How to Do a Virtual Book Tour on Substack (or anywhere online)
How to Do a Virtual Book Tour on Substack (or anywhere online)
A guide with tips, tricks and things to think about ... adaptable form books to projects, podcasts and more
In August, I took my newest book (The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists) on a virtual book tour here on Substack. I had done blog tours for my books in the past, so it seemed only natural to do one here where there are so many amazing writers interested in connecting and supporting one another. I was surprised to discover that a lot of people thought that this was a novel idea, and I was asked by more than one person to share how it all worked, so here’s that post. This is a guide to how I did it along with some tips and things to think about if you want to plan your own tour.
Note: This works great for a virtual book tour if you have a book … but it’s not limited to that. Want to generate interest around your podcast, your course, your art project, or your Substack? You can create a virtual tour for anything; adapt the below suggestions as needed.
Connect with me … I am usually open to collaboration.
If you are doing anything remotely related to art/creativity and/or mental health/wellness and I can help, just ask. I would likely be happy to join your tour. I am also open to having you do guest posts or email interviews here, especially if you have something to say about the shadow side of the complex relationship between art and mental health (in other words, art heals, but when does it show up in trickier, harder ways as it relates to our health?) I’m open … email Kathryn.vercillo on gmail with ideas.
Big thanks to video creator of OpenRoadsVideo.com for this video.
Always love what she comes up with!
MUSIC: Dub Techno Loop 1 By: Majed Salih/Jamendo Source: Adobe Stock, Content ID code: ASLC-28A8B7B3-C3B38BE082, Asset ID#: 526744436
What Is a Virtual Book Tour on Substack?
A virtual book tour is an organized tour of stops at different pages each featuring original content. Done on Substack, this means that each day of the tour, a different Substack writer features your work related to the tour in a post on their page. They typically also share information about the tour and links to some of the other people on the tour.
Imagine that you’re stopping at a different bookstore in your city every day for a week to promote your book. Each event will have similarities but also hopefully differences that are inspired by and aligned with the vibe of that particular bookstore. You might read an excerpt at one, do a panel discussion at the next, and do a Q&A at the following one. You might wear your best dress for the fanciest bookstore where wine is served and you might dress in casual jeans for the homey place where you already know everyone. That’s how I picture my virtual book tour, except that it takes place on people’s unique Substack sites rather than in brick and mortar stores.
Why Do This? Benefits for the Author and Everyone Else …
It’s always really important for me to make sure that whenever I have the chance to benefit from something, I create benefits for as many other creatives as possible. There are many different ways to do that with a virtual book tour on Substack. I’ll share more details below but the general benefits for everyone on the tour came from regular month-long promotion of the tour, including details about them and their writing, both on and off Substack with each person getting their work exposed to everyone else’s audience. I created some additional benefits where I could.
Obviously, the benefit to me is that I got the word spread about my book and all of the things that go along with that. Plus, now I have a record of work related to the book that I can point people to. Mostly, though, I have to say I enjoyed the intangible benefits of creating so many great connections with people here on Substack.
How to Set Up a Virtual Book Tour on Substack
I will be honest in saying that A LOT of work goes into something like this. There are many factors to consider. That said, you get to create your own tour however you would like so it can be as simple or complex as feels good for you. Don’t be intimidated; it’s totally doable, especially if you approach it with curiosity, flexibility and a sense of fun. Here are some of the initial things you’ll want to consider as you set it up:
What is your goal?
First, define your goal for yourself. This will help guide you as you make the other decisions. I had a few goals:
Spread the word about the book to a wider audience
Connect and collaborate with new people here on Substack
Share behind-the-scenes material not already in the book to make use of already-written work that hadn’t found a home, yet
Make sure that people know that my Substack is a direct extension of the work of the book
I actually don’t really profit financially off of book sales in this instance. So, while book sales are nice, my real goal was to introduce people to my work and let them know that supporting me on Substack with a paid subscription is the best way to see that work continue.
By showcasing a variety of different types of posts all in my niche, I was hoping to show people what they can expect from my body of work that I’m developing here on Substack. That was goal one.
CAN YOU HELP ME MEET MY GOAL?
