Learn how to plan a virtual book tour that gets you in front of audiences around the globe and helps you sell more books!
This is one of the most common questions we get from aspiring authors, first time authors, and authors who have launched multiple books.
You wrote your book or contributed a chapter to a collaboration book for a reason—to help people, make an impact, inspire others, share important information, tell a story that needed to be told, or possibly to entertain the world...
The launch was great… And then… things seemed to have fizzled out.
You want to relight the fire and feature your book around the globe with book marketing events, but you may not want to incur the travel time and costs.
You can keep your book in the headlines without leaving home! Whether you are in your office or out in the world doing the things you love, it’s possible for your book and blogs to appear on different platforms and media around the world.
It’s simple… Many authors don’t know how to effectively coordinate a virtual tour, are not reaching out to media and podcasters in a way that gets them booked, or are doing too many “one-off” marketing activities that don't bring about significant traction.
Writing the book is only the FIRST step. Marketing and selling your book, getting “your baby” into the hands and ears of readers around the globe on an ongoing and consistent basis, are the crucial steps many authors need help with.
The Problem
No matter how good your book is, how well written, or how awesome your book cover looks, you must have a marketing and sales strategy if you want your book to actually sell.
Even the best book, story, or content in the world will not sell if people do not know about it. People need to hear about your book more than once, twice, even more than ten times… on different platforms and in different ways.
Not knowing how to get your book into readers’ hands around the globe, launch for success, and make a bigger impact can feel confusing and deflating.
There are many reports that tell us the average self-published author sells about 250 books, and the average published author will sell about 3000 books. In other words, too many authors are ending up with books in their basements and unopened cardboard boxes rather than in the hands of appreciative readers.
The Solution
Raising Big Dreams and planning successful virtual book tours starts with daily consistent actions and baby steps. Little steps and daily actions lead to big results! It takes a team to raise a dream...
When you know the WHY for your book, the WHAT and the HOW are much easier to create (and to put into successful action).
We are all about helping you BOOST your author stats, CONNECT with more potential readers and SELL more books.
Raise a Dream in partnership with Women Speakers Association Present:
Access the October 28th, 2021 Recording & Resources
This Virtual Book Tour Boot Camp is one of the unique programs that is offered through our Your Book as a Business suite of programs. Boot Camp is a 4-hour training that's laser-focused on virtual book tours to market and sell your book.
The Boot Camp provides you with the proven and tested strategies, scripts, templates, and tools to simplify the virtual tour planning process.
Move forward confidently as you set yourself up for success to sell your book through virtual book tours and make the difference in the world you want to achieve. Once you create your book tour template, you can do this over and over again throughout the year, picking different locations to virtually tour your book. We LOVE processes that are repeatable!
Get your book in the hands of readers around the world.
This online Boot Camp will make it easier for you to step into action marketing your book, launching for success, planning and implementing a successful virtual tour and creating book sales all year long. Your Boot Camp trainers are Charmaine Hammond (Raise a Dream) and Gail Watson (Women Speakers Association & WSA Publishing).
Both Charmaine and Gail have extensive experience launching, marketing, and selling their own books, and they have helped hundreds of authors do the same! Charmaine has done her own live and virtual book, blog, media, and speaking tours and is currently planning a virtual tour for a movie for which she is an Executive Producer.
Done-For-You Templates
Receive ready-made templates so that you don’t have to create them yourself. With templates for pitching podcasters, creating social posts that attract media attention to your tour, a tour planning guide, and a press release for you to customize, you’ll have templates in your hand that save you time, money, and energy so that you can focus on what you love!
Scripts That Lead to YES
Not sure what to say when you approach a blogger, podcaster, or media host about featuring your book and book tour? You’ll receive suggested scripts for phone calls, voicemails, and LinkedIn messages. Know what to say (and how to say it) to get the YES that can lead to a blog, media or virtual book tour promotion opportunity.
Q&A Opportunities for Your Context
You will have the opportunity to ask questions in our private Facebook group. Being able to reach out and ask questions will save you time Googling, researching, or ending up with more questions instead of practical strategies that are tested and work.
Community, Training, & Collaboration
Joining the Boot Camp makes you eligible for the WSA and Raise a Dream Insiders private groups on Facebook. Continue to receive ongoing free training and resources and connect with others. There are multiple opportunities to collaborate with community members and make a difference together.
Author
Every time I tried one of Charmaine’s strategies, I could feel my confidence growing...
