Talking Virtual Book Tours with Nibi Soto

Nibi Soto grew up along the Wasatch mountains in the Great Salt Lake valley.  She has been called the quintessential Renaissance woman because of her wide variety of interests experiences and educational background.  She’s has three advanced degrees, has been a journalist, newspaper editor, professional athlete, certified athletic trainer, intercollegiate coach, professional musician, industrial designer, artist, educator, author, professional speaker, wife, mother and grandmother.  To her, life is not a rehearsal; it is the real thing and there’s no time to waste.  She has authored and co-authored several health and nutrition books under the EAT & Be Lean logo since 1986.  Her most resent adventure lies in the writing of a new time travel fantasy series for young adults called Beyond the Map’s Boundary.  Her blog is located at www.beyondthemapsboundary.com and more insider information about Nibi can be found at www.nibisoto.com.

Nibi will be on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book  in June and is here with us today to give her impression of virtual book tours and online book marketing.

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

Beyond the Map’s Boundary is a timely sort of adventure that follows the lives of two teenagers; Mattie Bott and Trevor Karington.  They both grew up in stable, predictable home lives without a hint as to whom they really are.  Suddenly, all of that changes when Mattie begins having visions and witnesses historical events appearing on particles of light.  Unbeknownst to her, Mattie was born into a family of time travelers.  In order to save her from dissolving into the core of time, Trevor becomes her time link, making it possible for her to return to the present following each time travel into the past.  With the accidental discovery of the Rings of Prather Mendell, Trevor now shares many of her powers.  Together, if they can survive the learning process, they must foil the plans of an illicit time traveler from the future who will stop at nothing to possess the secret, supernatural abilities of the time travelers and the forbidden powers of the rings.

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?

Fortunately my target audience lives on the Internet.  Sci-Fi and Fantasy lovers hover in psyberspace, so a virtual book tour makes a lot of sense.  They have the potential of creating awareness and spreading the word to large groups of people that are hungry for something creative, new and entertaining.  You can have the best book on earth, but if nobody knows about it nothing happens.  The content on the blogs that is sent out by the virtual book tour will continue to advertise the novel forever.  That’s an on-going benefit.

Is this the first time you have heard of them?

No.  I’ve done quite a bit of due diligence on virtual book tours over the past several months.  I’ve emailed a lot of other authors who have done a tour before or are currently doing one and asked them to give me some feedback on their experience.  I was surprised that the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive.

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

Awareness and exposure! I’m hoping to create enough interest that my readers will want to share their discovery with their friends on Facebook, Twitter and all of the other social networks online.  The more places my book appears on the Internet, the more familiar it becomes to the masses and the faster it becomes a household word.

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

Yes.  I have a blog on beyondthemapsboundary.com and an authors website at nibisoto.com.  I have started doing book trailers on YouTube, which is a lot of fun.  Also, every email that I send out has my Internet links on them.  I blog on other people’s blogs and send out review copies to qualified reviewers.

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

I do promote through Twitter and Facebook.  I am on Facebook at tiny.cc/nibisoto and Twitter at twitter.com/NibiSoto

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

I’ve done a fair amount of offline book signings over the years.  They can be fun, but generally it takes quite a bit more time and effort to get ready for one and unless the author is fairly famous there isn’t a lot of interaction or awareness created.  The travel time and expenses are greater, too.  In contrast, online tours are wonderful because I can sit at home in my pajamas and enjoy the tour myself.  They reach out to the whole world, involving far more interested readers in a short amount of time.  Also, there is a greater opportunity for inter-related promotional activities that are less expensive when working online, versus offline.  The very nature of marketing online is an adventure within itself.  For instance, I’m currently setting up a contest that will most likely be a virtual treasure hunt across the World Wide Web.  For book clubs, I have a section for them on nibisoto.com where they can access some fun things like autographed book shields, special PDF files that provide topics they can discuss in their meetings and I give them an invitation to submit photographs of their book clubs to be posted on the website for fun.  They all build off of the virtual book tours and the sky is the limit.  I love the saying, “What man can conceive, man can achieve” and the Internet is a tremendous facilitator for that philosophy.

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

First, I’d run virtual book tours back to back forever!  Then I’d hire the most creative marketing firm I could find and let them have a wonderful time doing anything they wanted to do to promote the book.  Next I’d offer a free Beyond the Map’s Boundary T-shirt to everyone who read and registered his or her NibiBook.  A NibiBook is a viral book that is meant to circulate through the population until they’re called back into the office. Then, I’d have Beyond the Map’s Boundary painted on all the commercial airlines throughout the world and slap my masked face and name on the tail fin.  I’d also like to drive cross-country in a big motor home with a wrap of the book title on it to spread the word as I traveled.  It would be fun to do assemblies and book signings in person for all the elementary schools, junior highs and high schools along the way.  Then, I think I’d buy and advertise a cruise line that was set up as a floating school to teach young people, ages 8 to 80, how to write, paint, compose music and market their creative arts.  My fleet of cruise ships would travel the world as they studied, landing in a different port every night.  This would help them expand their minds and experiences in the most wonderful ways while becoming quite a buzz in the news.  I’d set up Nibi Soto scholarships for the youth that would cover all of their expenses to further their creative nature and attach one final stipulation that after they graduate they must create an opportunity for another person to achieve their dream.

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

Yes, I do, thanks.  I want the young people to know how lucky they are to live in a country that allows them to be what they want to be, providing them with the freedom they need to succeed in life.  I’m proud to be an American, appreciate the opportunity to pursue my own dreams and encourage them to do the same.  All can be theirs at the price of an effort.  I hope your listeners will pick up a copy of Beyond the Map’s Boundary and enjoy the adventure I’ve created for them, and then give it away.  Sharing the fun is what it’s all about and I’ve appreciated this opportunity to do just that, here on this program.  So, thank you.

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