Glenda Watson Hyatt, author of I’ll Do It Myself, knows how to travel in style. Her Virtual Book Tour Lear Jet touches down in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Brisbane has been voted one of the world’s most liveable cities. It’s about an hour from beaches and rainforests, and has a great semi tropical feel.

Glenda has timed the grand finale of her Summer Soujourn Virtual Book Tour to coincide with this weekend’s 10th Anniversary River Festival in the River City.

We traveled in the City Cat watching the Australian Airforce Aerobatic Team, the Roulettes practise, as the crews set up fireworks, for the River Fire grand finale. As we coasted along the Brisbane river to Glenda’s five star hotel (don’t all writers stay in five star hotels ?), I thought I might pick up some secrets, so I asked her for a few tips on organizing a virtual book tour (VBT). I can tell you, traveling with someone who uses a learjet for their virtual book tour, makes you sit up and listen. Here is what she said.

Tips for Organizing Book Tours As We Glide Down the Brisbane River

Glenda: “When I headed out on my first virtual book tour earlier this year, I knew essentially nothing about this kind of book tour and naïvely thought a “40 Blogs in 40 (Business) Days” tour wouldn’t that difficult to organize. Hence, I did it myself – and learned a lot! It is possible to organize your own tour. Here are a few tips to make it easier and to reduce chocolate intake:

• Research potential blogs (or podcasts or internet radio shows). Approach bloggers whose blogs fit your target audience and which have fairly active blogs in terms of posts and traffic. Build a relationship with the bloggers before asking them to host an appearance.

• Use a spreadsheet to track dates, bloggers’ names and email addresses, etc.

• Be prepared for the unexpected. A blogger may not post the interview when you expected or something else may happen, so you’ll need a filler post on your blog if your readers expect to read something every day of your tour.”

Glenda’s Top Secret Tips for Writers

The City Cat, pulled into the wharf, and we stepped into the red Ferrari Glenda had prearranged. Thinking about the $2 I’d earned from Adsense the week before, I thought I’d better get serious with finding out more. I asked her if there were any business books she recommended, and if she had any tips for writers. Well, it took some coaxing (those Belgian chocolates worked a treat), but she finally spilled the beans.

Glenda: “Oh wow, I have found so many great resources online that I haven’t picked up a book on writing in years. Some names that come to mind include Dan Poynter, Rick Frishman, and Sophfronia Scott, The Book Sistah. From my perspective, the major roadblock writers face is ourselves. Many of us don’t take our writing seriously enough. We say we are writers, but find every possible excuse not to sit down and face that solitude activity.”

After Glenda had settled in, I met her again for a late afternoon tea of cakes and treats, at Queenies, my favorite teahouse. If you have an empire built on one book, what do you do? You bring out other versions, and so the “I’ll Do It Myself Ebook” was born. Glenda generously shared some tips.

Ebook Knowhow That Glenda Wished She Hadn’t Learned The Hard Way

Glenda: “After many late nights spent with Google and asking others for advice, I bought an ebook generator program that apparently secures your ebook so it can’t be passed from person to person like a PDF file can be, which was one of my concerns. I wanted a way to protect my “assets”. Part way through converting my autobiography to HTML, I discovered the file format created by this program is not accessible to Mac computer users. Why would I want to exclude this group from my target market?”

As we chatted, a message came through… another ebook sold, this time to a customer in Japan. It’s early days yet, but Glenda said that she has only sold a few ebooks so far. She said “Apparently my primary target market prefers reading a hardcopy book! This experience reminds me to always check in with my target market to see what they need.”

I’d had a great time catching up with Glenda. I congratulated her on her new site Books By Glenda, and thought I’d finish with one last question, before we headed off to the River Fire festivities. I asked her to put on her entrepreneur hat and tell us about her business plan.

Glenda Watson Hyatt’s Business Plan Revealed

Glenda: I am now beginning to put together a two-year plan that focuses on writing, with my blog as my main medium. By the end of the two, I want to be solidly off social assistance. In five years, perhaps my second book will be in the works!

Virtual Book Tour Celebrations and a Grand Finale

After dinner, we sat on our deckchairs in the roof top garden of the hotel, and watched the Roulettes go overhead. The fireworks were fantastic, and signalled the end of a highly successful Summer Soujourn virtual book tour for Glenda and I’ll Do It Myself. What a grand finale! This girl knows how to live it up, plus she knows a thing or two about writing, business and how to have a successful virtual book tour as well. Thanks Glenda.

As I’m multi tasking here, this post is also doing double duty as my response to the hometown meme which Joanna Young tagged me for.

Business & Marketing, Writing Know How