Tag: booktour

This is the letter I composed to the user's of BookTour.com, my day job, on the morning of our relaunch this past week…

Dear Friends,

Kevin Smokler here. I’m the CEO of BookTour. I’d like to sit down
with you for a moment and tell you where our little company has been
and where it’s now going.

Since 2008, BookTour.com has been the world’s largest online
directory of author and literary events. We’ve enabled readers to know
when their favorite authors would be appearing in their area and
authors to let readers know of about new books and tour dates. Our
TourBuilder program has helped authors find potential new speaking
venues. Our syndication relationships spread news information about an
author’s appearance to 250,000 readers a month.

It’s not enough. Not when nearly half a million books are published
in America every year and most never find their readership. Not when
authors are consistently told to take an active role in promoting their
books but not told how, and not when the tools available to do so for
authors are often prohibitively expensive, complex and generic.

It’s not enough for BookTour to help authors spread the word about
events, one tool in a complex process of building a literary career. We
need to start giving you authors a toolbox and not just a hammer.

Starting today, we do.

Welcome to the new BookTour.com, completely redesigned from the
ground up not just to look better but to give you, the author, a
full-service experience when during the promotion of your books. The
new BookTour isn’t just a single tool but now a complete set, aimed at
helping authors promote their books at a reasonable price.

Here’s what the new BookTour offers you…

A. PressFinder:
Ever wanted to know who reviews books for your local newspaper? Who
books authors for the your local radio and television programs? Wonder
no more. PressFinder is your answer.

Our PressFinder product is a database of book-related media
contacts—–over 1500 names across the major regions of the United States.
These contacts include people and companies involved in print, radio,
TV and online media. PressFinder also contains a special database
composed only of bloggers who love to read and review new books.

Authors will be able to search PressFinder 3 times for free. After
that, PressFinder will cost $5 a month or $49.95 a year for unlimited
access.

B. ServiceFinder:
It’s way too hard for authors to find, say, a good web designer in the
rush leading up to book publication day. With this in mind, we created
ServiceFinder, a directory of vendors (web designers, independent
publicists and publishing consultants/coaches) offering author-services
at reasonable prices.

We want ServiceFinder to be the easy, dependable place authors go to
find the services they need. As such, authors will be able to use
ServiceFinder for free. Vendors will be charged $19.95 per month to
list.

C. BFRE (Book Publicity for Really Everyone): That’s the new, fancy
name for BookTour’s blog. We haven’t done nearly enough with the blog
thus far, so beginning this week on Wednesday we’re launching a
ten-part series on book promotion, written by me. Also, BFRE will soon
be featuring interviews, conversations with and essays from authors and
leading experts on the subject of book promotion.

The new BookTour is in the business of book marketing, education and
support. BFRE will reflect this.

The BookTour features you know and love remain the same but thanks
to our redesign, will be easier to use. So if you have not yet created
an author page or signed up to receive our newsletters (for authors,
publicists and readers), there’s no time like the present!

As always, the team from BookTour is available to answer respond to
your questions, concerns or feedback at any time. We can’t wait to hear
what you think!

Welcome to the new BookTour: Your Book. Your Future.