The International Association of Virtual Author Assistants connects authors and writers with Certified Professional Author Assistants and literary industry service providers. We assist authors through the manuscript creation, production, promotion and marketing process.

Creating, publishing and marketing a book is an exciting, yet daunting, journey. With IAVAA’s dedicated team of Professional Author Assistants, copywriters, graphic designers, proofreaders, editors, and marketers, this journey can be made enjoyable and ultimately profitable! Let our team handle such duties as organizing source documents, fact checking, conducting research and acquiring ISBN/Books in Print listings. We can manage your publishing team, optimizing your Web site, and coordinate marketing activities such as virtual book tours, Amazon.com bestseller campaigns, teleseminars, webinars, and live book tours. Click here for a comprehensive list of Author Assistant services.

What is a Virtual Book Tour (VBT)?

A Virtual Book Tour (VBT) is a way to generate buzz and introduce you (the author) and your book to your target audience — fans and potential fans — at your leisure. You never have to leave home as you conduct interviews, virtual book signings, sell books and gain tremendous exposure!

Your tour will appear on 10-20 blogs and be promoted via press release distribution and online calendar postings. It can include interviews on Internet radio shows, live webcasts, virtual book signings, give-aways, reviews, contests and much, much more.

It’s a lot of work, but our goal is to connect you with the right audience. We want your book to rise high in search engine listings, so readers will find your book when they type in your chosen key words. Click here for FAQs about conducting Virtual Book Tours and your VBT tour options.

We run the entire tour, make contacts, communicate with tour hosts and make sure your entire experience is hassle free! What do you have to lose?

Listen to Sharon as she describes Author Support Services during WOM Radio interview.

http://www.iavaa.com/audios/WOM-Sharon_Williams0109.mp3

Fired Up! Virtual Book Tour

The Fired Up! Virtual Book Tour is a cost-effective way for an author to leverage their Internet presence, a newly published book or the planning of a new release.

Can I plan and conduct a VBT?

Of course, if you have a lot of extra time, energy, and resources not needed to accomplish other things! But, a VBT takes weeks of planning, including: identifying genre-specific blog stops and communicating with potential hosts; contacting appropriate Internet radio shows; preparing media releases; event calendaring; mailing reminders; creating trailers; developing video clips, and much, much more.

If conducting your own VBT isn’t how you want to spend your time, yet you do want a focused, enjoyable, and ideal way to let your your target audience and the media know about your book, then let IAVAA’s Professional Author Assistants and marketing specialists coordinate it for you! Click here for package choices and or click here to provide information about your book and get started in the Fired Up! Virtual Book Tour.

She also discussed the benefits of participating in IAVAA-led virtual book tours and how WOM helps authors connect with a potential audience of 25 million potential readers and purchasers.

Listen to the 14 minute interview to learn more about virtual book signings, blog tours and other ways IAVAA connects authors with followers.

http://www.iavaa.com/audios/WOM-Sharon_Williams0109.mp3

Staying on top of that emotional roller coaster by managing the support of your well meaning friends can serve you well in many ways you may not have considered.

Whether you are writing a book, training for your first triathlon or launching a new business, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of putting that idea out there, into the world.

The good news: your family, friends, neighbors, mailman, hairdresser and kids piano teacher all love you and are genuinely interested in and supportive of your success as an author.

The bad news, they can support you straight into paralysis because they care so much about you and your book that they bring it up at every turn. Two weeks after you tell them about your plans, don’t be surprised if someone asks you if the book is out yet.

So, you’ll find yourself in a very contradictory situation: surrounded by people who so much want you to succeed—at something most of them don’t have the first clue about.
Here are three tips to leverage the well-meaning yet potentially unnerving support of your friends and family to your advantage, and still be on speaking terms with them when it’s time to send out invites to your book launch party:

1. Thank them sincerely for their interest and support. Remember, lots of people think it’s really cool to know someone who is writing a book. There’s a certain mystique by association. They WILL tell everyone they know about you. And you don’t know who they know.

2. Tell them you will keep them apprised on your progress—then do it via email and blogs. This helps you prepare for the marketing phase of your publishing journey, teaching you how to talk about your book with confidence.

3. Steer the conversation from “when” topics to “what” topics. Even though you know this intellectually, you can start to feel like a failure emotionally when your progress doesn’t meet their expectations. Keep in mind. They likely understand very little of the process you are in the middle of or how long it takes.

“What” questions—questions about your content, give you a great opportunity to practice thinking on your feet which you will need to do for media interviews.

While it’s impossible to completely slow down or stop the roller coaster that is your publishing journey, these three tips will make the ride quite a bit more enjoyable.

Copyright (c) 2007 Gail Richards

Gail Richards is founder of AuthorSmart.com a dynamic website connecting aspiring authors with the classes, audio library, tools, information and resources needed to make smart, informed decisions at each step in the nonfiction book publishing journey. Jan King is the founder of eWomenPublishingNetwork.com a membership organization devoted to supporting and coaching women who become successfully published nonfiction authors.

This may be old hat for experienced authors, but new authors aren’t familiar with the maze involved with creating, publishing, marketing and promoting books; not to mention how to develop a strategic marketing plan that puts the book in front of their target audience and entices them to purchase!

In a nutshell, your book won’t sell if you don’t promote it, and you have to learn how to promote it for it to sell.

Several elements of a good marketing and promotion strategy include:

• Setting up a website
• Creating a blog to talk about your book
• Obtaining reviews from reputable reviewers
• Holding interviews with the media
• Implementing a social media plan to obtain maximum exposure

Unsure of how to do all this? IAVAA is the experienced team you need that is ready to pull it all together and help you reach your goals!

Why hire the International Association of Virtual Author Assistants team?

It’s simple: We live and breathe this stuff and are ready to help authors through the manuscript production, publishing, promotion and marketing process. Our purpose is to help you achieve your dreams.

Reasons authors choose IAVAA include:

• You are busy writing and need help creating and managing your PR strategy.
• You do not have access to media databases or mailing lists.
• You have never written a press release, or don’t know how to write one that will garner attention.
• You want to do author tours but have no idea how to set one up.
• You want to conduct a cost-effective, Internet-based media campaign, using the best genre-specific social media venues possible, but don’t know where to begin.
• You want to host an Amazon.com bestseller campaign but are not aware of how to pull it together.
• You want to create residual income products such as podcasts, videos, DVDs, workbooks, conduct teleseminars, etc., but not sure where to begin.

IAVAA’s team has the tools, resources, and expertise authors need to get their books noticed. Let’s be clear, it takes a lot of work and you can do it yourself. But, if you want help traveling through that book maze, contact IAVAA. We can be your guides!