New Book Shows Authors How to Promote their Work to Worldwide Audience with Podcasting
"Podcasting Your Virtual Book Tour" takes independent authors and publishers step-by-step through the process of creating a "virtual book tour" podcast, and distributing it online to millions of iPod users.
Boston, MA (PRWEB) March 17, 2006
Book tours and public readings are an important part of any newly published book's promotion and marketing. But not all authors are able to travel, due to time, money, or health constraints. "Podcasting Your Virtual Book Tour", by author and podcaster Kay Stoner, teaches authors and independent publishers how to create a virtual book tour with podcasting -- online audio that can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, or on an iPod.
Apple's iPod popularity has been phenomenal, by any measurement. According to RTE Business, "Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs says the company sold a record 14 million iPod music players in the fourth quarter, a leap from 4.5 million in the same period of 2004... The number of iPods sold far exceeded the 1.25 million Macintosh computers sold in the same quarter." And now independent authors can tap into the multi-million, multi-national portable audio market, to promote their book to the world, just as they would promote it on a live reading tour. But instead of being limited by the schedules of bookstores and libraries, or the time, energy and money of the author or publisher, published authors can now reach a worldwide audience anytime that audience finds their virtual book tour podcast online. What's more, listeners don't need an iPod to listen -- anyone on a computer that's connected to the internet and can download and listen to audio, can enjoy podcasts. The MP3 format (which makes sound files very small and is the standard for iPods) makes audio accessible for everyone, not only those with iPods.
"I got the idea for podcasting a virtual book tour from watching C-SPAN's Booknotes program," says Kay. "I've got a new book coming out this spring, and I've been wanting to promote it, but I've got a full-time job and I just don't have the time and money to travel to bookstores across the country. Watching C-SPAN and seeing groups of people gathering to listen to authors talk about their books, I thought that if people like me are tuning in to television programs about book readings, they would also be interested in downloading audio of book readings. There are literally millions of iPod owners in the world today, and audiobooks are very popular. Virtual book tour podcasts really 'marry' the best of all worlds -- an author's personal reading of their work, and the amazing convenience of downloadable online audio. Everybody wins -- the authors who are seeking more exposure for their work, and the iPod owners of the world, who are looking for innovative new content that they can't find anywhere else."
With "Podcasting Your Virtual Book Tour", almost any author with a standard personal computer, a microphone, free audio editing software, and an internet connection can record a series of readings and then upload them to the internet as podcasts for all the world to hear. The virtual book tour experience can be just like a recorded "real-life" tour, with readings of selections from the author's work, audience participation, questions and answers, and other ambiance the author wishes to include.
This 98-page manual teaches authors how to plan their "tour" and script their readings, how to find the sound effects that add to the ambiance, how to put all the pieces together with free audio editing software, how to publish the audio as a podcast, and how to promote it for all the world to hear. With podcasting, an independent author can create their very own virtual book tour, on their own time, on their own terms, for very low cost with their own home computer.
Once an author creates their virtual book tour audio, they can podcast it with podcasting services and promote it in the many podcast directories, as well as iTunes. With over a billion audio files downloaded from iTunes, and podcasting integrated into iTunes, reaching the audio downloading world is simple to do.
About the Author
Kay Stoner is a writer, poet, podcaster, computer programmer and the Executive Producer of Women In Music with Laney Goodman (www. womenonair. com -- now in its 10th year of broadcasting internationally). She is the chief architect of Podtopia. net, a personal podcasting service, and consults with internet startups on user interface issues. She has been podcasting since 2005 and has been building small and large online businesses for more than 10 years. She has published several books of her own with Lulu (www. lulu. com), the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books. She is presently podcasting the virtual book tour of her forthcoming memoir, "Fuel -- Memoirs of a Crisis" (www. fuelbook. com) a first-hand account of the fuel protests and crisis in England during the year 2000.
Podcasting Your Virtual Book Tour
By Kay Stoner
First Edition
Thought2Form Productions, LLC
P. O. Box 15108
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: 617-816-1382
URL: http://www. lulu. com/content/188331 (http://www. lulu. com/content/188331)
Http://www. virtualbooktours. net/vbtindex. html (http://www. virtualbooktours. net/vbtindex. html)
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