Talking Virtual Book Tours with Historical Fiction Author Dot Ryan

Raised in the small South Texas towns of Beeville and Skidmore, Dot Ryan makes her home in The Sparkling City by the Sea, Corpus Christi, Texas. Born to an Irish father and a German mother, Dot attributes her lifelong interest in America’s history to the diverse cultures and personalities of her Irish and German kin; most significantly, her two grandmothers, whose German accent and thick Irish brogue are now remembered as music to her ears, as they recanted mesmerizing stories of their ancestors’ arrivals in America. Because of these two incredibly strong women, Dot’s intention to write historical novels began early in her childhood, although it would not be until she had raised a family of her own and finally completed her first novel, Corrigans’ Pool, that her dream of writing was finally validated.  Dot is now pinning the sequel to Corrigans’ Pool, and has outlined three additional novels she hope to finish within the next two years.

Website: http//www.dotryanbooks.com

Blog: http//www.corriganspool.wordpress.com

http//www.twitter.com/dotryan1

http//www.facebook.com/pages/Corrigans-Pool/1343487154489

Dot Ryan’s two month book tour includes the December 12 days of Christmas Tour and continues into January.  She is here with us today to give her impression of virtual book tours and online book marketing.

Thank you for this interview, Dot.  Can we start out by having you tell us briefly what your new book is about?

Dot: Well, thank you very much for inviting me. My novel, Corrigans’ Pool, is a Civil War era story about a young Southern woman, who, because of her mother’s crippling accident and her father’s resulting gloom and alcoholism, has had the responsibility of running the family’s prosperous Savannah River plantation.  She does so without complaint, though silently fearing that by the time she is free to marry no one will ask. That all changes when she meets a dashing, but seemingly ill-suited, stranger and falls in love. Within a matter of weeks, her love for him holds no bounds, which makes her shame and humiliation all the more unbearable when he leaves town the next day without a word.

Devastated, Ella makes the fateful decision to marry a neighboring planter, a man twenty-five years her senior and whose stoic behavior in the beginning is merely a disguise for a ruthlessness that borders on insanity. His cruelty to his slaves horrifies her and, even though her family has owned slaves for generations, she questions the concept of human bondage for the first time while desperately missing her gentle family’s Greenpoole Plantation and Corrigans’ Pool … a beautiful phenomenon of nature that the slaves call “Conjuring Pool” for reasons the cannot explain when asked.

The South is embroiled in a bitter Civil War by the time Ella discovers that Corrigans’ Pool is much more than the exquisitely beautiful pond she had thought it to be all her life. But by the time she learns its dangerous secret she is deeply entangled in a secret of her own … one that has made her a virtual prisoner, hopelessly trapped in a world dreadfully different from her previous existence as mistress of her father’s  plantation seven miles upriver from Savannah, Georgia. As the war rages, Ella must fight a war of her own to save her home, her loved ones, and the innocent victims of her husband’s brutality.  Always in the back of her mind are bitter memories of the man who loved and then left her.

Villains and heroes are exposed in their true light, loves are lost and found, and the strength of human spirit ultimately prevails.

Corrigans' Pool by Dot Ryan (click on cover to purchase)

More and more authors are realizing the potential for sales that derives from virtual book tours.  Can you tell us your personal reasons why you chose a virtual book tour to help get the word out about your new book?

Dot: With advice here and there, I tried for a short time to market Corrigans’ Pool, but found the process daunting and often confusing.  That’s what happens when you don’t know what you are doing and haven’t the daily hours to spend on the learning process.  I finally admitted to myself that I do not have the time, patience, or the knowledge to do an effective job of marketing my novel. Luckily for me, a virtual book tour will get my book noticed, and will allow me the freedom to do what I love to do; write more novels.

Is this the first time you have heard of them?

Dot: Yes. A fellow write did the tour and told me about it. I checked out Dorothy Thompson’s PUMP UP YOUR BOOK PROMOTION VIRTUAL BOOK TOURS, and liked what I saw.  Dorothy explained everything to me in great detail. What a wonderful, caring, personality she has! I feel like I’ve made a friend for life.

What do you hope to achieve through promoting your book through a virtual book tour?

Dot: I feel I’ve written a darn good Civil War era novel and I’d like to get it noticed in the book world. Reviews from readers have all been great. I’d like a lot more readers and a lot more book sales. I feel that once Corrigans’ Pool is known to exist by a wider audience, the high quality of the book will speak for itself.

Do you promote online through other means?  Website?  Blog?

Dot: I have sites, but have a lot to learn on how to utilize them. This book tour will do a lot of this for me and, in the process, will help me learn.

Do you promote through Twitter and Facebook?  What are your links there?

http//www.twitter.com/dotryan1

http//www.facebook.com/pages/Corrigans-Pool/1343487154489

What are your experiences with offline booksignings?  Which do you prefer – online or offline and can you give us the reasons why?

Dot:  So far, I’ve done neither, but am looking forward to both experiences. I’ve attended book signings of fellow authors, some of which were well attended, others which were not.  Big name authors naturally have more success with their book signings than unknowns. I’m kin to just about everybody in South Texas. Now if I could just get them all to my first book signing the overflow crowd would fill a couple of city blocks! Hummm.  Wonder if I should set up a booth at the next family reunion?

Here’s a fun question.  If money was no object, how would you promote your book?

Dot: I would probably do a combination of both, but since money is an object, I am extremely grateful that online book tours will promote my book in all the right places!

Thank you for this interview, Dot.  Do you have any final words?

Dot: Thank you! It was my pleasure.  If you go to my website, dotryanbooks.com, you will see that I have posted the Part One of the sequel to Corrigans’ Pool, which I hope to publish in its entirety a few months.  Again, thank you, and many thanks to all the readers who loved Corrigans’ Pool and took the time to go to my site and e-mail me.

You can visit Dot’s official tour page here!