and customers. 

If you’re someone who has just started a blog and wants to learn how to write a newsletter, then you’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, we’ll share some excellent tips on how to write a newsletter that gets results. 

Let’s get started!

read more https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-write-successful-emails/

Are you having trouble getting started with blogging? Or are you looking for a good blog example to get inspiration for your own blog? In this article, we’ll share some examples of the best blogs you can steal ideas from.

We all need some kind of inspiration every now and then to keep us going. It doesn’t matter if you have been blogging every day for the last decade or if you’re thinking about starting a blog; having inspiration helps.

This article lists some of the best blog ideas to help inspire you and get you started on your blogging journey.

Let’s dive in.

read more https://www.blogtyrant.com/best-blogs/

This post is based on episode 40 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Are you using your time productively?

Chances are you’ve set yourself some goals as to what you’d like your blogging to be. But reaching that point is going to take time. And the less productive you are with the time you have, the longer it will take to reach those goals.

So this week I’m sharing seven tips I’ve developed over the years that have helped me become more productive.

But first, I want to talk a little about why I needed them.

Showing some personality

For those of you who know about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, I’m INFP. That means I’m introverted, intuitive, feeling and perceptive. And while being perceptive has its advantages, it can also be a disadvantage when you need to get stuff done.

Like a lot of ‘perceivers’, I like flexibility and spontaneity. I don’t always need to know what’s happening next. In fact, some of my best work has come from being flexible and spontaneous.

But it also means I can spend a lot of my time jumping from thing to another and not getting much done if I’m not careful. And that why I came up with these seven steps to get me back in track. Starting with…

read more http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/_/problogger/~https://problogger.com/7-productivity-tips-for-bloggers/