Charmaine, the Your Book As A Business program was just what I needed. Joining your course was an awesome period of working with you and learning how to create my brand as an author, building and growing my book business and selling books!
Charmaine was generous with her knowledge that she had gained over the years when promoting her books. She shared so many tips and resources that were valuable and appreciated. Every time I tried one of Charmaine’s strategies, I could feel my confidence growing because they worked!!
I became more willing to reach out and let people know about my book, Mirroring Your Vision® and the importance it brings to the world. Now I’m involved in a collaborative authors’ book, in preparation for our best seller's campaign, and filled with inspirational stories from women. Charmaine, THANK YOU so much for taking the time to share your knowledge. You truly have been a blessing in my life.
~ Dr. Janet "JJ" Sawyer
Leadership Coach, Author of Mirroring Your Vision® and Co-Author of Voices of the 21st Century (WSA Publishing)
JJSawyerConsulting.com
Author
I was blown away by [Charmaine’s] knowledge and professionalism.
Charmaine was very generous with information that she knew would help us. I was blown away by her knowledge and professionalism.
I was writing a very basic book, but during the course I realized that I needed to give value and I practically re-wrote the whole book. I felt that instead of just putting words on paper, I should write a book that would transform lives the way Charmaine was helping me transform my life as an author.
~ Memory Kate Chambati
A.K.A The True Happiness Coach: Transformational Life Coach, Author, Social Entrepreneur and International Speaker.
Author of Destined To Be Happy: Find Your Purpose And You Will Find Your Rainbow and Co-Author of Voices of the 21st Century (WSA Publishing)
TheTrueHappinessCoach.com
Author
Before taking the course, I had been rudderless...
Would I recommend Your Book as a Business to others? Absolutely! In fact, I have already told people this was the most content-rich course about this subject I have ever taken. So many more tools in my toolbox now. My challenge is where to start!
Before taking the course, I had been rudderless - trying many different things to get exposure and sell books. I was fixated on marketing. Because I was introduced to so many additional new tools and directions I could take with my book, I felt a bit overwhelmed. The course forced me to go back to the beginning and rediscover why I wrote my book in the first place before I could begin implementing some of the new strategies. As a result, I have been in the process of redefining my target market and repositioning the brand.
With this new-found clarity, I feel much more confident in prioritizing which direction to go first and then allow the rest to joyfully fall into place.
~ Gloria Stewart
Joy & Abundance Activist, Author of Being Joy: A 40 Day Program to Heal Your Life and Change the World
GloriaStewart.ca
The Virtual Book Tour Boot Camp includes...
When you register for the online Boot Camp, you will receive a training video from Charmaine Hammond and Gail Watson that will guide you through the planning process. You will also receive these Boot Camp tools as part of the learning journey:
Virtual Tour Planning Guide
You will receive a planning guide document that outlines the steps, actions and activities to maximize your time, make your planning easier, and plan a successful virtual tour.
Weekly Action Planner & Top 10 To Do List
The Weekly Action Planner is a “to do list” that you can customize and use time and time again. The Top 10 To Do List is a listing of some of the most important tasks for planning virtual tours (that are often missed or forgotten, so this will help you cover all bases).
Raise a Dream Media Tracker
Most authors are not tracking their media (and media contacts) in one place and spend hours searching for past media or, because it is not tracked in one place, they are not sharing it effectively in socials. Our media tracker provides you with the structure to keep track of all your media opportunities and your media contacts. This is information you can use over and over (and over) again.
Sample Press Release Template
Modify and use this press release template to announce your tour and different locations. You will get instructions on what to include (and why), the format that media expects press releases to be written in, and more! You receive instructions on how to write a press release, what should go in it, and samples of press releases to use as your guide.
Sample Social Media Post Scripts
Use the right social media scripts to catch and generate media attention. The Boot Camp provides you with examples of social posts, the type of hashtags to use and how to engage media through social media to create more traction for your virtual book tour.
Transcript
The Boot Camp materials include a transcript of the entire 4-hour training so you can refer to it when needed.
Ongoing Training & Resources: Raise a Dream and Women Speakers Association Private Communities
Double the support. Double your reach.
Value: Inestimable!
Sponsorship Essentials: 7 Steps to Funding Your Dream Projects with Sponsorship
The 45-minute Sponsorship Essentials video training will teach you:
Value: $27 USD
WSA Speaker Success Plan
Your book and message have the ability to transform lives… This Success Plan for Speakers helps you:
Value: $97 USD
Meet Charmaine Hammond
Best-Selling Author, Co-Founder of Raise a Dream, & Executive Producer of Back Home Again
Charmaine Hammond, CSP, MA, BA, is a five-time best-selling and award-winning author, has been published by 4 different publishers and is featured in 9 other published books, including twice in Chicken Soup for the Soul and three times in WSA Publishing’s Voices of the 21st Century. Her first book, now ten years old and in its second edition, was optioned for a movie before it came out and continues to sell and receive media opportunities.
