I’d like to thank Val for graciously hosting me, as a guest blogger, in celebration of the launch of my newest book, 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. In this blog post, I’d like to share with you one of “21 Ways” to launch a successful virtual book tour.

This tip comes from “Way #4: Prepare Your Book Blog” Prepare Your Book Blog

An important aspect of your virtual book tour is that you have an attractive and branded blog dedicated to your book or work. Your blog is the hub of your online world and provides a platform from which you can share your message, sell your products, and build a community. Your blog is not just where people go for content; it’s where they go to connect with you.

One way to create an attractive looking blog is to use a premium WordPress theme such as the ones offered by Studio Press. Studio Press themes allow for customization along with access to a supportive members forum.

Prepare the key pages for your book blog:

About Page The about page is where people can find out more about you and your book. Display a professional headshot photo, with you smiling, prominently on the page. This will provide a powerful visual and allow people to connect with you. Provide a brief bio about you as well as a synopsis of your book. Blog Page

• The blog page is where your blog posts show up. Typically, the newest posts go to the top of the page. The formula for an effective blog post is:
• A title that includes keywords related to your industry
• An informative or entertaining article
• An attractive image
• A compelling question that engages the reader
• And a 100-word signature section with one URL, which is added to the end of each blog post.

Contact Page. The contact page gives your audience a way to directly reach you. Rather than listing your email address on the page, I recommend that you add a contact form. This will protect you from receiving spam and will encourage only serious questions and inquiries. One of the easiest ways to add a contact form is with the Contact Buddy WordPress plugin from iThemes.

The Endorsements Page. Your endorsements page is where you can feature recommendations from experts in your field as well as testimonials and book reviews from your readers. For added credibility, include the image of the person giving the endorsement or testimonial. List his or her name, credentials, and the URL to his or her website.

Events Page. Having a schedule of events page provides an easy way for your audience to connect with you and learn more about you and your book. You can include details about upcoming in-person events, such as book signings, as well as virtual events, such as your virtual book tour and virtual speaking engagements. Make sure to include easy-to-access details to encourage audience participation. By doing this, your audience will be able to click on links to your tour stops, follow you on your journey, and interact with new audiences.

Media Page. Your media page is where people go to access your photo, images of your book cover, your author bio, a proposed list of interview questions, and other useful data. Your media page can also provide links to previous interviews and blog posts, newspaper and magazine articles, speaking engagements, online articles, press releases, and more.

Time to Take Action. Now that you’ve read through these recommendations, consider scheduling time to further refine your own book blog or author blog. What intrigues you most about adding key pages to your blog? Scroll down to share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.

This post is being written in honor of a virtual book tour celebrating the publication of my third print book. You can enjoy the festivities by joining us on the tour to 21 blogs, in honor of 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. Scroll down to access the virtual book tour schedule as well as a link to the book on Amazon. Thank you and enjoy!

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the author of 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. Visit her book blog and check out the full schedule for the virtual book tour, celebrating the launch of this exciting new book: www.VirtualBookTour21Ways.com

D’vorah offers virtual book tour workshops and courses for authors, entrepreneurs, and virtual professionals. She has taught hundreds of people, across the globe, how to conduct successful virtual book tours. You can purchase her newest book on Amazon at: www.VirtualBookTour21Ways.com/amazon

When you write about something you have a passionn for it will show in your writing and your readers will catch that excitment. In fact, picking a topic that excites you could be the single biggest factor for you getting your book finished in the first place.

How do you pick a good topic? Make a list of the interests, hobbies, expertise that makes you who you are and number them from one to seven in importance. That is, important to you personally.

Select the first one and start writing. If you are writing a Kindle book, it can be quite short. A print book would be considerably longer.

Another important aspect for you to understand before writing your book is the importance of having a good hook. That is what makes your book stand out from the crowd. Remember you are competing with hundreds and, perhaps, thousands of other books in a similar vein to yours.

Your title and subtitle are vital to the success of your book sales. There’s no point in writing a book that nobody wants to read.

When your book stands out from the crowd, the chances of it being successful will sky-rocket. Do you have a good hook for your book yet? Think about it.

If you are desiring to write and publish your book soon, I can help you. Take a look at my Global Publishing Course – this is premier coaching for authors and takes you by the hand from start to finish, showing you exactly what you need to do to get your book finished and marketed.

In fact, this course will even show you how to use social media and Amazon to market your book to the masses.

Imagine your friends and family seeing your book on Amazon! Wouldn’t that be something? You bet it would.

Being an author makes you an AUTHORity in your niche!

Click on the link below for more information:

http://bookmentoring.com

Let’s reach our generation.. one book at a time!

Val

If you want to write a book and find that to be a daunting task, I have good news.

I put together a 52-week mentoring course that takes you by-the-hand and helps you to write your book, publish it in digital (eBook, Kindle, ePub and other formats) plus as a paperback on Amazon.

