Birth of the “Virtual Book Tour”
Marketing expert Alex Mandossian explains how he noticed Al Gore and Tipper were signing Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family
Alex found out later that despite a full parking lot and packed attendance inside a fairly large meeting room, only a couple of hundred books were sold that evening. I’m sure at the Vice President’s level, an advance was paid and touring was part of the contract.
Alex Mandossian knows that the situation is very bad for the non-celebrity new writer or even a veteran “mid-list” author. At a couple of bucks royalty per sale and sparse attendance at signings, it’s impossible for a regular person to make a living following the usual pattern.
Alex solved the problem by adapting his successful teleseminar internet marketing techniques to allow readers throughout the world to interact with an author during live interviews. Books can be sold, signed and shipped during the phone or webinar session and the recording can be repurposed for other money generating activities.
Look for “Birth of the ‘Virtual Book Tour’” at Alex’s blog for an in-depth explanation in the video included with his text blog post.
[Update: I almost forgot the green angle. As Alex notes in his presentation, Virtual Book Tours remove the need for authors to jet around to various cities and also eliminates readers having to drive to the bookstore for the signing event. It’s more convenient for everyone, more lucrative for the author to reach a global audience, and while computers do use some electricity (about 150 watts on average, but only 50 watts for laptops), Virtual Book Tours are about 29 times more energy efficient than physical transportation.]