She is also the Executive Producer of an animated movie, Back Home Again, that features an all-star voice cast including Jeremy Renner, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Mena Suvari, Kim Basinger, Michael J. Fox, and Howie Mandel, to name a few.
She has sold her books in bulk, planned and launched her own virtual (and live) tours, and had her book tours sponsored by businesses and brands who were aligned with her kindness movement. She’s also helped authors to sell more books, plan successful and profitable book tours, get booked for media and speaking, and turn their books into profitable businesses.
Charmaine has presented to more than 400,000 people.
Meet Gail Watson
President and Founder of Women Speakers Association (WSA) & WSA Publishing
Gail Watson is President and Founder of Women Speakers Association (WSA), THE go-to place for innovative leaders, change-agents and women with a message to connect, collaborate and grow their visibility worldwide in order to fulfill their mission.
As the first-ever global community for women speakers, WSA provides a platform for women to get seen, booked and paid AND be part of a growing network reaching women in 120 countries.
Whatever her "stage"...be it the classroom, a boardroom, the floor of the U.N., Gail is dedicated to empowering women to authentically express themselves, build a thriving, prosperous business and cause serious transformation in the lives of their clients, companies, communities and the world.
Here’s what people are saying about Charmaine Hammond & Gail Watson
Lucky Lauridsen
Author, RN & Educator
Charmaine... provides you with a blue-print on what to do next
Writing a story for a book I found to be the easy part. But then what do you do after that? What are the next steps?
That’s where Your Book as a Business program fits in perfectly. Charmaine pretty much provides you with a blue-print on what to do next. I gained so much knowledge and insight about options and opportunities to promote my book that I had never considered.
One of the biggest things I learned was about connecting with Non-Profit Organizations. This can lead to more book sales or business with them or other organizations they work with.
~ Lucky Lauridsen
Founder of Age-Wise Business Solutions, Author, RN, & Educator
Co-Author of Author of Voices of the 21st Century, 3rd Edition (WSA Publishing)
AgeWiseBusiness.com
Laura Booker
Entrepreneur & Speaker
Gail Watson: YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WOMAN!
I think the stars were aligned the day I got to meet Gail way back in 2007. Gail is one of those Global Rock Stars that you should engage with! Her vision for Women Speakers Association (WSA) and the community she is bringing together will be unstoppable. I feel very blessed and grateful to not only learn from Gail's leadership skills but to be part of her vision.
Gail has a strong and powerful presence that brings like minded women together to collaborate and she does it with a tender heart. I'm one of your biggest FANS Gail and hope every woman business owner out there gets a chance to benefit from what you are creating at WSA!
~ Laura Booker
Entrepreneur Hunter
LauraBooker.com
Darlene Gudrie Butts
Author
If you have a dream… contact Charmaine now to achieve your goals!
Charmaine is an expert in the field of collaboration and corporate sponsorship. Because of her in-depth knowledge, effective strategies, and passion, I had the tools I needed to find sponsors for my trip across Canada for my book, 150 Canadian Stories.
If you have a dream, mission, or message you want to share with the world and collaboration will help you achieve that, contact Charmaine now to achieve your goals!
~ Darlene Gudrie Butts
Acclaimed Author, Speaker, and Business Strategist
Author of 150 Canadian Stories
Darlenebutts.com & 150CanadianStories.ca
In this program, you will benefit from Charmaine’s 10 years of experience working with four different publishers as well as publishers on 9 collaborative book projects. Why spend time and money learning this on your own? You also benefit from the thousands (and thousands) of dollars that she has spent hiring coaches, PR professionals, sales teams, graphic designers, printers, and marketing teams.
Gail Watson has led hundreds of authors through the complete author journey, has planned and implemented highly successful book launches and is a master at online events, online marketing, and sales!
The Boot Camp provides you with the tools and steps to plan a book marketing campaign through a Virtual Book Tour! The content represents a full repertoire of book marketing and sales strategies accumulated over the past 24 years of being business owners, authors, speakers and from marketing our products and services. You are SAVING and MAKING money by joining us in this Boot Camp.
