Although the Virtual Book Tour Preview Call is past, you can still listen to the replay. It was almost 3 hours long, so you’ll get lots of great training!

Here’s some of what you’ll learn if you sign up and listen to the replay:

• the three-step ATS formula that will revolutionize how you approach book marketing
• the secret of _________ that will make all the difference in whether you will be a “well-paid” author or a “broke” author
• what a “bookinar” is and how it can work for you
• case studies of various ways you can use Virtual Book/Product Tours
• how Virtual Book Tour Secrets will help you avoid costly mistakes
• and much more! (Alex is legendary for “over delivering.”)

I got you a $79 discount, remember. And with the Preview Call, you also get a copy of my Special Report, “How to Choose Your Bestselling Title.” That’s a $14.95 value, so you’re really getting $113.95 worth of training for only $20. Such a deal!

(Note: This was a Preview Call for the Virtual Book Tour Secrets course, and the deadline is past to sign up for that. However, for more information about how Virtual Book Tours work, and for help with yours, you can visit www.virtualbooktourexpert.com.)

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“How well can one apply the VBT to non-self-help and non-business books: e.g., science fiction, narrative non-fiction, biography, nature stories, etc? (All the examples on Alex Mandossian’s website are of self-help or business owners.)”

Yes, I believe a Virtual Book Tour can be effective on nearly any kind of book. Alex’s examples are geared mainly to the market he’s most interested and experienced in, i.e. business and self-help, but his principles apply to nearly any kind of book (with the caveats mentioned below.)

With his training, I myself have done Virtual Book Tours for a range of book topics, from the art of parenting boys , to whether common church practices are really pagan in origin, to what’s so great about Christianity, to how to find God in everyday life (the topic of my own VBT on Abundant Gifts). (See www.virtualbooktourexpert.com for samples of Virtual Book Tours that are NOT on business, success, etc.)

Any book on any topic that can engender questions is a candidate for a VBT.

I’ll admit, fiction is a bit of a tough nut to crack. Success with a VBT would depend on whether the author and/or publisher have a list to promote to. If they do, then a VBT could work for fiction as well.

For instance, if the publisher has a newsletter they send out to people who are interested in fiction, they could promote the VBT in that way. In fact, it could be a regular feature of the newsletter, with snippets from the interview or even a short, pre-interview audio that people can listen to right away, then sign up for the VBT. In the same way, a newsletter can promote a podcast taken from the VBT.

The issue with fiction is that there’s usually not a “hook,” a felt need that would get the reader to feel compelled to listen to the author interview. However, a VBT can work for a popular author who is promoting a new book to the current list. There are also creative ways to team up with nonfiction “experts” to talk about a subject the novel addresses.

For instance, I have an author friend, Latayne Scott, who wrote a novel about Mormonism. She also happened to write another book about the same topic (with another publisher) that was nonfiction. She could easily do a VBT featuring both books, gathering questions from people about Mormonism. During the Virtual Book Tour, she could weave in examples from her novel to illustrate her points.

In this case, the same author wrote both the fiction and nonfiction books. But if she were just a novelist, Latayne could have found an expert on Mormonism and the VBT could have dealt with the topic from a “story” and a “more factual” perspective.

About the only thing this kind of VBTs would probably not work well for children’s books or poetry.

For more about my own experience with VBTs, plus the bonuses I’m offering with Alex Mandossian’s Virtual Book Tour Secrets course, go to www.virtualbooktoursforauthors.com.

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And the event hadn’t even started!

The moment was over dinner, when Jay Aaron (brilliant guy, very nice too) was talking about Oprah Winfrey.

“There are two ways to be an expert,” Jay said.

“One is to be a guest on Oprah’s show.

“The other is to BE Oprah.”

He paused. Watch out, here comes the $64,000 insight.

“Who has the more influence? Who makes the more money–Oprah, or the guest?”

Every author I know wants to be on Oprah. But what if you can BE an Oprah, at least to a certain audience? Doesn’t Oprah make more money than any of her guests?

Jay’s insight is changing the way I’m going about my business. (Thank you Jay Aaron!) Have you noticed that more of my Publishing Coach Weekly teleseminars are not just me talking, but me interviewing other experts?

I love interviewing, and I love writing. I’m building my business around those two skills.

If you want to be “well heard and well paid,” consider becoming an expert by being the connecting point between your audience and other experts who possess knowledge your audience wants. You
can almost automatically expand your “sphere of influence” by interviewing other authors and thought leaders.

The best person I know to train you how to do that is Alex Mandossian.

With Alex’s Virtual Book Tour training under my belt, publishers have hired me to interview New York Times best-selling authors such as Dinesh D’Souza and George Barna, as well as lesser-known authors they wanted to launch.

Alex is offering his Virtual Book Tour training again.

I highly encourage you to sign up for the Preview Call this Thursday. (If you can’t make it, you will have access to the replay shortly after.)

For a training tip and bonus from Alex Mandossian, view this video:

This is just one sample of the kind of training you will get from Alex Mandossian when you sign up for the Virtual Book Tour Secrets course.

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If your web site is ever hacked, it will feel like a huge bane. If not a curse.

I’ve had my blog hacked into twice now (and I’m wondering if my email was also hacked–if you get spam from me, IT’S NOT really from me. I’m looking into it.)

Listen, as authors, we need a blog. We absolutely do. (Read here for 9 reasons why .)

But if your site is ever hacked, and perhaps shut down or blocked by search engines–that is a BIG PROBLEM.

There are some simple steps to keep that from ever happening, and tomorrow you get a chance to listen to Cathy Perkins, the WordPress Wizard, talk about some of the things you have to know to keep your blog secure.

Since Cathy is “the WordPress Wizard,” we will be focusing on WordPress blogs, but much of what she says will cover blogs in general.

Here’s some of what we’ll cover:

• Why is security so important for your WordPress blog and on the internet in general?
• How to get started protecting your blog
• Why is hosting important?
• Is it important to do things in a particular order?
• Spyware? What is it and how can I prevent it?
• Her upcoming WordPress Security Strategies course

If you have a question, ask it here now. This is also the link with the call-in info and webcast to attend at 1pm Eastern, noon Central, 11am Mountain and 10am Pacific.

If you KNOW you need her course (only two classes, inexpensive)–as I do–and you want to find out more about it, go here.

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