The Guardians of the Hidden Scepter - Virtual Book Blog Tour

The Guardians of the Hidden Scepter, by Frank Cole, Cedar Fort, Inc.

About the Book:  Amber never dreamed her archaeology class would turn into a top secret mission that would take her across the globe, but when her teacher goes missing, Amber realizes it's up to her to protect the Hidden Scepter or risk unleashing an ancient power too terrifying to imagine. This guaranteed page-turner from the bestselling author of the Hashbrown Winters series is perfect for the adventurer in your family. 

Kay’s Kritique:  I started this book on a flight from Baltimore to Salt Lake in March, then stayed up half the night to finish it - so I guess you could say it kept my interest.  Just like Fablehaven entertained adults as well as the young adults it was intended for, Guardians of the Hidden Scepter is another one that crosses ages very well.  It has an Indiana Jones style of adventure, mixed with suspense and humor that combine to make a really fun read with great characters.  Trendon, the "techno snacking geek" was probably my favorite character, although sometimes I wanted to smack him when he opened his sarcastic teenage mouth.  But he has a good heart and I grew to love him - he was definitely the comic relief when things got intense.  Add Guardians of the Hidden Scepter to your kids Summer Reading List, but you better read it first.  Once they get it you won’t get it back!

Other Readers Reviews are found on the Virtual Book Blog Tour of Guardians of the Hidden Scepter going on Now!  Go check them out. 

Do you know what a Virtual Book Blog Tour is?  Well, this week I decided to combine our Product Review with our Rave Reviews and Internet News.  

I asked Mariah Overlock at Cedar Fort to explain Virtual Book Blog Tours to me so we can start looking for ways to participate and expand our Marketing Plans.

 

"Here's a summary of how they work: 

Basically there is a huge community of book-review bloggers on the web. At first I thought there were only a handful, but then I found a hundred, and now I'm finding more everyday and lists that give me access to thousands. It's much bigger than I thought and constantly growing. 

We have been using some of the bigger ones in the past just to review our books on their site before they were published. A blog tour is a much more organized way of doing almost the same thing. It establishes a connection between a book/author & review bloggers that may have not been there before, giving them more contacts (which they love). (Note from Kay - I went and look at Frank's Blog Tour sites and totaled the followers of all the blogs - it came to 17,300)

It also creates repetition in the eyes of those readers that read these blogs. Seeing the book on a different blog every single day for 2 weeks hopefully makes them more interested in getting the book themselves. 

Some different things virtual book tours do: 

- The blogger usually gets a copy of the ARC or book and writes their own review on it. 

- Sometimes they want to interview the author, this is done simply through email. 

- I've seen critiques of the book cover done as well. 

- Character interviews are becoming more popular. After the reviewer reads the book, they'll draft some questions for the author to answer as if in the mind of his main character. Those are a lot of fun. 

As far as following the blog tour, that is going to get better for us with a little more practice. I had our design department make a banner (see Frank's up above) that all of the bloggers can put on their site. For the next tours I'm going to have the bloggers use that image as a link back to our website where I'll have the entire tour scheduled out. "

Thanks, Mariah!

Now you know what a Virtual Book Blog Tour is and how they work. They are only going to get bigger and bigger - How can we get involved to help create a "buzz" for some of the books we sell, which will then translate into increased sales?  Here are a few ideas that I had:

-  You can follow a Book Blog Tour and make meaningful comments on some of these blogs
-  You can post the Book Blog Tour on your Store Facebook page
-  You could be a part of a Book Blog Tour - if you have a store blog going why not join the fun.  This could be advantageous in a couple of ways - you could get traffic from people following the tour and when they realize you are a bookstore could buy from you.  You may get more of your customers following your blog to see what a Virtual Book Blog Tour is.
-  If you aren't part of the tour itself, & you have a store blog - "blog about it" using several excerpts from several of these blogs, with links to their full post.  Of course, the book on your post would be linked to your store website for purchase.
-  You could do a special email with several excerpts from various blogs and if you are part of the Virtual Book Blog Tour make sure you let your customers know that too.
-  You can enrich your websites with excerpts from these blogs under reviews.

OK - I've given you a few ideas - now put on your thinking caps and let's explore this idea together.  How else could we use this to help increase sales?  Now it's your turn to comment and share . . .