Tinisha sent me an email with a question that might be on a lot of people’s minds, so I thought I’d answer it here.

Tinisha asks: It seems like the Virtual Book Tour System is only for non-fiction books. All the authors listed that Alex has helped have written non-fiction books. I’m trying to promote my fiction novel. Do you think this tele-conference would still be helpful to me?

MY ANSWER: Alex isn’t sure it works for fiction, but I have some ideas of my own on this. I once wrote a book called “Behind the Stories,” and I think this whole “behind the stories” approach for a VBT can work with fiction authors. So, I will be talking to him about this.

On my podcast, Books ‘n’ Such, I interview some fiction authors. See what you think at www.reviewyak.com. I don’t see why something like this couldn’t be a VBT, with people asking the author questions ahead of time. Caveat–you do need to have something of an audience first, I think. But there are ways to do that, and then the VBT would build on that.

My suggestion is to sign up for the Preview Call. You will get a great overview of how Virtual Book Tours work. Then stay tuned. If I make headway, with Alex or on my own, concerning VBTs and fiction, I’ll be talking about in via emails, my site, this blog, etc.

In fact, stay tuned for upcoming posts with interviews with novelists on this “behind the stories” idea. You can be the judge! (If you already know you’d enjoy this kind of interview, comment below and also, tell me which authors you’d like me to interview.)

Thanks to all who filled out my survey so far.

(If you haven’t yet done so, weigh in here–it only will take a couple of minutes.)

As of this writing–with the first batch of responses–100 percent of you said the topic that interested you most was promotion and publicity!

I shouldn’t be surprised–it’s what sparked my own journey into Internet marketing of information products some 4 years ago.

(I wanted to alternative ways to market books besides going the exhausting route of speaking gigs.)

For many of us authors, writing comes easier than marketing.

I have good news about this!

First, as I’ve said many times before, this is the BEST time to be an author.

Publicity/promotion opportunities abound.

In some ways, however, the multitude of choices can feel overwhelming.

However, not to worry. In the coming weeks, I will help you sort through not only what’s possible, but what’s right for you.

In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s post. It will be about one of the BEST ways to promote your book–before OR after it’s written.