This course comes out of my own experience and shows you the way in small bite-sized chunks. Every week you get a new assignment to help you on your way PLUS you get email access to me for the duration of the course.

Take a look: http://ebookmentoring.com

A lot of writers want nothing more than to get there very first book written and published. The bad news is this dream, for most writers will never become a reality. Sad but true.

But the good news is…that with my new course “Publish Your Book Globally” you will discover how surprising simple it is to get your book published and marketed to the public.

If you are ready to turn writing aspirations in a reality…then click on the link below.

http://ebookmentoring.com

Val

Every year my friend D’vorah Lansky brings together the most awesome team of book industry experts to share their experience and message. This year’s event promises to be even bigger as she celebrates the 5th Annual Book Marketing Conference Online. You don’t want to miss this!

I even have the privilege this year of presenting a workshop on Kindle Publishing Made Easy.

Recommended by Val Waldeck

Join us at the eBook Publishing Boot Camp and enjoy all 14 training workshops and the Free pre-event bonus sessions, along with a collection of Digital Publishing Tips. At this exciting, interactive event you will learn from the experts, in powerful workshop format sessions, in three content areas:

· eBook Creation and Publication Workshops

· Content Creation and Multimedia Workshops

· Book Marketing Strategies for Your Book

Recommended by Val Waldeck

The event is also a think tank which will harness the power of what you’ve learned by being able to take action in a supportive environment. Get registered now and book the date in your calendar. This is going to be an empowering event and well worth your investment. Listen in live!

Get more details at:

Recommended by Val Waldeck

This could be just what you need to take your book marketing and digital publishing efforts to new levels in 2013. Gain immediate access to details about the event. One event – 14 workshops.

Join me at: Recommended by Val Waldeck

Here’s to your eBook Publishing success!

Val

P.S. Get a 20% discount for my subscribers with this coupon: val20

P.P.S. The price goes up tomorrow so hurry now and register.

N.B…. you can get a discount by using this special coupon: val20. This will give you 20% off the lowest price at the current time. It will be going up incrementally to $197 over the next month so be sure to check it out right away. Val

I’ve been an Internet ghostwriter for close to 10 years. I’ve written about almost anything you can imagine and several I couldn’t imagine. In my spare time I wrote a small ebook about some magical dragons and thought I could just send it to Kindle and make some money when it was published.

It sounds so easy and I wandered into processes that made no sense to me at all. I actually thought I was going crazy. I downloaded Kindle’s 100-pages of explanation and spent one evening reading them. That was an exercise from Hell! Every paragraph seemed like a contradiction to me. Talk about frustration; I was beginning to think I couldn’t get my dragons online and was considering doing something else.

Val Waldek to the rescue!

She sent me this list of 10 simple steps to get my Dragons on Kindle. I’m going to share her list with you because the instructions will help you do the same thing I did.

#1…Make sure the jpg for the FRONT cover is at least 1000 pixels long. No back cover needed.

#2…Login to your Kindle account at www.kdp.amazon.com

#3…If you have not yet added your book, add a new title and follow the instructions.

#4…If you have already added it, click on it to complete the publishing process.

#5…Then follow the steps logically to add title, keywords, author, etc., etc.

#6…Near the bottom of the first page you will see the opportunity to add your cover picture. Browse to it on your computer and click OK. That will do the trick.

#7…Next you will see the opportunity to add your book. Browse to the mobi edition you have and upload that.

#8…Wait for the conversion process to complete (a few minutes) and then preview your book.

#9…Once you are happy, click “save and continue” to go to the next page, where you have to answer a whole lot of questions about pricing, etc.

#10…Your book will be live in about 24 hours after that.

Those simple steps should keep you sane. My dragons were on Kindle in less than 4 hours after I filled in the details explained above. Once I started the process I discovered that the Kindle form was simple and would not let me make stupid mistakes. Even so, I checked each step with Val’s list before I went on to the next step.

Now, I am a Kindle author and relatively sane. I checked my book every few hours after it was first online. I was just making sure it was still there while I adored my gorgeous cover. I was so excited that I couldn’t think. All I could do was smile and think, “Oh My Word! It worked!”

Val’s ebook, “Kindle Publishing Made Easy eGuide & Video Tutorial” is well worth buying. I do recommend it. I probably should have read it before I started the Kindle process. It would have saved me a lot of stress.

Pat Graham
Ghostwriter72x@gmail.com

The link to my dragons:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BY7NAOG

1. Play Games. e.g. Minesweeper is built into some Kindles. All you need to do to activate minesweeper is to hold down ALT, Shift, and M. Nobody said this would be a fully-featured minesweeper game, but it is fun.

