Guest Blogger on Virtual Book Tour: Dyan Garris, Author of the Intuitive Cooking Cookbook, VOICE OF THE ANGELS COOKBOOK

You’ve written the great American novel or the best “How To” book that ever existed. You’ve done an outstanding job of translating what is in your soul to tangible form: your new book. It is all very exciting! However, unless you simply want to stare at multiple copies of your amazing book, you have to promote it so that it can get into the hands, hearts, and minds of your intended audience.

In researching the best ways to promote my new book, “Voice of the Angels Cookbook – Talk To Your Food! Intuitive Cooking,” I discovered several options. Most of these options were very expensive. One public relations firm I came across has a program where they book you for fifteen or twenty radio interviews. This sounded appealing. I inquired as to whether or not this exposure converted into actual sales and was told that it really did not. I would be spending several thousand dollars to perhaps get back a few hundred. I crossed this off my list.

Another book promotion company that I contacted had a similar program, but also would, in addition, attempt to book you on TV. For their full book promotion package, they required several thousand dollars per week! This was not in my budget.

To begin, I decided to do that which I could do the most cost effectively in terms of book promotion. I have an existing website: www.voiceoftheangels.com. I know that I am getting traffic there. I know that the search engines are crawling it. So I created a colorful web flyer for my book with excerpts and pictures from my cookbook. I put this on its own separate web page. By giving my flyer its own dedicated page, the search engines then easily pick it up.

I also have an existing blog so I put the flyer there as well. I know that my blog pages are being submitted to the search engines on a regular basis, so this also gives me additional exposure.

Next, I gave some thought to what I could do locally in terms of book promotion. It is not difficult to get a book review or some other ink in your local newspaper. It is very easy to set up a book signing at your local bookstore. It is best to do this in person rather than on the telephone. Just approach these people with a copy of your book, which you autograph for them of course. Your local bookstore and your local newspaper want to know what you are doing and will help you tremendously in your book promotion efforts.

While this exposure is great and not to be negated, I decided I needed a bit more. I kept researching and came upon Dorothy Thompson’s, “Pump Up Your Book Promotion” program. The more I delved into Dorothy’s program, the more I realized how brilliant it really is. Now I am signed up for a virtual book tour and I cannot wait for that to begin! Dorothy’s book promotion program is the most cost effective and comprehensive book promotion plan I have come across. Dorothy understands my book and knows exactly how to promote it. She is one dynamic lady. I will let you know how my virtual tour goes. Bon Voyage!

Dyan Garris is the author of the intuitive cooking cookbook, VOICE OF THE ANGELS COOKBOOK. You can visit her website at http://www.voiceoftheangels.com/. If you'd like to purchase her book at Amazon, click here.

Dyan's virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion, a public relations agency specializing in online book promotion.