One, so you can see how they work, if you haven’t ever listened to one before. I believe this type of VBT can be one of the best things an author can do to promote a book. When used correctly, a VBT can become the centerpiece of all your marketing. For more on how VBTs work, visit www.virtualbooktourexpert.com.

Two, the VBT I’ll be doing with Dr. Vikki Petersen is on an issue which affects many more people than know it:  gluten.

Dr. Vikki is the author of The Gluten Effect, and she will be answering your questions on Tuesday, April 6. Sign up and ask your question at www.askaboutgluten.com. (If you’re reading this after the event, you may still ask a question–she’ll be answering questions on her blog–and listen to the replay of the VBT.) When you sign up, you may download the first chapters of the book, including a Gluten Sensitivity Self-Test.

I was shocked to find out how many health issues can be traced to gluten sensitivity.

When we think of gluten issues, most of us think of celiac disease, which is a digestive disorder.  Yes, gluten causes digestive problems and weight gain. Yet digestion is only ONE of the many body systems that can be affected by gluten.

Gluten sensitivity also affects the immune system, resulting in autoimmune disease and other complications from a compromised immune system.

It affects the hormonal system, resulting in adrenal exhaustion, thyroid disorders, sleep problems, fatigue, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety and mood swings.

Surprisingly, gluten also affects the body neurologically, resulting in headaches and/or migraines, memory problems, joint pains or aches, brain fog, fibromyalgia.

In fact, if you are gluten intolerant, it could affect any and all of these systems.

Yet, most doctors do not consider gluten as an issue with patients. They prescribe medications to make the symptoms go away, without getting at the root cause of the symptoms and dealing with it.

Get this: It takes most people with gluten issues 11 years to get properly diagnosed!

If you have health issues with any of the above, and want to get at the root of them, I invite you to ask Dr. Vikki a question and attend the Virtual Book Tour. It’s sure to be very informative. Details here. (If you can’t make the live call, you’ll get an email about the replay, so sign up anyway.)

It may even save you or a loved one years of untold agony, not to mention the expense of medications that mask the real problem and lead to more problems.

“How well can one apply the VBT to non-self-help and non-business books: e.g., science fiction, narrative non-fiction, biography, nature stories, etc? (All the examples on Alex Mandossian’s website are of self-help or business owners.)”

Yes, I believe a Virtual Book Tour can be effective on nearly any kind of book. Alex’s examples are geared mainly to the market he’s most interested and experienced in, i.e. business and self-help, but his principles apply to nearly any kind of book (with the caveats mentioned below.)

With his training, I myself have done Virtual Book Tours for a range of book topics, from the art of parenting boys , to whether common church practices are really pagan in origin, to what’s so great about Christianity, to how to find God in everyday life (the topic of my own VBT on Abundant Gifts). (See www.virtualbooktourexpert.com for samples of Virtual Book Tours that are NOT on business, success, etc.)

Any book on any topic that can engender questions is a candidate for a VBT.

I’ll admit, fiction is a bit of a tough nut to crack. Success with a VBT would depend on whether the author and/or publisher have a list to promote to. If they do, then a VBT could work for fiction as well.

For instance, if the publisher has a newsletter they send out to people who are interested in fiction, they could promote the VBT in that way. In fact, it could be a regular feature of the newsletter, with snippets from the interview or even a short, pre-interview audio that people can listen to right away, then sign up for the VBT. In the same way, a newsletter can promote a podcast taken from the VBT.

The issue with fiction is that there’s usually not a “hook,” a felt need that would get the reader to feel compelled to listen to the author interview. However, a VBT can work for a popular author who is promoting a new book to the current list. There are also creative ways to team up with nonfiction “experts” to talk about a subject the novel addresses.

For instance, I have an author friend, Latayne Scott, who wrote a novel about Mormonism. She also happened to write another book about the same topic (with another publisher) that was nonfiction. She could easily do a VBT featuring both books, gathering questions from people about Mormonism. During the Virtual Book Tour, she could weave in examples from her novel to illustrate her points.

In this case, the same author wrote both the fiction and nonfiction books. But if she were just a novelist, Latayne could have found an expert on Mormonism and the VBT could have dealt with the topic from a “story” and a “more factual” perspective.

About the only thing this kind of VBTs would probably not work well for children’s books or poetry.

For more about my own experience with VBTs, plus the bonuses I’m offering with Alex Mandossian’s Virtual Book Tour Secrets course, go to www.virtualbooktoursforauthors.com.