Tap G from Minesweeper to play Gomoku, a “five in a row” game that’s also built-in. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#minesweeper-is-built-into-your-kindle-1#ixzz1Le41Ojnq

2. Check how much free space you have left on your Kindle. Press the menu button, then look in the top left corner of your screen. You’ll see a number saying how many megabytes you have left of storage in your Kindle.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#check-how-much-free-space-you-have-left-on-your-kindle-2#ixzz1Le481DAq

3. When using the experimental web browser, navigate to mobile pages instead of full ones It may seem like a waste given the size of the Kindle screen (compared to a cell phone screen), but if loading a page quickly is what you’re after, navigate to mobile versions such as:

m.gmail.com

google.com/reader/m

mobile.twitter.com

Or, use a special Kindle web app called KinTweet to post updates to Twitter.
http://www.kinworm.com/2011/05/twitter-on-kindle-kintweet.html

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#when-using-the-experimental-web-browser-navigate-to-mobile-pages-instead-of-full-ones-3#ixzz1Le4my32U

4. Slide the power button to restart your Kindle. Slide and hold the power button for 7 seconds to turn off the unit, or keep it held for 15 seconds total to restart the Kindle.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#slide-the-power-button-to-restart-your-kindle-4#ixzz1Le4dyL5B

5. Perform simple calculations and searches on your Kindle. This fun trick works just like typing simple math problems into Spotlight on your Mac. Start typing so the search bar comes up on your hom screen. Type in 5+5 or any other simple equation and press Enter to get the solution.

Another cool trick is that if you start typing a web page URL from your home screen, tap right on the 5-way directional pad and click Go To, Wikipedia, and more.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#perform-simple-calculations-and-searches-on-your-kindle-5#ixzz1Le56Pfku

6 Take a snapshot of your Kindle’s screen. At any time, hold down Shift, ALT, and G all at the same time to take a snapshot of your Kindle’s screen. The screen will blink to indicate a successful snapshot. Connect your Kindle to your computer via USB, open its folder titled “Documents,” and find your screenshot of exactly how your Kindle screen appeared. From there, you can copy it to your computer.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#take-a-snapshot-of-your-kindles-screen-6#ixzz1Le5FCjzZ

7. Look up words while you’re reading. While you’re reading anything on your Kindle, tap down on the 5-way navigation button and put your cursor over a word. The definition automatically comes up at the bottom of your screen. Press “Enter” to see more, then the “Back” button to return to what you were reading.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#look-up-words-while-youre-reading-7#ixzz1Le5IgW3D

8. Change your Kindle’s screensavers to pictures you actually like. Changing your Kindle’s screensaver by “jailbreaking it,” which according to How To Geek, is actually pretty easy. You’ll need to be comfortable transferring files to and from your computer, but How To Geek provides an incredibly helpful walkthrough for the whole process.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/37424/jailbreak-your-kindle-for-dead-simple-screensaver-customization/

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#change-your-kindles-screensavers-to-pictures-you-actually-like-8#ixzz1Le5OpYAG

(I wouldn’t really recommend doing this unless you are a Techie as it may cause a problem with your Kindle. Not a good idea, especially if it is still under warranty).

9. Here are some shortcuts for playing music on your Kindle. Playing music on the Kindle via the “experimental” MP3 player feature is incredibly limited. If you do play music on your Kindle while you’re reading, these shortcuts should be handy. You can use these shortcuts from anywhere in your Kindle.

Press ALT and Space at the same time to stop or start music.

Press ALT and F at the same time to skip to the next track.

Another interesting shortcut: hold down ALT and press any of the top keyboard keys to type numbers quickly.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#here-are-some-shortcuts-for-playing-music-on-your-kindle-9#ixzz1Le5n1eoR

10. Use Instapaper with your Kindle. It works beautifully. Instapaper is a wonderful tool that remembers articles you want to read, then reformats them into just text and images. Instapaper developer Marco Arment came up with a way for all your Instapaper articles to appear on your Kindle together, as if they were different articles in a periodical you’re subscribed to. Head to the Instapaper website and click “Extras” for a full how-to of how to get it up and running. You can even set how often you want all your Instapaper articles pushed to your Kindle.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#use-instapaper-with-your-kindle-it-works-beautifully-10#ixzz1Le5ticYv

11. Having trouble reading print in your PDFs? Turn your Kindle sideways. Tap the “Aa” button in the bottom row of your Kindle keyboard to activate this menu. Navigate down to “screen rotation” and pick a horizontal orientation that’s comfortable for you.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#having-trouble-reading-print-in-your-pdfs-turn-your-kindle-sideways-11#ixzz1Le69BbUp

12. Use Lendle to lend and borrow books from anyone. Lendle is a great service you can use to post what Kindle books you own, and request to borrow Kindle books from others. It’s almost like a social network for Kindle users.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-lendle-to-get-free-kindle-books-2011-3

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#use-lendle-to-lend-and-borrow-books-from-anyone-12#ixzz1Le6DsAmH

13. Send PDFs, Word documents, plain text documents, images, and more to your Kindle. Click “Menu” then “Settings” to find out what your device’s email address is. Add this email address to your contacts list, and then any time you’re on your computer and want to read something later on your Kindle, attach a PDF to an email and mail it to your Kindle email address. You can attach up to 25 attachments (PDFs, Word Docs, etc) to any email.