Think of this program as being able to tap into Charmaine and Gail’s experience, creativity, and ideas to help you get on the path to marketing and selling your book without the painful and expensive mistakes. If this is your first book, or you have books published that are not selling, why not tap into this ready-and-waiting expertise?
If you…
Recordings & Transcript from October 28th, 2021
Learn to plan your virtual book tour, increase book sales, and have your book & message travel the world without leaving home.
$
197
This 4-hour online intensive for authors includes:
If you complete the Your Book as a Business: Virtual Book Tour Boot Camp intensive and don’t see value within 30 days of purchase, we 100% guarantee your money back.
If you fully participate in and apply the Boot Camp strategies (watching and applying the video guidance and strategies and asking questions in our Insiders' Group or to us directly), we KNOW this approach will help your message and marketing in a positive way.
If you have participated fully in the Boot Camp, have completed all the activities and suggested homework, and you don’t feel that you received value for the Boot Camp and all the templates, tools, scripts and resources you received, then contact us within 30 days of purchase and you will receive a complete refund of your investment.
Linda P Thompson
Speaker & Author
...one of the best investments that I ever made...
Your Book As A Business class with Charmaine Hammond was one of the best investments that I ever made to assist me in using my books as a business and speaking.
Charmaine has a wealth of knowledge and she doesn't mind sharing. I was amazed at the huge amount of resources and information that was given. I would recommend signing up for her next class.
She was hands on and available even in between the meetings. There is a lot of information regarding sponsorship that was part of the Raise a Dream class as well. Thank you Charmaine for all you do.
~ Linda P Thompson
Speaker, Author, Health & Life Coach
Author of Speak Positively and Expect The Victory: Words Of Wisdom
LindaThompsonSpeaker.com
Karen Furneaux
Professional Speaker
Charmaine... helped me believe even more strongly in my launch event and book tour.
Charmaine brought so much enthusiasm to our first discussion and call and helped me believe even more strongly in my launch event and book tour.
Charmaine offered powerful, actionable suggestions for me to create the most success for my launch event! I highly recommend speaking with Charmaine. She holds belief for the dream and helps you realize the steps you need to take to get there!
Thank you for believing, Charmaine!
~ Karen Furneaux
Author of Strong Beauty: Power Up the Champion Within
StrongBeauty.ca
Dr. Elaine Leung
Sea Smart Founder
Doing a strategy call with Charmaine literally blew my mind...
Doing a strategy call with Charmaine literally blew my mind with all the potential ways I could maximize relationships with corporate sponsors.
Charmaine is very caring, enthusiastic, creative, and incredibly resourceful. She gave me phenomenal advice on how to approach sponsors, establish relationships, being really specific with my asks, and how our relationship can benefit both of us.
I highly recommend Charmaine if you want to know how to develop effective, long-term relationships with sponsors.
~ Dr. Elaine Leung
Founder, Sea Smart School
SeaSmartSchool.com
Cherie Griffith-Dunn
Business Coach, Speaker & Author
My business has doubled in reach, revenue, and impact.
What I have valued the most is the support I received. When I stumbled upon Women Speakers Association, I was simply looking for a place to practice my speaking. I found so much more, I found a group of women who cared about my well being, the health of my business, and the goals I wanted to achieve. They provided a platform that helped transcend my business to the next level by providing me the nurturing I needed, teaching me how to interview with impact, scale my business and grow my network for no additional fee.
During the first 6 months of being a Premier Member, my business has doubled in reach, revenue, impact not to mention the personal development and growth I have experienced. I have never been a part of a group like Women Speakers Association, whose primary concern is your success.
~ Cherie Griffith-Dunn
Business Coach, Speaker & Author
Co-Author of Women Inspiring Nations Volume 3
CherieGriffithDunn.com
Crystal-Marie Sealy
Keynote, Author & Consultant
...this course practically left no stone unturned!
Already a two-time best-selling co-author by the time Women Speakers Association (WSA) introduced me to this course, I knew that I would benefit from a step-by-step guide to leveraging every aspect of my books, as I delve into solo publications.
Still, I was surprised to find that this course practically left no stone unturned! I'm still going through the course guides and materials, and finding great peace of mind in recognizing things I would surely not have considered, otherwise. Thank you for creating this very rich course for authors!
~ Crystal-Marie Sealy, MBA, Mom
Keynote, Author & Consultant
Co-Author of Voices of the 21st Century, 3rd Edition (WSA Publishing)
CrystalMarieSealy.com
Alicia White
Strategy and Branding Expert
...my book has been advertised all over social media.
