I give seminars (both online and IRL) to assist authors in organizing and working with PR firms to succeed with online book tours. Many people refer to these as virtual book tours, but, trust me, there's nothing virtual about the work you put into it.

For my recent (Nov. 8-19) online book tour to promote my YA sci-fi/fantasy release Problems on Eldora Prime, one of the hosts asked if she could interview one of my pets. Considering how many of these tours I've done, you'd think that would have come up before. I was delighted to turn the keyboard over to Petri, my companion parrot. He's a sun conure who's been with me for 11 years, and he rules the roost.

He did a fabulous job. My favorite line is when he told the host that he's the center of the universe...

For other authors embarking on the online book tour trail, I recommend letting the hosts know your pets are available for interviews. It puts quite the spark in the tour and brings a new set of commenters (read: potential readers) to the conversation.

From Sandy Lender

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."