My goal is to find 1000 people who are interested in subscribing to this work at a rate of $100 per year. This shows the world that we as creatives believe artists and writers can and should earn six figures. I practice artistic tithing, meaning that at least 10% of my income automatically goes to support other artists, writers, makers, creatives, performers, etc. So if I meet my goal, we keep at least $10000 of that right in the creative community. I also make every effort to continuously encourage, support, share and promote the work of others.
$100 per year feels like a lot. But it works out to less than $2 per week.
SCHEDULING … How long should the tour be?
A virtual book tour can be as long or as short as you’d like. Generally speaking, you have people post every day or every weekday during the length of the tour (one person per day.) Ten days, two weeks, and one month are common options but you choose what works for you. And you don’t have to have posts every day. It could be every few days.
I established a one month tour for all of August. Initially, I planned on having posts every single day of the month. My ambitious intention was that every day of the month, someone new would post and I would post corresponding (but not the same) material on my site and point to that day’s post. That’s not what ended up happening for a whole bunch of reasons but basically because I’d bit off more than I could chew. However, I was also intentionally flexible about it, and I was happy with the results.
What it ended up looking like for me:
This was the schedule that ended up coming out of people posting on different days throughout the month.
I had intended that if there were any open days without posts on someone else’s site, I would post original material on my own page. I only did that once, with a post about Leonora Carrington that included a giveaway.
On the other days when no one was scheduled, I sometimes cross-posted the posts that others had already done to send them to my audience. Sometimes I just didn’t post anything, and I gave myself grace about that.
On some days, I posted corresponding material as planned. For example, on Day One,
of shared a guest post I’d written with seven mental health lessons derived from the book. On the same day, I posted an additional two lessons on my site with a link to her post. Another example was that shared my previously unpublished material about artist Bispo and then a couple of days later, I published an interview of him about his own work and linked to that post.
I could have made sure that every day had a new post either by including more people in the tour or having more of my own original posts. I was comfortable with there not being something every day. If the tour had been shorter, I would have made sure I had done something daily.
How to Set Up the Schedule
There are many different ways to set up a schedule of events for multiple people participating in something. I tend to be really low tech so my method was simple. I created a spreadsheet in Google Drive with the first column listing each date of the tour and then columns for people to enter their name, the URL where they’ll publish, the type of post (review, interview, etc. - we’ll get into that shortly) and any extra notes they wanted shared when I was promoting the tour.
I made this a shareable, editable document that everyone participating in the tour could add their information to. I added a reminder not to change anyone else’s entry, a link to the book, and a few other critical details within the document itself. Then it was time to invite people to join me.
You might use a more high tech or formal approach to creating your schedule. Do what works for you.
How to Invite People to Participate in Your Virtual Book Tour on Substack
I’ve been writing online for a really long time and I’ve gotten very comfortable with making online connections. Therefore, I have no problem just reaching out and asking people I like if they’d like to be part of something. It doesn’t hurt to ask and I don’t get hurt when people aren’t interested.
As aforementioned, I try pretty hard to make sure that it’s as least as beneficial to them as it is to me. And I try to make participating as easy as possible for them.
So, I reached out and asked people I had already “met” online and people who were strangers on Substack. I also posted a few times in Notes and in various comment threads inviting people to participate.
That generated enough attention. If it hadn’t, I would have probably gone broader and invited non-Substack blogs to join in, made some more compelling pitches to specific people, etc.
Things To Consider
I’m going to be honest - as long as I liked someone’s vibe, that was enough for me to say “yep, join me.” I personally don’t like to discriminate any further than that because you just never know who you’ll connect well with, what great things might come out of it, etc. I tend to think if I set things in motion then the universe or what have you will make it work out.
That said, some people like a lot more structure. Some people are more particular about who they want sharing their work and that’s totally valid. As a result, some things people might consider in choosing who to work with:
Are these people in your niche or an adjacent niche? I write about the relationship between art and mental health so generally speaking all of the people on my blog tour are interested in some aspect of one or both of those things. But those are broad topics and I was really flexible about how it could all fit together. If you have a very specific niche, you have to ask yourself if you’re open to anyone with any niche being part of the tour or if you want a more narrow audience. There are pros and cons to both options; it’s up to you.