I love the online [Women Speakers Association] community because I can not only share my expertise but learn from others! Connecting with members of the community has actually brought me clients, even though I wasn’t looking for them! The online community is a place where I can share my speaking tips and be seen as an expert. I also use the online group platform to find speaking opportunities or put into practice information I’ve read from other experts.
By participating in some of the programs WSA offers, my book has been advertised all over social media. I don’t have this skill set or the time and joining up with WSA made sense!
~ Alicia White
Strategy and Branding Expert for Speakers
Author of The Successful Speaker’s Handbook
BackOfTheRoomProductions.com
GREAT question! A great time to be building your marketing and sales strategy with a virtual book tour for your book is while you are finishing the writing. You don’t need to be finished writing or publishing your book to participate in the Boot Camp. Often authors wait until their book is completed and out in the world to start marketing it. The challenge is that you will have missed months and months where you could be positioning your expertise on podcasts and shows, announcing your upcoming book, and building a reading audience and buzz so people can’t wait until your book is out.
Charmaine’s first book went best-seller several times before the book was launched. She achieved that result because she had more than 30 radio interviews talking about the book to build the audience, so once it was available for pre-sale on Amazon, it hit the best-seller status several times before launch. WSA Publishing authors have also seen the value of building virtual book tour buzz and preparing their marketing strategies while waiting for the Voices of the 21st Century book to launch. Join us. 
You’ll be glad you did!
In the Boot Camp, we teach you strategies (that work and are free) to build your reach and grow your impact. Being part of the program provides you with the opportunity to be part of the Raise a Dream community and the Women Speakers Association community. This is a fast and effective way to grow your reach and be part of communities that have more than ½ million collective reach. And, here’s the best part. When applied, the Virtual Book Tour Boot Camp strategies result in incredible reach building because you get to be in front of others’ audiences.
This program helps you create your virtual book tour (or blog, media or speaking tour). We are laser-focused on this. If you want to become a published best-selling author, WSA Publishing can help you publish your own book or be part of a collaborative book. Gail Watson, Founder of Women Speakers Association and WSA Publishing (the publisher of Voices of the 21st Century), reminds us in the forward of Voices that, “Our ability to speak is perhaps our most powerful force as human beings, and how we choose to use our words makes all the difference in the world… Whether your stage is the classroom, the boardroom, or the kitchen table – your voice matters.” Write a book. Write a chapter. Both are great ways to be a published author and you can make either book a business!
YES! We pride ourselves on providing the how tos and the actual steps so you don’t have to figure it out on your own. We also provide you with tip sheets, templates, scripts, and samples that you can model your virtual book tour marketing strategies around.
We’ve got your back. Yes, you can ask questions regarding the Boot Camp training. That is one reason we created the Insider Group (our private Facebook community and group). You can ask questions of Charmaine as well as other authors and members of the community. Gone are the days of muddling along, struggling through, and recreating what has already been created for you.
YES. In the Boot Camp, you will hear examples of where authors have innovated on virtual tours. This way, you get many perspectives (and ideas!). As well in the Insider Group (private Facebook group), you can connect with the authors in the group and share experiences and ideas.
Our strategies and resources work. If you put into action our tools and strategies, you will recoup your investment and then some. Honestly, just the time you save by having the Virtual Tour planning guide will have save you at least 30 hours of work… If you value your time at $100/hour or had to pay a VA $25/hour, this saving has paid for the Boot Camp four times over!
Recordings & Transcript from October 28th, 2021
Learn to plan your virtual book tour, increase book sales, and have your book & message travel the world without leaving home.
$
197
This 4-hour online intensive for authors includes:
When you join Your Book as a Business: Virtual Book Tour Boot Camp, you get the benefit of learning from our combined 30 plus years of experience being business owners, entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors.
Charmaine had to learn all this and figure it out. She did test runs of her live tours so her virtual tours could maximize success. She spent thousands and thousands of dollars in coaching, hiring experts to learn what she needed to learn. Everything that Charmaine teaches, she has done (many times). Charmaine also brings her 15 years of experience in the sponsorship, collaboration and fundraising for projects sector, and—now—her experience in the movie industry.
You get the added benefit of working with Gail Watson and tapping into her genius of helping hundreds of authors market and sell their books. Gail offers her impact-producing ideas and suggestions around sales, marketing, and book publishing that she has been using and teaching others for years!
Our goal is to make your next virtual book tour easier for you than it was for us, help you avoid costly mistakes, and have FUN in the process.