If you receive an error, it’s probably because your Kindle only accepts emails from approved email addresses. Go to Amazon’s “Manage My Kindle” page on your computer to set up approved email addresses.

Also, one cool feature is that Amazon will convert PDFs to “Kindle format” for you if you include the word “convert” in the subject line of the email that has the PDF attached to it.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#send-pdfs-word-documents-plain-text-documents-images-and-more-to-your-kindle-13#ixzz1Le6VPOVB

(An easier way is to download the free MobiPocket Creator (Publisher Edition). use the menu to “Import” your PDF into the software and “build” your kindle book. Then just transfer it into the “document” section of your kindle via your USB cable. Works beautifully.)

14. Here’s how to add web page bookmarks to your Kindle home screen. Go to Menu, then Experimental, then Launch Web Browser, then typing in the web page. We’ve been told that this technique works to put webpage links (almost) on your Kindle home screen.

An easy way is to create a document and include your favorite link(s) inside of it. Convert the document to a PDF and send the it to your Kindle email address (in the aforementioned fashion on the previous slide), and you’ll always have access to your favorite bookmarks from your home screen. Open the document, then click a website to go to it.

The wired method of doing this is simply plugging in your Kindle via USB, then dragging documents or PDFs to your Kindle’s “Documents” folder.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#heres-how-to-add-web-page-bookmarks-to-your-kindle-home-screen-14#ixzz1Le6bI19V

15. Use KindleFish to do quick translations. Kindlefish looks a lot better on your screen than Google Translate, and makes it easy to translate text on your Kindle.

Click here for a brief how-to for Kindlefish*

*Requires internet access

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-translate-text-on-your-kindle-2011-3

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-kindle-tips-and-tricks-2011-5#use-kindlefish-to-do-quick-translations-15#ixzz1Le6g0Y9p

Amazing…

Val

This is great news! Your KDP account preferences can be set to receive royalty payments electronically across all marketplaces in US dollars, British pounds or Euros.

In order to be paid by Direct Deposit, your bank account will, however, need to be located in the US, United Kingdom or in Europe.

Here are some benefits of Direct Deposit:

• Get paid faster and avoid lengthy delivery times or even a lost check payment.
• Take advantage of lower royalty payment thresholds – 10 $/£/€ for direct deposit instead of 100 $/£/€ for check.
• Avoid bank fees that may be associated with processing or depositing checks.

Visit your KDP Account Page to set Direct Deposit as your payment preference if you meet these requirements.

South Africans are permitted to have overseas banking accounts, which is preferable to the high cost of banking USD cheques in our country. Investigate the possiblities. You will be able to access your finance via the overseas bank debit card. And, of course, if you make a substantial living with Kindle books, you will be required to tell SARS!

Val

“Find Out How You Can Instantly Maximize Your Book’s Exposure And Skyrocket Your Income, Today!”

Inside of this special report, you’ll discover…

How to distribute your books to ALL of the major marketplaces with a few clicks of your mouse!

The #1 method for maximizing your books’ exposure instantly! (And absolutely FREE!)

Everything you need to know about Smashwords!

How to effectively manage your book distribution channels so you can keep track of incoming sales!

And much, much more!

To Your Publishing Success!

Val Waldeck

It is essential for the Kindle author to take time out for advertising and marketing. As they say: “If you don’t tell them, they won’t come.”

There are many ways to achieve this, especially via social media marketing but for most of us, we need some help along the way.  Here are just some examples:

• Share excerpts and sneak peeks of your work.
• Post reviews of your work on your blog.
• Hold contests to increase awareness of your e-book; require contestants to promote your e-book (e.g. tweeting, liking your Facebook page et al), with every tweet equivalent to one “entry”.
• Use copies of your e-books as their prizes.
• Post topics relevant to the subject matter of your e-book then end with an invitation to check your work if they want to know more .

This is why I recommend AMAZON KINDLE MANIA. This eBook is jam-packed with killer strategies that will increase your chances of success in your publishing career.

This ebook will go a long way to guiding you along your journey, saving you a lot of time, effort, costly mistakes and money. You will certainly benefit from all the strategies in this book. It includes information on writing profitable topics, strategies to make your book stand out, formatting secrets, pricing strategies, and some powerful tactics to promote your Kindle books.

More information here:
Amazon Kindle Mania

Well worth owning.

To your Publishing Success!

Val