What size is their audience? As aforementioned, I don’t care about this. If someone had one subscriber, that was fine. If they had thousands, that was fine. I didn’t ask or investigate. But some people do care about this for various reasons and it may be something you’d like to consider. If you get very immersed in analytics, etc., then you might want to explore this. It may turn off some potential participants which is the trade-off.
Do you want to vet the participants in any way? Again, I didn’t. I didn’t dig into their background or see what they write about beyond a basic investigation of their Substack page to make sure there was nothing that was totally against my personal values and beliefs. But some people are very cautious with who they align themselves with so that’s a thing to consider.
Paid subscription substacks. I honestly didn’t think to address this in advance and it’s not a big concern for me but it’s something you may want to be aware of … some people that share your content will intend to do so only with their paying subscribers. In my case, I think everyone originally shared for free and then at least two people eventually put the piece behind their archive paywall. I am totally comfortable with that. I want people here to make money. But you might not be comfortable with that for a book tour so it’s worth having that conversation in advance as you set up your tour.
Basically, you’re having an online party to share your work. Who do you want to have as the stars of your party? I like to have a lot of different people. Others like something more curated. You do you.
What to Share in a Virtual Book Tour
I invited the participants to let me know what they would most like to share, with the following options:
Book review
Chapter review
Excerpt from the book
Interview of me
Guest post about the book
There are so many other things that you could choose to share to make this fun for everyone. In the past, I’ve allowed everyone to do book giveaways (which wasn’t an option because I get very few copies that I don’t have to pay for on this one.) You could do podcasts and other multi-media stuff, collaborate on a shared written or visual piece with the other writer, and so many other things. Get creative. The more unique it is, the more fun you’re going to have, and the more fun you have, the more fun your readers will have.
In this instance, there were enough participants that everyone naturally chose a variety of different options. The only thing I limited was book reviews because I simply didn’t have a lot of copies to share. You might choose no restrictions or you might choose a lot of restrictions. For example, you might want to do only three each of guest posts, excerpts, and interviews so once three interviews fills up, the other participants have to choose a guest post or excerpt. For me, I like it loose and open and I think that invites more people to join in the way that’s right for them. But, I’m going to keep saying it, you do you.
The Technical Logistics of What Comes Next Before The Tour Begins
Okay, so I’ve set my goals and time frame, invited people to join me, and started getting them all on the shared schedule. Now what? Here’s what my next few weeks looked like:
Virtual Press Kit
I created a virtual press kit for my book. This is something that I do for all of my books. It’s just handy to have for so many reasons. Is it necessary? No, but I’ve found it so helpful. Here’s what is in mine:
Images - of the book cover, my bio headshot, and other related images
About the book page
About the author page
Roundup of important links (where to buy the book, where to find me online, etc.)
1-3 short book excerpts that I am okay with anyone sharing
A few existing reviews of the book that illuminate some key points
A page of FAQ about the book (which are usually just things I think people will ask and some bonus information)
I created this one as a google drive folder with all of that material so that I could link people to it all easily.
Then what? When I invited new people to the tour, I showed this to them so that they could learn more about me and the book quickly.
I sent the link to everyone participating in the tour so that they could use any of the material that they wanted to in their post and promotion. To be honest, most people used only the images and links, but you never know what someone could be inspired to share.
I used the material in my own promotion on social media and elsewhere. Some that hasn’t been used yet will become original posts in the future.
Communicating with Tour Participants
Throughout the weeks leading up to the book tour, I was in regular communication with the participants on the tour, primarily via email, usually one on one but occasionally as a group if there was a big relevant update. This communication included:
Determining what everyone would be sharing in their post. This could be as simple as them saying they would do a book review so all I needed to do was make sure they had a copy of the book. It could be as complex as working back and forth to come up with a guest post idea that would be suitable for both my audience and theirs while tying into the book.
Making sure everyone got what they needed in enough time to do the post. I sent books and chapters out for review. I wrote guest posts and we did some editing back and forth. I answered interview questions. Basically, I tried to make it as easy as I could for participants to have everything they needed in advance of their post date.
I wrote a short introduction for each guest post. It began with saying “this post is part of The Artist’s Mind book tour” and a little about that with the link to the master post (which we’ll get to in a moment.) Then it was personalized with the links to the people before and after that post on the tour. So, for example, for Person 2 on the tour, I might write something like, “be sure to visit yesterday’s post at Person 1 (with link) and continue on with the tour tomorrow at Person 3 (with link.) Usually I said a little about what would be in those posts (be sure to visit the guest post about Bispo at Person 3 …) I made sure each person on the tour got this so that they could share it to further promote one another.
I created the Master Post and shared that with everyone. That also kicked off the tour’s promotion to the public.
Promoting Your Substack Virtual Book Tour
I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about how to promote yourself because there are as many options as there are writers. Briefly, here’s what I did:
I announced the tour with a Master Post here on Substack which I pinned to the top of my home page. That was this post. I listed everyone that was part of the tour, a little bit about them, their main page link, and I highlighted a post of theirs I loved. I did this because I really wanted each person to get as much attention as I was getting on the tour, if not more. I wanted them to find each other and support each other when their interests aligned.
I shared that post with my readers via email, in Notes and I think in the Chat thread, and offline via various social media channels and websites. I also asked my publisher to share on social media, which they did.
Throughout the month, I promoted the tour in similar ways. I shared each new post on Notes and on external social media. I created some of that corresponding material to share with my subscribers and linked to the tour posts. I cross-posted posts at a later date to give them new life. I’ll continue spreading the word about those posts over time.
End of month roundup … On the last day of the tour, I did a roundup of all of the posts. This was similar to the initial Master Post but I organized it differently. In this one, I shared more about what each post was about and I categorized it by type of post (interviews, reviews, etc.) I shared that and pinned it to the top of my Substack page.
That’s what I did for this one. Again, there are so many things you can do to promote and market. Giveaways are a big draw for people most of the time so you can do a lot with that. If you can get external press, podcasts etc. to cover you, that’s great. You could take out ads. Explore your options.
Expect A Few Glitches
Whenever you do something like this, things will go awry. The most common thing that you can expect is almost certainly going to happen is that one or more people will fail to get their post up on the day they’ve signed up for.
Life happens. I encouraged people to let me know in advance so I could make changes to the schedule (and to those intros that said “go see this person tomorrow” when that person had dropped out …) But sometimes people won’t let you know in advance. It’s frustrating but for me it’s just “that happens, let it go.” You can handle this however is right for you but be aware it happens.
Other potential issues
There’s other stalled communication. I had about 25 people express interest in the tour but 7-8 stalled out along the way. I had created a really quick turnaround and some people weren’t able to get a post done that quickly. In other instances, we just found that we couldn’t quite align my writing with theirs in a way that worked in this instance. It’s a working relationship that takes time to figure out. All of those experiences were positive for me, not challenges, but I’m just sharing that there’s work to the process.
There may end up being personality conflicts or unexpected problems. I had one issue arise that resulted in an uncomfortable conversation and a severing of what had seemed like potentially a great working relationship. I wish it had played out differently but it was a learning lesson for me. We are people, we do our best, and I hope all parties feel okay about how this shook out.
Other things that may happen … books you send out for review don’t ever arrive, technology fails and something goes wrong with your posts, you get confused about the schedule yourself … I won’t go on because you can probably imagine. I would say plan for the contingencies, do your best and give grace to yourself and everyone else in the process.
Bonus Benefits
I was incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in my virtual book tour. I enjoyed it a lot and feel like some of those people are now my friends. I wanted to keep paying it forward, so I created a bonus offer at the end of the tour …
If you pay for an annual subscription to anyone who posted as part of the tour, you can have a year of Create Me Free at no charge. You just pick a person off the list, sign up for a year with them, then email me that you did so. I check with them that you’ve really signed up and I comp you a year with me. The goal? Get more people paying to support the awesome people who supported me with a tour. A few people took me up on it and each time it really thrilled me.
This is an ongoing offer, so check out the posts and take advantage of it!
BIG THANKS!
I really can’t say enough how grateful I am to the amazing people here on Substack who helped bring my virtual book tour to life. Thanks again to:
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Just wow, Kathryn! ... what a generous sharing of your process and all the details. It's setting off bells ringing ideas about other ways to use this process. Many kudos for all your hard work and extreme generosity.
Thanks for this post Kathryn. I just found your Substack and subscribed towards the tail-end of this tour and now it all makes sense!